Silencing the Dissent

World’s largest democracy, India. A nation of 1.25 billion people uniting themselves under the Tricolour abiding by their fundamental duties as well as enjoying the fruits of being a free nation. Our constitution guarantees us freedom of expression, religion and in return expects us to respect the national flag, constitution and educate ourselves so that we may serve the nation better.

Now as lucrative as it may seem, the reality is quite otherwise.

We as a nation despise freedom. We look down upon youngsters (mostly females) and their dressing sense, we hate it when a woman asking for civil rights has been on a fast for more than 10 years, and we don’t like a person from some other state makes a living in our state. We hate it all. Our politics is not about liking a politician or their policies, rather we hate other politicians.

We take pride on calling ourselves a pluralistic society but look around you and see how much we hate the economic or social diversity. We hate a poor man/woman on the streets, not their poverty.

We are filled with negativity. We don’t take steps to change the mind-set of our children and educate them. Our idea of a safe society for our children is where they are isolated from any kind of diversity that they might encounter. We cite ‘bad influence’ as a reason and keep them away from reality.

How can you expect your child to be aware of their rights and duties when you have masked the reality from them? Our next generations is trapped in their bright screens and smartphones when in reality they are becoming too dumb to experience life and know their country.

Providing our children with next generation internet and devices, we have connected them with a world so large that we did not care to teach them how to navigate it. Youth today is so indulged in social networking that there are living in a total paradise of utopian perfectness or they are frustrated at the miserable times we are heading towards.

We have one of the world’s largest population of Netizens but still we have not been able to mobilize this ‘demographic dividend’ into a mandate for change. Sexual crime statistics are on the rise, still we don’t care to impart ‘sex education’ into our curriculum. We conveniently blame it on their dressing sense and their lifestyle hiding behind the ideals of “Indian Society” that is becoming rare by the day.

Our politicians seem more concerned about rise in Muslim populations than rise in number of rape incidents. They would rather discuss the motives of a saint, helping out people rather than industrialist involved in selling out nation for profits (read Corporate Espionage).

RSS (Rashtiya Swayam Sevak Sangh) which stood for “Indian values” and has a vibrant history of patriotism is today more concerned with ‘Love-Jihad’ rather than the education of our children. RSS used to inspire youth to sacrifice themselves for Bharat Mata and the idea of India. Today all they inspire is the idea of a riot.

I’m not just accusing the RSS or BJP, the Congress has a much more illustrious record of national irresponsibility. Being the oldest party and proudly calling itself an active member of Indian Independence Movement, they are the ones who suspended our constitution, participated in some of the biggest scams in our history (some of which are eligible for a world record). They have their fair share of intolerance as well, be it the occasional riots or banning of writers etc.

A woman in Manipur has been on fast for more than 10 years of her life protesting a law that many people feel is unjust. I am a staunch supporter of our armed forces and I am fully aware of all the sacrifices that they make but shouldn’t a law that protects people who tarnish that uniform and the name of these great institutions be modified, if not scrapped so that these unwanted rogue elements are brought to book. After all they committed crime and injustice on Indian people. When Pakistan tried to commit injustice to the people of Bangladesh we jumped in and waged a war, what stops us when our own people are in the line? How much of human resource have we lost in this madness? Doesn’t that woman need to do something better than just fasting and being ignored. Parents make sure today that their children know everything there in the science textbook but who will teach them about the struggle s that are going on in our country. Who will educate them about the people that are fighting for their rights in a free country of their own?

Banning people and suppressing ideas is the second biggest accomplishment of our democratic setup, corruption being the first one. We have a long list of banned authors, filmmakers. Although our constitution calls for a free speech, but we feel that it’s our duty to shun everything that displeased us. In the name of pleasing communities we have banned Salman Rushdie, Taslema Nasreen, M.F Hussain, AIB roast etc. I don’t know if these authors and artists have done anything wrong because my government assumed that I would be hurt (essentially labelling us as dumb people who cannot make their own decisions weather they are hurt by something or not.) According to our government maybe we are not mature enough to handle such content as adults. Maybe I would read a book and then start burning everything and shouting like a madman. But wait, didn’t that actually happen. Afraid of a few madmen assembling together and burning a few posters while shouting slogans my government went ahead and banned it.

Recently even the beef has been banned. I agree that beef consumption is prohibited among us Hindus (I don’t have proof but I just assume it is, because everyone says so) but then we are not the only people in India. There are other communities as well and they are fine with it. It would be great if a Christian or a Muslim person does not consume beef in my presence but then again it’s their choice, reflecting their values. And going by the same standard should we ban pork (Muslims don’t like it) or maybe we should ban non-vegetarian food totally (Jains don’t like non-veg altogether).

Now as one Indian to another I ask you, do you support such madness in banning everything that might hurt you? Do you believe that we should rather censor our daughters and sisters as effectively as Taliban does it in order to save them? Do you believe that you are not mature enough to decide for yourself what may hurt you and what may not?

If your answer to any one of those questions is a NO, then please tell me what you have done about it. Have you ever protested when Government banned a movie or a book, or when our society made life hell for people who had the courage to tell the truth?

If your answer is still a NO then I think its best that you give up your civil rights because they were given to you with a responsibility that you would use them in times like these, to protest what is wrong, be it the government, or the society or your very own self.