Desired: Parivartan or Aazadi?

The hyper-nationalism of communal hoodlums widely believed to be bolstered by State patronage has finally become so embarrassing for nationalists themselves that the Union Minister for Finance appeared compelled to stem further debate by self-declaring that his government has won the ideological battle and took consolation from people chanting ‘Jai Hind’. The RSS chief tried to deflect the fatal rebound from this mischievous adventure by proclaiming that chanting of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ should not be imposed by force. A vicious design which was actually meant to isolate the opposition as being anti-national has back-fired with history archives getting dug out to prove that Hindutva fascists were British collaborators and worked against the Indian freedom movement; that the right-wing groups professing nationalism are actually pseudo-nationalists. 

 A famous Sanskrit proverb says – “vinaash kaale vipreet buddhi” - meaning, when one’s destruction time is soon to arrive, one thinks unintelligently or negatively. This could well apply to the dirty and vindictive political stance adopted by the communal fascists. Such is their intoxication from power that in their attempt to mock at Rahul Gandhi as wearing Italian glasses and not being able to see changes in the country, they forget that their very idea of Hindutva nationalism was influenced by the ideas of Italians like Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giussepe Mazzini. Just recently, many citizens on social media expressed their horror over the news of a man stabbing a man because the dog was barking and disturbing him while watching the T-20 World Cup match. Incidentally, many of those condemning this madness were those who offer justifications to play down the killing of a man either for eating or carrying beef or for falling in love. 

And so people of Goa are discovering, probably better late than never, that those fanciful dreams of ‘Parivartan’ which got sold in 2012 are actually meaningless without the ‘Aazadi’ to choose one’s preferences of faith, food, dress, language, education and thinking. For Goans, Parivartan means nothing without Aazadi from destructive development, communalism and enslavement of people by politicians and corporates. Aazadi comes before parivartan. Aazadi is a pre-requisite for Aache din.