From a secular Democratic and tolerant nation with unity in great diversity, admired by the world for its spiritual dimension, India is being deeply polarised with a Hindutva agenda dividing the people using emotive issues like religion, caste, hyper nationalism; right from bulldozing Acts in Parliament to state patronage for hate speeches and relentless attacks on minority communities and past history. The tolerance and harmony between different groups has been shattered, suspicion and hurting of sentiments surface at the slightest provocation. Technology is used to spread false narratives and fake news, with a gullible public, keeping the communal pot boiling. The many letters written by alarmed intellectuals, respected retired bureaucrats, judges, armed forces senior officers to the PM are promptly rebutted by an equal number if not more of similar citizens! To find the truth, leave alone enforcing it, is becoming a very difficult proposition.
The ruling party is firmly in control of all the Enforcement and other Agencies besides the government machinery, mainstream and social media propaganda being aggressively used to a great extent. The police these days instead of fearlessly enforcing the law and protecting the citizen are subservient to its political masters. We find the Delhi police who are not under the AAP government filing FIRs against the Punjab police and BJP Haryana police obstructing the Punjab police and so on! Arrest warrants issued by lower courts are quickly stayed by higher courts in slugfest between various political parties. Besides using police and enforcement agencies, threats to free speech, liberty and censorship are being pursued bending the law! The courts are wary of the powerful executive and the CJI Ramana was reportedly constrained to mention “deliberate inaction by the government despite judicial pronouncements is not good for the health of democracy”.
Facebook brought in Metaverse concept which seeks to merge social, virtual and augmented reality, which is a make believe realistic world? We and the world are to make believe that there is negligible communal tension in India, it is all “Sab Ke Saath” and there is perfectly functioning Indian democracy, freedom of speech with no draconian laws being legislated/misused, no human rights violations by the State and its agencies! In fact Hindutva propagation and persecution of minorities is a reality! Love Jihad hatred leads to honour killings of innocent couples in love. After Ayodhya, emboldened Hindu organisations are eyeing other mosques that may have centuries back replaced temples; Taj Mahal may have hidden Hindu statues, Kutub Minar to be renamed and so on. How far back will these zealots be permitted to go?
The wise Places of Worship Act 1991 passed by Parliament mandates status quo be maintained as from 1947 except for ancient monuments or newly discovered ones under The Archeological Survey of India. Presumably for maintenance! The Babri Masjid final judgment was an exception made for closure. Acts are being challenged, the Gyanvapi Mosque survey leaked and public opinion being wiped up! Considering all that has been going on in governance of this country since 2014 in dividing the people, an undisputed leader like Prime Minister Modi has publicly not said a word about all the lynching and communal riots increasingly being fermented by politicians and hard right wing elements. He refuses to hold Press conferences in India and allow questions when abroad. The Hindu Muslim clashes and attacks on the Church and minorities taking place all over India are basically due to the unfettered rise and appeasement of the right wing Hindu groups and disunity of the Opposition. RTI questions are generally stonewalled, and except for rare occasions like Supreme Court rejecting the national security alibi in the Pegasus issue and High Court stay on objectionable sections of the IT rules, the powerful Executive invariably had a free hand in misusing the draconian laws passed meant for terrorists on ordinary dissenting citizens and imposing its will.
Goa has been a comparatively peaceful State so far, with our government keeping out communal elements from fanning the flames of hatred between communities. The Prime Minister’s well publicised foreign assignments are coordinated to project an India tranquil make believe situation in conjunction with the Indian embassies. The idea of Indian democracy with unity in diversity as envisioned in our constitution is undergoing fundamental majority dominated religious oriented changes. When will this entire political “metaworse” end?
Is all this really happening? There is no doubt about it! We are living in times of catastrophic crisis where the lives of innocent peoples are sacrificed in the wars created by their rulers! In Ukraine where 6 million civilians are forced to flee, their residences and cities bombed to rubble, lives suddenly shattered, rendered bewildered penniless refugees, many exploited. God alone knows how many of the population on both sides are tortured and killed. Consider Afghanistan where people starve, no education especially for females who have no freedom, women forced to wear burqa and all citizens under harsh medieval Sharia law! Closer home is Sri Lanka, the nation impoverished by their ruler’s policies, agitating to unseat their President. But their Parliament overrules the people and appoints his nominees! What happened to our conscience of “we the people”? All wars are evil and we have all these examples before us! Why are we whilst professing to live in a democracy, silently sanctioning all our violence, discrimination, injustice and inhumanity prevailing?
(The author is a retired naval officer, freelance writer resident in Porvorim)
