Political Diary

New Delhi, 30 May 2015

Govt Stifling Dissent

Sycophancy ACT OF patriotism

By Poonam I Kaushish

In the ongoing silly season of self-congratulations lullabies on completing one year of Modi sarkar, political New Delhi was yanked  back to reality when a political slugfest erupted over IIT Madras derecognizing the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle for spreading “hatred” against the Prime Minister. Read, accusing the Government of pursuing a “Hindutva agenda”, communally polarizing people by its ghar wapasi programme, ban on cow slaughter etc.” The message rang clear: In Modi Raj sycophancy is the final act of patriotism and criticism is beyond the pale!

It all started with the Union HRD Ministry forwarding an anonymous complaint to the IIT dean for comments who post haste derecognized the group on the grounds, it had “broken the code of conduct and not followed certain procedures”. Notwithstanding, the group averring it was not given a fair hearing.

Predictably, Congress’s Rahul Gandhi jumped in to the fray grandiosely accusing the “suit-boot ki sarkar” for denying free speech. “This is our right. We will fight any attempt to crush dissent and debate.” Shot back, HRD Minister Smriti Irani, “I challenge him to a debate anytime including education.” Even as the PMO has sought a report on the matter. 

Undeniably, this grandstanding is not only deplorable, downright dangerous but shows a worrying lack of tolerance turning comedy into a tragedy. True one can argue that a high education institute is for learning not criticizing the Government, that it was in bad taste, but in no way does it warrant the group being derecognized.

Besides, it is unfathomable why the Union Ministry didn’t trash the complaint. This incident shows Irani’s unwarranted interference in the running of an educational institution. More puzzling is the IIT action. It too could have junked the objection, instead in zealous haste it chose to crawl before the Ministry.

Arguably, what is it that the group has stated which Opposition Parties and media don’t routinely debate, discuss and shout themselves hoarse on some variant or the other of this?  The criticism has been entirely about the Modi Government’s policies, not about NaMo per se. The students have not called him “India’s negative face”.

Raising a moot point: How does merely criticizing the Government’s policies tantamount to spreading “hatred”?  Respect for the Office of the Prime Minister does not mean that everyone must, by law, think of Modi as a “positive face”.

Have are netagan lost their ability to handle criticism? To laugh at themselves? Bordering on a narcissist phobia? Is the polity afraid of the clash of ideas in our public life? Is it mere coincidence or a sign of an increasingly knee-jerk, reactionary country

Are they so paranoid or intolerant that any act of laughter, joke, is viewed as a threat to the nation, the Constitution, the Government. Wherein icons are placed on pedestals beyond censure? And the Constitution and emblem justification to stifle critique? No matter, that these are symbolic of every Indian’s freedom credentials!

Undoubtedly, far from having a funny bone, it would seem that we are determined to turn most things into a bone of contention. In an era of political correctness and ethnic sensitivity, where fundamentalists march as patriots in uniform, a wry irreverence, or a tongue-in-cheek reference, becomes an act of “hatred”. Life is lived in the slim strip called the official.

The brutal fact is that India is in the grip of bigotry, narrow mindedness and cultural terror, that no historian or social scientist can honestly do his/her research objectively. Sadly, cultural terror is the latest facet of the dirty politics that our netagan have stooped to. Worse, they seem to be getting away with it without even soiling their hands.

Remember an innocuous cartoonist Assem Trivedi was arrested for sedition by Mamata in Kolkata. Before him another of his tribe famed Shankar cartoons of Ambedkar in NCERT school books were posthumously removed. Notwithstanding if India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, called sedition laws “objectionable and obnoxious”.

This is not the end of Mamata’s intolerance. She banned celebrated novelist Salman Rushdie from coming to Kolkata to promote a film based on his book 'Midnight's Children', ostensibly, for security reasons. He flew back to London disgusted.

Then Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan was cornered for his views on what it is to be a Muslim in India and got caught in the crosshairs of an unseemly Indo-Pak spat post Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik that India provide security to him. Leading the heartthrob of millions to say he was a proud Indian

Tamil Nadu banned noted actor-director Kamal Hasan’s 100 crore magna opus Viswaroopam which deals with the issue of terrorism on the fallacious that it would hurt the sentiments of ‘unknown’ Muslim groups and create a law and order problem.

Earlier this year, the Central Board of Film Certification Chief Leela Samson suddenly resigned due to “coercion and interfering with her decisions on several films” by the NDA Government’s I&B Ministry. The last straw being taken to task for passing Amir Khan’s “anti-God” PK and objecting to Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's (BJP supporter) portrayal of himself as god in his film MSG: The Messenger of God. Resulting in Saffron Sangh’s Bajrang Dal’s vandalizing film theatres showing PK. 

The RSS’s desires curbing of internet freedom, demands dozens of international websites to remove “offensive” albeit anti-Hindu content and wants “Bharatiya” dress and moral codes adhered in schools, colleges, cinemas and TV depicting Hindu values. From top to bottom their mission is to fashion Bharat which fits in to its vision of Hindutva. 

Underscoring, that increasingly the leaders are talking more and more in banalities and platitudes where life is lived in the slim strip called the official and every joke, wit, satire, humour or defiance treated as a monster. Big deal if this makes public discourse impoverished and toothless.

Bringing things to such a pass whereby our netagan afflicted by the I, me myself syndrome seem to be only interested in grabbing headlines whenever they can. As far as individual freedom is concerned they couldn’t careless. It’s all about making the right noises to humour their respective vote-banks, promote their self-interest by creating dissension among the aam aadmi .

Where does India go from here? Our netas need to see how public figures across the globe are more tolerant about what’s written or depicted about them. A classic example of political freedom is former Italian millionaire-playboy-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who was mercilessly satirized in the print and online fora globally. The US and UK too are take lot of liberties vis-à-vis their rulers.

Clearly, the speed with which our tolerance is falling to fragile levels is scary. When our polity views hatred and sycophancy as two sides of a coin democracy does not stand a chance. Forgetting, that if an individual’s freedom is denied, then the freedom of a community will be trampled upon too. Our leaders must desist from using narrow-mindedness and prejudices as pedestals to stand on to be seen.  

In the ultimate,  either which way, criticism is a sign of a thriving and robust democracy. Before our leaders get touchy about evaluations, they need to remember, those who can not take critique in their stride, destroy democracy. What gives? ---- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)