Insightful commentators on our politics have tried to make sense of the unyielding vishwas that people repose in the country’s leadership despite economic devastation, a humiliating military setback, the mauling of the institutions of governance, and policies that have impoverished and diminished us as a nation. The reason ascribed to this devotion is an undiminished belief in a charismatic leader who has sacrificed everything for the nation; who embodies a virile Hindu nationalism and seeks common good; a visionary who stirs the imagination and inspires trust even when the vision is flawed. This undying vishwas is shored up by an unrelenting propaganda helmed by a servile media and is further abetted by fanatical social media admirers. His invincibility has been reinforced by a clueless Opposition and by the dissipation of class, caste and regional affiliations.
This melange of explanations for the infinite faith in our supreme leader obfuscates the core determinant of this amaurotic vishwas. The cardinal inspiration for this unswerving devotion to the leadership stems from what George Orwell calls “an admiration for power and successful cruelty” against the perceived enemy. Those occupying the command posts of the institutions of governance have shown that they know how to deal with the ‘Muslim threat’. Devout bhakts cheer them on, in much the same way the Roman mobs in the Colosseum did when people were ripped to shreds by lions.
The last few years have seen a sustained, wanton offensive against a community that has been stigmatized like never before. The social terrorism manifested in lynchings, cow vigilantism, ghar wapsi and love jihad campaigns is the new normal and designed to consign Muslims to a ghettoized, pariah status. The abrogation of Article 370 and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, apart from striking at the heart of our secular Constitution, deliver an unambiguous message that Muslims are second-class citizens who do not ‘belong’ to the idea of India crafted by the ruling dispensation.
The anti-CAA protests from December 2019 to February 2020 were a truly democratic upsurge spearheaded by women and students who stepped forward to reclaim the country’s egalitarian essence. The Preamble, the national flag and the national anthem were the overarching symbols of this mass movement. The unexpected solidarity across class and community rattled the government, which attacked anti-CAA protesters as anti-national, tukde tukde gangs fanning anarchy and endangering the rule of law.
The anti-CAA protests filled Muslims with fleeting optimism of a more just tomorrow but, tragically, this fight for equal citizenship rights was snuffed out by the communal riots in Northeast Delhi that coincided with the deadly pandemic that ended all protests. The restraints imposed by the pandemic have been used by the government to tiptoe around its constitutional commitment to the democratic values of freedom, equality and justice. Using the pandemic as an excuse, the governing elite has done everything possible to discredit, delegitimize, even silence the voices speaking for the dispossessed. Draconian laws like the NSA and the UAPA have been used with devastating effect to stifle dissent. The transformation of the peaceful anti-CAA protests into a ‘secessionist’ movement propagating ‘armed rebellion’, as portrayed in the police charge sheets on the Delhi riots, is Kafkaesque in its distortion.
The first reports and reactions to a conflagration are often the most telling pointers to what really happened. The graphic videos and reports of those nightmarish days in February clearly suggest that the Muslims suffered far greater losses to life and property than their Hindu neighbours. Three former Supreme Court judges who visited the riot-hit areas for a personal assessment came away with the impression that “Muslims seem to have been targeted in the riots.” Official figures bear this out: around 75 per cent of those killed were Muslim and 85 per cent of properties damaged belonged to Muslims. Fourteen mosques and a dargah were gutted. The home minister’s initial observation noted “that the professional assessment is that the violence in the capital has been spontaneous.” This statement was seen by many as a defensive feint against allegations that the riots were the upshot of an insidious right-wing plot. However, after the spin doctors had conjured up an alternative narrative, the home minister informed Parliament that the riots were “pre-planned”. The bloodletting had by then mutated into an anti-Hindu riot that was the handiwork of an ‘Urban Naxal-jihadi’ network.
Muslims are subjected to everyday harassment, denigration and discrimination. They are stigmatized as purveyors of corona jihad; they are stopped from selling their goods in non-Muslim localities; the chief justice of the Telangana High Court asks in exasperation why only Muslims are pulled up for violating lockdown rules — the list of woes is endless. Worryingly, the justice system has often failed to respond to these depredations.
In a truly egalitarian society, Muslims would fight for justice. But in the face of institutional bias and a pathological social hostility, this is easier said than done. Some optimists hope for our own ‘George Floyd moment’, but seeing the ground realities today, I keep visualizing Orwell’s grim prognosis: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.”
