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In
the News:
Sukant
Khurana, an NRI based in America mailed us his viewpoints
on the recent incidents 'back home'
Who is
really behind the Delhi blasts? There are always some "Islamists"
and then some fake encounters. All the cries for open inquiries
are stomped over by nationalistic, jingoistic yelling and
by the compliance of largest terrorist network in Delhi, the
Delhi police, a morally bankrupt media, corrupt politicians
and an ever-slumbering bureaucracy. Why have there been no
follow up inquiries into large quantities of explosive material
recovered from Hindu fascists: the RSS and Bajarangdaal, in
many places of Maharashtra, Karnataka and U.P?
If this continues, we are heading the road of failed states
like Pakistan and this does not seem to bother anyone. The
polarization of society, on religious, caste and economic
lines has reached unprecedented heights. North-East, Kashmir
and tribal areas, like in the states of Chattisgarh, Bihar,
Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Orrisa, are already burning
with separatist strife and in Gujarat and Orissa, Hindu fanatics
are making Hitler of early 1920’s look pale in comparison.
No part of India is going to be unscathed, if we do not kill
the root cause of this conflict, the polarization of our society
on narrow ethnic and religious lines. A prosperous Delhi or
Bombay, can only exist for a long time in a prosperous and
peaceful India. If islands of opulence are surrounded by ever
swelling ocean of poverty and strife, then sooner or later
no one will be saved from a last great flood. I will bet if
that happens, no divine intervention, no Manu or Noah can
save us then from heading down the path of failed countries
like Pakistan. We have already started seeing the damage done
by high tides but we sleep in confidence that these are just
accidental spills, under some lunatic influence, works of
few disgruntled individuals, who can be gotten rid off by
the so called encounters. The Indian middle class cannot go
beyond its myopic vision to see all the signs of the beginning
of the end. We frequently blame Pakistan for blasts, but fail
to understand that even if they are behind a fraction of them,
the only way they can make inroads is when we treat many Indians
like second grade citizens and at times like subhumans. When
I am in Delhi, my home city, as I was recently, I am met with
arguments like: you would be dead in Pakistan for such "anti
nationalistic sentiments" and why don't you criticize
Pakistan's treatment of minorities?
I fail to understand why are we aspiring to be like Pakistan.
It is a state on verge of collapse. We can do at least a little
bit better. I am glad, I am still alive to have lived in India
and none of my trips to homeland have yet rendered me incapable
of voicing my opinions! I hope India retains some semblance
of democracy, so that people like me, who are temporarily
living abroad, are not forced to let go of our ties to our
hometown and country. Unfortunately, for the majority, it
is the only ship they are riding on, the very one, they are
quietly letting burn to ashes and they do not have the option
of letting go of the ties. Why many in Indian middle class
do not understand that being against corrupt Indian state
apparatus, the brutal police, military and political machinery
is not so anti-Indian after all. A healthy irreverence to
the institutions of power, especially completely unaccountable
institutions as present in India, is the most patriotic thing
one can have. I see our dreams of a super-power coming to
a complete crashing halt, unless we wake up in time, before,
forget the superpower dream, but the very end of democratic
India is inevitable.
Why aren’t Nerudas and Tagores springing up from soil
to rouse up people’s conscience when we need democratic
culture the most? Only few loony ex generals military and
justices are telling people to shut the hell up. Are we so
comfortably numb that we see fangs of death as glossy marble
pillars of our future superpower epithet? Do we want to run
a police state and even if we want to, can we?
May be there are islamists behind this particular blast or
may be it is brain child of RSS or this is conceived, conducted,
criticized and probed by Indian state apparatus. I can’t
say, because I am a not a pal with Delhi police, without whose
consent no crime happens in the capital. I know that the only
person to gain from these blasts is Narendra Modi, who is
even making a mass murder Advani look like Gandhi in comparison,
with his appetite for innocent civilian populations.
Are we heading to fascism? Yes, sooner or later. Is just slowing
the pace of death an option? No. Supporting the so-called
lesser evil of congress and its erstwhile allies in CPI (M),
just results in wider spread of this cancer. The only option
is to kill the cancerous cells, whether they hold a saffron
or green flags. The only way to do so is to organize politically
and fight for a true participatory democracy. One cannot fight
cancer with cancer, so looking for support in feudal, communal,
castist and regional forces will be just as good to let Modi
build his gas chambers. Any such coalition of crooks may slow
fascists from officially taking power but is actually helping
the cancer of polarization spread deeper and deadlier. The
only option is a new democratic option. Being right or left
is not an option. Being a hopeless optimistic, I believe that
there will not be an end, where all is supposed to end and
a new morning of hope will blossom out of darkness of death.
Power to the people.
- Sukant Khurana [ Section
of Neurobiology and Institute of Neuroscience, University
of Texas at Austin]
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