Kudos to the 65 “Top Ex- Babus” for the courage they have shown in pointing out to the present ruling dispensation their anxiety about the trends that are spreading their venomous tentacles in the governance of our Nation. (Herald 13 June 2017)
The word “F” has some of the most beautiful attributes to it. Many successful organizations in world are guided by principles such as “Faith, Family, Friendship, Fellowship, Fraternity, “ and so on. In our own little land of Goa “Fish, Feni and Football” are some of the factors that kept us happy, united and entertained. But today another “F” is slowly raising its ugly head and what we are seeing today is possibly only the tip of the proverbial iceberg- “ FASCISM”.
In the year 2004 Dr. Laurence Britt, a political scientist who studied the fascist regimes of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Suharto and Pinochet brought out some of the salient points which are appropriate pointers of fascism. It would be worth to ponder over some of the points raised by Dr. Britt and check for ourselves whether the present trends in the country are any indicators of our country going the Fascist way.
1. Powerful and continuing expression of nationalism: Display of flags and buntings, catchy slogans, strong and hateful rhetoric about one country-one religion are some of the factors that one has to be cautious about. People often in the name of Nationalism, tend to forget about Patriotism. We have people of all religions, caste and creed in our armed forces, in our political systems, in our work force, professionals and people who pay their taxes diligently as Indians. These are the real patriots of today.
2. Disdain for Human rights: Some of the fundamentalist organisations in the country often seem to be taking the law in their own hands. Every person in a free and secular country has the right to choose his lifestyle, as long as this does not encroach upon the rights of another. Today in the name of Religion, food- beef to be exact, the dress code, moral policing on women and couples, a lot of wrong is being committed against innocents through the so called cow vigilantes, Anti Romeo squads and the Ghar Vapsi organizations apparently with the connivance of the ruling dispensations.
3. Religion and ruling Elite tied together: Today the ruling party appears to be working with a hidden agenda at many levels. Excessive interference with the education system, attacks on places of worship, including the destruction of the Babri Masjid by a group of people supported by the political leaders are indicative of the fact that the ruling party has a strong religious bias which is dangerous for the country. Recently in Goa we had the All India Hindu Convention. At this programme Sadhvi Saraswati is reported to have made highly provocative and hate filled statements. Instead of harping only on animal slaughter it would heve been a matter to appreciate if Ms Sadhvi could insist upon people to show love to their cattle by not allowing them to roam on the streets and highways where not only the cattle gets killed but they result in human casualties too.
4. Disdain and suppression of the intellectuals & and the arts: A number of intellectuals in recent times have been silenced or even eliminated. Their crime was that what they said was not liked by a certain section of the society. In fascism, the means are not important. The end is. Even the use of violence is a norm for getting to the end. Hence we seen a number of persons being lynched for reasons which apparently are against the ideology of some others.
While there are many other pointers which could be pondered upon, time and space does not permit me to discuss all of them here but it appears to be high time that intellectuals and political leaders should put their heads together and highlight all that is going wrong in the governance of our Nation. A Nation that most of the world recognizes as not only a progressive, Secular and democratic but also a tolerant and non violent. All this can change if the undercurrents of the present ideologies are allowed to proliferate.
In fact the Governments and the various NGO’s would do well to look into the happiness quotient of the people. It is sad to note that India Ranks a poor 122 of 155 nations in the world happiness report of 2017. While countries like Norway , Denmark ,Iceland , Switzerland ,Finland ,Netherlands , Canada, New Zealand , Australia , Sweden, Israel , Costa Rica rank among the top twelve happiest countries in the world, the fact that Pakistan at (80) and Indonesia at (81) are ahead of us is a factor to be reckoned with. The fact that we lose thousands of people each year by way of migration to other countries looking for greener pastures itself is an indication that all is not well with our systems. After all every migrant is a sort of a refugee – be it from a war torn country or from a country where he or she is not happy.
Live and let live within the framework of the Constitution and without infringing upon the rights of others is the only way people can be happy. Sadly, as someone said, presently we are a country where we can “Piss in the open but cannot kiss in the open”.
