Are we nuts to be calling our country now a National Suspicion State? If you Google it, you do not find that description. Unlike, say, for National Security State, as we describe Pakistan and China, where the army and the party, respectively, guard not just the territorial but also ideological boundaries of the state and the citizen. That’s a well-established concept.
I write an occasional series called ‘Writings On The Wall’. That means, literally, reading what’s written, painted, sold on the walls to figure out where some part of the country, and the neighbourhood, is headed. Travelling through Pakistan for one such idea, I was gathering plenty of evidence to establish its unique status in the subcontinent as a National Security State. But I needed the smoking gun: A telling writing on a wall.
Not knowing Urdu was a disadvantage, but you know what, one who seeketh, findeth. I found it just when I was getting my passport stamped to return home at Wagah.
It was a signboard on top of the immigration window. It read: We respect all, we suspect all. I got into a conversation with the immigration cop while another one checked my iPad photo archives to check if there was anything objectionable, and was told quite cordially why they needed to be extra suspicious for their safety, and mine, of course. You can read that article here.
That a national security state should also be suspicious of all stands to reason. But a constitutional republic run by democratic institutions? In July last year, after Narendra Modi had returned to power with a larger majority in an election built on national security, I had written that while he would continue this focus, he wasn’t about to turn India into a National Security State. Because we all know what it did to Pakistan. But two questions arise: Can an eternally suspicious state be anything but that? And second, is India on its way to becoming something different from what we have known yet? A National Suspicion State?
We put a question mark there to initiate a debate. Let’s check some facts out, giving everybody, most of all ourselves, the benefit of doubt.
To say that the Modi government is unique in hating criticism and critics will be a lie. Through the decades, it’s impossible to name a government that loved criticism; that did not react badly to criticism. Motives were always imputed to critics, from being foreign agents and CIA (Indira Gandhi), to foreign hand (Rajiv Gandhi), corporate stooge (the Left) and corrupt (Anna Movement/AAP). The public condemnation and shaming of critics picked up pace with the rise of social media. Which pretty much coincided with the Anna movement, one following the other.
Again, to say that only this government is using draconian laws like National Security Act (NSA) and UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) or Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA) will be unfair. These laws were designed and strengthened by Congress governments in the past. These have been used and misused by all.
The same argument would apply to surveillance. Much of the surveillance machinery and technology the Modi government is using today was put in place by the UPA, essentially post 9/11 and 26/11. These include the big daddy of all eavesdroppers, NTRO. Powers of wire-tapping were also widely distributed to various agencies in that period, not kept confined to home and defence ministries, or conventional agencies like Intelligence Bureau and RAW. It was somewhere then that the finance ministry became the main machine for wire-tapping, and for leaks too. Remember Radia Tapes?
So, what are we complaining about now?
Check your own phone, if you are a public figure, in public debate, or somebody who deals with public figures or even usual bureaucracy.
How many of the people you routinely reach out to talk to you on normal land lines or mobile networks? WhatsApp was in fashion sometime back, but after revelations of the Israeli snooping agency, its footprint in India and general suspicion about its parent Facebook, that disappeared too. It has to be an odd situation where so many politicians, even of the ruling party, and bureaucrats use Telegram (now losing trust, I believe), Signal and maybe some others I might not be familiar with. This marks an environment laden with suspicion. And we can’t blame Zhenhua’s data snoopers for it.
Those of us in public debate have dealt with intolerance of criticism by governments in the past, going back to Indira Gandhi’s. Her government was furious when I broke the story of Tamil Tigers’ training camps in January 1984 and called India Today (where I then worked) an anti-national magazine. Just as she had done the previous year when the magazine carried detailed, picture-filled coverage on the Nellie killings at a particularly inopportune time from her point of view, because the NAM summit was on in Delhi.
Now, I called a bunch of people on different sides, in politics, government and public debate, to ask if there is a difference. The answer I got from most of them was, in the past you knew those in the establishment may stop speaking with you for some time. Or be unhelpful and sullen. Or call, complain and impute motives.
