Mute Spectator : Down with the Swirl
December 24, 2019
Revolution against Oppression
There has
been a certain romanticization of the protests as the struggle against
oppression and quasi-dictatorship
elevating themselves to the likes of Gandhi and MLK. There has been circulation
of many videos where students are being attacked by men in uniform and thus the
ruling government and police are continuously slipping into the narrative of
the protesters, first time since the current dispensation entered office in
2014. To dissent and protest peacefully
is a guaranteed Right under the Indian constitution but even Gandhiji was not
able to conduct a peaceful rally which would not end in violence. It must be a
curse on peace and freedom that violence should always accompany it.
Liberals
must be careful and smart enough to learn from the Western democracies that
dominance in social media or relying on college campuses is not a good strategy
to win elections. One finds the Left liberals a bit naïve and ignorant to brand
anyone supporting the bill a bigot
and a Sanghi or even worse a Nazi-- it backfired in the West, it will
backfire here.
This strand
of thinking is seen echoed by Ananya Vajpayee on her lead opinion in The Hindu. She calls the protesting
Universities the “last remaining bastions of secular india” and essentially
labels everyone in the government as bigots thus allowing no space for further
discourse. She calls for the universities to lead the way in political struggle
thereby laying the path on the lines of western woke culture where they thrive inside their own delusional safe spaces which are fundamental as
much as the fascists they attack.
At the same
time, opposition from respectable personalities like Ramchandra Guha and
Yogendra Yadav among others provide mileage to the entirety of the protests
balancing out the Left, Communist and Red of the movement.
Confusing Directions
The case of
Assam and its sisters proves to be unique and confusing to some. It posits an
Ethno nationalistic far-right agenda
wherein no immigrant, Hindu or otherwise, should be allowed inside their states
or sub-nations. The Congress and most Liberals can be seen as paradoxical while
advocating for both broadening and narrowing the scope of immigrants at the
same time.
The north
eastern case must be viewed in a different light altogether taking into
consideration the myriad uprisings and violent struggles that adorned the
states. The indigenous argument in a way is like the reservation and quota
argument- it may hold good for now, but there will come a time when these
special provisions should be erased from the text of the constitution for a
really progressive society. Thus the congress paradox breaks down through the
congruence of opinions calling to repeal the bill because in electoral
politics, what matters is the ability to garner the majority.
Backtracking Right side
The ruling
government seems to have understood the implications of unpopular legislation
and economic slough. Prime Minister Modi tried to save face by giving in to the
rational argument against the NRC by denouncing any plans for the nationwide
NRC but the media pointed out the hypocrisy of the Gujarati brothers with
proof.
NRC as an
exercise itself with its practical difficulties leans towards failure as seen
in the Assam example but the call for said conduction would make for electoral
gains mainly in Bengal. One can sense the brewing of a new obsession for the
Hindutva right in NRC and said obsession might lead to electoral disasters or
victories for the right in the future
but one can only wait to see what the future beholds.
BJP has been
setting the narrative of public discourse since its emergence in office but
that trend is evidently declining as we can see the right trying to save face with respect to the NRC. Interestingly Swarajya,
the right wing magazine, is fighting against the tide acting providing
substance to save the right’s
character. In one of the articles written by a senior editor Arihant, it dismisses
translations done by other media outlets (out of which it deems The Hindu as far-left) and provides proper, correct and true
translation of Prime Minister Modi’s speech at delhi.
First,
at least see if anything has happened on NRC. Lies are being spread. Since the
time my government came in 2014 to date, I want to tell 130 crore people of
this country, there has been no
discussion or talk on NRC. Even in Assam, we did it on the directions of
the Supreme Court. What are they even talking about?
Reading between the lines, the article
goes on to say that Prime Minister Modi did not reject the future possibility
of the exercise and thus paving way for right
minded citizens to stay hopeful. One can see the similarity in approach of Swarajya
with right wing media outlets in the west, especially in America. The labeling
of news outlets as far left and fake news does nothing but reduce the
reliability of said outlets among the wider public. The issue in the Indian
case is that the left got on that band wagon early labeling Indian media as Godi media.
Finally the article ends with a
hopeful note that NRC is not yet off the charts as the far-left and left leaning
news outlets say and will definitely be implemented as the “Modi government is fulfilling these pledges one by one and striking
them off from its ‘shapath patra’”. If one thinks that the NRC process will be
put in a limbo, one cannot be more wrong given the majority the ruling party
wields over the loksabha.
Politics, especially electoral
politics is full of compromises, so with the economy in bad shape the need for such
compromises from both sides is essential and thus can provide the necessary
spark to end the protests and turn back to business as usual without taking the
violent route through which we would only go down with the swirl to enter a
rabbit hole like the African nations with perpetual uprisings and government
shut down. One might also suspect if the ruling government is playing with the
narrative in an inceptionesque manner covering up the growing mess of the
economy.
It is in times of extreme polarization
and tribalization like now, the need for civility and respect towards other
side is necessary for a fruitful discourse. Discourse should provide us with
intellectual succor with rational arguments rather than name calling and
labeling which would only lead to destruction of the democracy.
By Benolin
Mute Spectator is the primary series of the blog where we express our opinions on current affairs.
0 comments