The country is in chaos and there is no denial to this fact. The ‘millennials’ are on streets for what they perceive as a justful fight for ‘equality and justice’. A heritage site for protests has come up right in the centre of the national capital and this makes the citizens of the country worried and rightly so!
As I sit down preparing the draft for the following publication, there already have been two ‘staged shooting’ events in the Capital. This has made huge noise amidst all the happenings around and has caught media eyeballs. At this critical juncture, I am nothing but forced to ask myself- ‘What these last 2 months or so have been like for an average Indian youth like me?’ I will try my level best to reflect my feelings.
The movement began as a fight to oppose the triumvirate of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR). I won’t go into the specifics of the three ‘alleged’ discriminatory moves of the the State because I can continue and continue on that, especially due to the fact that I am a citizen of city of Jammu, the same city that today sits on the ‘ticking bomb of illegal Rohingya settlements’. But this doesn’t stops me from pointing out what exactly is wrong with the lost cause for which the youth of the country is out on the streets.
The youth freshly out of the confines of the restrictions that they face while being in schools and subsequently getting a chance to attain education away from homes in top colleges of, say Delhi have been at the forefront of the movement. This is nothing but a consequence of the ‘false idealism’ that is planted in the minds due to the efforts of ‘motivated faculty’ in the premier institutions of our country and is ably aided by malfunctioning curriculum.
This is the same curriculum and the same faculty that makes the vulnerable minds to fascinate and salivate at the mere thought of a ‘violent revolution’. The same system that conspicuously misses the ‘Gulag Killings’ and ‘Great Purges’ of Joseph Stalin which killed around 10 lakhs according to American Historian Timothy Synder, the ‘Cultural Revolution’ by Mao Zedong that killed around 20 lakh individuals or for that matter the striking similarities between ‘Hitlerism and Stalinism’.
Back home, there is no reference of the massacre of my Dalit brothers and sisters, rape of Dalit women that happened in Marichjhapi Massacre by the then Jyoti Basu regime of the Left in West Bengal. Neither do we ever hear about the bloody campus history of the left. The cold blooded murder of Professor Gopal Sen, the then VC of Jadhavpur University by Naxalite thugs or the utopian summer of 1969 in St. Stephens isn’t just glossed over but rather doesn’t find any damn mention.
Now coming back to the fallacious cause and naked display of the bigotry that has caught hold of the minds of the youth of the country.What started as a move to oppose a move by the government soon started to show its hatred for Hindu culture. What was being proclaimed as a ‘Civil Disobedience Movement’ by some self proclaimed intellectuals soon took a turn towards ‘Direct Action Plan 2.0’. Is it not so? If you do doubt on the claim, then please logout of your Netflix accounts and just listen to the speeches made by one Sharjeel Imam, a key member of Shaheen Bagh Organising Committee. The slogans like’ CAA Hatao, Desh Bachao’ have been replaced by slogans like ‘ Tera mera rishta kya, La Ilaha IlAllah’, desecration of sacred Swastika symbol and subsequent defence of such acts.
At this instance, I am forced to ask myself- ‘What if this legally sanctioned and morally corrupt phobia was displayed against any community other than Hindus?’ I am probably taken back to what was the fate of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists and Kamlesh Tiwari for speaking out against a particular community.
The role of media and particularly of English elite media has been dubious and worst to say the least. As an influential medium, they have failed to project the harsher truth and has been equally complicit in corrupting the minds of our youth. While the photoshoot of mindless bigot Gopal Sharma was gleefully reported from the echo chambers of Noida based studios, the same media failed to report the killing of a Dalit, Neeraj Prajapati for participating in a pro-CAA rally. The news channels, its reporters who failed to follow the line of biryani fetish media houses were heckled, shamed and even physically attacked. All this while, when some shameless, complicit and publicly shunned editors and their news channels failed to report the violent attitudes of the protesters at Shaheen Bagh. Mind it, even free biryani can buy the conscience of few disgraceful propagandists masquerading as journalists.
The film stars of the country weren’t to be left behind. Whether it was someone showing solidarity with the cabal that isn’t hideous about its agenda to break the Indian state or some failed stars turning to activism as a part time profession, they have only added to the fire. The Instagram warriors, many of whom seldom fail to differentiate between facts and propaganda also found some good promotional niche to survive and thrive.
The utter chaos and leading violence only worries me and many alike. Whether it was confusion leading to attack on Polio Vaccinators by a blood lusty mob or a religious fanatic mob attacking women to only let them off after discovering the fact that they belonged to the particular religion,the youth of the country needs not fall into the trap.
We are a young country and are on the verge of realising our Demographic Dividend in a few years from now, owing to a large young population. At the same time, it is worthy for us to step back and re-think about our intentions and actions. We, as responsible youth of this great nation can be better off than to act merely on the dictums and propaganda of the few. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb says in his Book ‘The Bed of Procrustes’ ,”Over the long term, you are more likely to fool yourself than others”