Then came the post-2010 phase of public shaming with the Anna movement. It was followed by denial of access and boycotts. But you did not have to worry about the government filing cases against you. That is the change now.
You want to know what I mean, ask Sanjay Singh, an AAP member of the Rajya Sabha. He made a few statements critical of the Uttar Pradesh government, and has been charged with sedition. Sedition. A member of our House of Elders has been charged with sedition for criticising a state government. Think about it.
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Where do you go when such a case is filed against you in a democracy, but the courts? Then, the courts take their time. Partly because the process is the punishment, but partly also because they too are getting caught in the same “we suspect all” mindset. As a result, instead of innocent until proven guilty, you become guilty until proven innocent. That is at least the flavour of most of our bail hearings now. In addition, there is the terror of trial by media leaks and conspiracy theorising. Or, watch the judge insisting Arun Shourie be charged with corruption in Vajpayee government’s disinvestment when the CBI says it has no evidence.
Every now and then, the Supreme Court gives us a gift like the right to privacy judgment or the tough comments on media trials, but institutionally, does the higher judiciary even retain the power to have these wishes carried out? It is something for them to debate. Particularly when there seems to be a clear algorithmic relationship now between a judge’s seniority and the appearance of tough cases against him or members of his close family.
Suspect all, fix all. It is this mindset that begins at the very top of an establishment and then trickles down and across. It doesn’t remain limited to the BJP. So, Uddhav Thackeray uses every possible law, including legislative privilege, against his critics. Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy takes all his predecessors and some judiciary in his sweep, and Ashok Gehlot uses sedition against his dissidents. Evidence from wire-tapping, of course.
Then it becomes a free-for-all. Like Rhea Chakraborty’s harmless exchanges with an avuncular-sounding Mahesh Bhatt being put out on media channels with conspiratorial background music. Then everybody worries. It could happen to me. And then, fear finds wings: Maybe they can eavesdrop, extrapolate or manipulate stuff and frame me in something awful. And if “they” do that, it will be half a lifetime before you get justice, if at all.
This has led us to become a people suspicious of each other. Some of you might find the description National Suspicion State too drastic. You may prefer National Suspicion Society. Or neither. I am merely tossing this up for debate.
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Should have used the term ” Rashtriya Suspicious State”.
My advice to Mr. SG is to state the concern simply : we are sliding into a combination of Pakistan and Hitlerian Germany.
Mr. SG recounts the amusing experience on the Pakistan side of the Wagah : ‘It was a signboard on top of the immigration window. It read: We respect all, we suspect all. ‘
In current India, he should adapt that to :”We respect some but not all, and we suspect all”.
Recalling Indira Gandhi and Congress excesses confuses the picture and should be avoided. They were problems of a different kind. Those were in the past, and were often individual based, rather than ideology based. The kind of authoritarianism we have today is directed by an ideology. What is that ideology ? It is the ideology of Golwalkar and the RSS. What is that ? It was adoption of Hitler’s Nazi concepts on minorities and nationhood, and also its violent methods to achieve the ideology. Golwalkar had written as much, so it is undeniable. Hence, in content and method, we are governed by an ideology we have to call ‘Hindu Hitlerism’. That is India’s problem.
In Nazi Germany, Hitler came to power with a landslide majority. He had agitated against the divided field with 30 parties, stoking insecurities, resentments and ultra nationalistic rhetoric. He came through election, but then said Germany did not need 30 parties. One of his wall posters (found on a bombed-out building in ruined Cologne at the end of war, when American troops entered) said ‘Just give me five years, see what I can do for Germany’. Our chai wallah some 70 years later was using the same slogan !
Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment, Goebbels, was Hitler’s great assistant. I guess Amit Shah plays a similar role. Goebbels declared that Germany did not need Jewish intellectualism. Today, we say we do not want liberals and JNU intellectuals. Goebbels then went about the task of closing all independent media. He twisted the arm of the German film industry to make propaganda films. Goebbels and Hitler realised the power of a new media tool : radio. They commandeered that and distributed cheap radios to all houses, and people listed to Hitler’s rantings – like people listen to Maan ki Baat. Today, the BJP realised the command of the social media has the same effect as the radio in the 1930s : they have an IT cell to make fake news. The German ambassador in Paris was assassinated in Paris by a Polish Jewish student. SA storm troopers were sent to smash Jewish shops (called the Reichs Kristalle Nacht or November pogrom). Kristallenacht sent shock waves about the situation in Germany. Many had thought the Nazis in power would tame down, just as some imagined the BJP in power will follow constittional norms. About Kristallenacht, The Times of London wrote on 11 November 1938: “No foreign propagandist bent upon blackening Germany before the world could outdo the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults on defenceless and innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday.” The RSS organises pogroms in Gujarat and Delhi in similar style. Paid stormtroopers are brought from outside to burn Muslim property. The international media reports these incidents as the pogroms of Nazi Germany. The RSS-BJP writers try to write alternative news and get it published through international media like Bloomsbury – but fail ! So they get more enraged, they suspect liberals and JNU, and fix them by filing cases against Prof. Jayati Ghosh etc. of JNU for anti-national activities and supporting the minority. The CAA-NRC was similar to the Nuremberg race laws and concentration camps were being planned for Muslims. It got slowed down due to civil protests and Covid – but the mentality of the RSS-BJP has not changed.
In summary, we have a situation with a lot of similarity, not to the Congress of Indira Gandhi, but to Nazi Germany, but at a slower rate of progress from democracy to a ‘suspect all, fix all’ state, The people ruling have a similar ideology and methodology as Nazi Germany, adapted for a Hindu state. The only difference is unlike Hitler, Modi cannot go for invading neighbouring countries, not because his mentality is better (they believe in Akhand Bharat), but because there are two adjacent nuclear powers. Hindu fascism will be self contained to India, and may not be a threat for the outside world as Nazi Germany. However, it will take the country down to disintegration in the Yugoslavian style. Fascism has failed everywhere without exception, and India will be no different. Dedpite that record, there will be followers.
It is time for you to catch Samjhota Express, if you haven’t already done that.
I am sure you are living in Pakistan and just trying to incite Indians, like that famous proverb ” Chadh ja beta Suli per Allah tera Bhala Kare.” [Hang your self, god will bless you]
There is a lot of substance and efforts put in, in the above post from rasgolla, and therefore, it certainly doesn’t deserve merely such an irresponsible and arrogance-filled response from you, Mr. Harry. I wish you had countered him point by point, taking space at least half of what he has taken for his submission.
I shall leave you even more speechless by telling you that I have already taken the Samjotha Express !
“The kind of authoritarianism we have today is directed by an ideology. ”
it is not authoritarianism, but swindled people fighting back under able leadership.
Hindus were swindled by Muslims and their own power hungry fellow Hindu leaders like Nehru. it is true that Jinnah was not five times Namaz type guy. He had modern outlook, but like Nehru he was also power hungry, both of them wanted absolute power. Hindus were victims of these power hungry people.
Good example of their duplicity is one hand Jinnah said “he wants a Pakistan, where a person is Pakistani first and Muslim, Hindu or Sikh later”. But he did nothing to prevent killings of Hindus & Sikh in Pakistan with aim of driving them out. . Only way that carnage could have stopped was for India to threaten Pakistan, with dire consequences, would have prevented this exodus. But Nehru with his monkey like behavior, which also exhibited in dealing with China & Kashmir,, did nothing. Ultimately it was disaster for not only for non-Muslims in Pakistan, but also to smaller Muslims sects as well as Pakistan itself and Afghanistan.
If Pakistan had 15% to 20% non-Muslims now, at the time of partition it had 30% non-Muslims with Muslims in minority in cities like Karachi, Hyderabad & Lahore, Pakistan would have been like India, but with Muslim majority. That was the idea of partition. If that had happened there would be true religious freedom in South Asia.
But with Hindutva finally getting power in India, Pakistan has started showing more tolerance by allowing Temples build in Islamabad. If Hindutva maintains power in India, slowly Pakistan will start also exhibiting more tolerance toward smaller Muslim sects like Shia, Ismailis, Ahemdiya and so on. But if so called secularist parties come back to power Pakistan will go back to Zia Ul Haq ways. So entrenchment of Hindutva is essential for economic development of South Asia.
