I thought or rather expected that we would be clearer about the real nature and the nefarious goals of an extensive use of financial instruments to terrorise and subdue people in a manner nobody had assumed possible under the constitutional framework we have. It is one thing to contradict the fake claims and quite another to be ensnared in the many false premises, shifting priorities and fake narratives. Most of the criticism, even from the most vehement ones for that matter, ended up playing along with the fake narratives. For many, the Machiavellian project became nothing but a gamble that failed; it was nothing more than a badly executed job! Sadly, very little that is new has emerged in the critiques after one year that is different from what was foreseen earlier and what was rather obvious six months on.
There is not much appetite left for such analysis and the details. However, what is missing are incisive interrogations of the politics driving the diabolical move. It was primarily a political move – nothing less. Everything else was secondary. It was political then and, even more clearly so now, looking back retrospectively. It was a brutal attempt to create an impression of the beginning of a new era as it were, sans all the old icons of the Republic.
It was an audacious attempt to relinquish the notorious image of someone whose name is associated with terrible images of a land in flames into the dustbin and supplant the notoriety with a new one - a new narrative of ushering in an India forking off from its secular-democratic (maligned Nehruvian) past. That was to be symbolized by the brand new currency, new rules, and whatnot. It was a crude and impatient attempt to replace virtually each secular Indian legacy with a new narrative and iconography in every sphere. It was nothing but a fiendish and megalomaniacal plan to foist on the nation a Führer (a supreme leader), or what they would like to call in Hindutva parlance a yugpurush.
That project temporarily failed or suffered a setback. That is the gamble which didn’t pan out as planned. Have no doubt. An attempt will be made again. It is clear they will go to any lengths to do this. They have shown the willingness to sacrifice anything for that – lives, livelihoods, businesses and even the larger economy to an extent, if need be. For the Hindutva fascists, that is a small price to pay and it is a sacrifice they are willing to make to realise the goal of dismantling the secular republic. Nothing is too big a sacrifice when it comes to the goal of establishing a formal or informal Hindu state. The burden of sacrifice, after all, will be on the people at large!
After one year, hardly any of the critics have looked at how the political formations and the civil society, in general, have responded to this enormous challenge. It is not enough to examine how the #DeMo failed to achieve its proclaimed objectives. It is also necessary to examine why the resistance was either absent or weak to a move that devastated the economy and touched almost everyone negatively in some manner.
What is amiss in the system of political parties, trade unions, student organisations, and all forms of civil society platforms that the democratic protests that ought to have shielded the most vulnerable from the worst excesses of power within a democratic framework could not surface or became so muted? Hope that in the coming days there will be more discussion on these aspects, on what needs to be done to resist such draconian moves and on how to stop the rise of the Hindutva fascism.
Comments