Ultimately what India need is Indian Islam, a sort of Dine- Elahi that Akabar tried to establish by becoming it’s first Khalifa.
So Rasgulla observe the correction, like in stock market,. Murtada what do you say about that.
Your conclusion is laughable :
‘But with Hindutva finally getting power in India, Pakistan has started showing more tolerance by allowing Temples build in Islamabad. If Hindutva maintains power in India, slowly Pakistan will start also exhibiting more tolerance toward smaller Muslim sects like Shia, Ismailis, Ahemdiya and so on. But if so called secularist parties come back to power Pakistan will go back to Zia Ul Haq ways. So entrenchment of Hindutva is essential for economic development of South Asia.’
Also, Hindus were not mere victims of these power hungry people (Jinnah, Nehru…) as you claim. The Hindus who designed Hindutva threatened the minorities as they wanted a Hitler solution, and that undermined Nehru, Gandhi and Jinnah in their goal to win independence and keep India united.
The origin of Hindutva is not Nehru or Gandhi, it was Savarkar, Golwalkar and Hegdewar. Savarkar talked about the Two Nation Theory long before Jinnah. Later, Jinnah agreed with Savarkar because he felt there was no choice.
And what was the reference point of Hindutva ? It styled itself on Italian fascism and Hitler. Nehru called Hindutva fascism, Hindu style. It is an is an imported ideology, right down to the RSS’s uniform which resemble those of the Hitler Youth, and their Hitler style Nuremberg rallies and their salutes and pledge. Why are these proud Hindus in 2020 going after third rate European ideologies that failed, which Europeans have given up ?!! Can’t you come out with something original of your own ?
In 1931, BS Moonje a co founder of the RSS met Mussolini. Moonje wrote, “India and particularly Hindu India need some such institution (like the Italian fascist youth group, ONB) for the military regeneration of the Hindus.” He told “the idea of fascism vividly brings out the conception of unity amongst people” and: “Our institution of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh of Nagpur under Dr Hedgewar is of this kind.”
Here is RSS’s second leader M.S. Golwalkar praising Hitler and Nazi racial policy: “To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races — the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here.” He called this “a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.”
In a recent BBC Interview ( Hard Talk with Stephen Sackur), the above passage was quoted by Sackur to the RSS-BJP’s Ram Madhav. Please watch the video, see Madhav squirm and lie ! People outside in the west know what is Hindutva, you cannot fool them, so don’t fool yourself with failed ideologies.
Hindutva thus is a modification of a European ideology that failed and wreaked destruction in Europe. It has been dressed with Hindu clothes, and the above passages from Moonje and Golwalkar prove that.
When Mussolini and Hitler failed so miserably, and had both their countries destroyed, what makes you think Hitlerism in Hindu clothes will work ? In fact, partition occurred not due to Jinnah, or Nehru and Gandhi, but because the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha made threats to Muslims of the same treatment as Hitler meted out to the Jews (see Golwalkar’s statement). Due to that India got partitioned.
And the RSS is continuing with its violent Hindu communalism, so the logical outcome will be civil war and self destruction of India. Your belief that Hindutva is needed for Pakistan to self-correct is absurd. Pakistan is happy to see India self-destruct with Hindutva. You will aid them ! Pakistan, China and Hindutva Hindus (without realising) are helping balkanise and break up India ! In the end of the quest for Hindu supremacy, you will find there is no India. The Germans managed to retrieve their country after 50 years of partition – because they gave up Nazism and took steps for self correction. If India breaks up, it will be like Yugoslavia.
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, he did not know how he got there, but he had a fall, and all the king’s men and horses could not put him back ! You are like Humpty Dumpty.
I suggest you have a re-think about Hindutva, read what its leaders said about Hitlerism, and see what happened to Germany, and figure out what will happen to India.
“The origin of Hindutva is not Nehru”
Thank god otherwise Hindutva people would be as bumbling misfits as Congressmen.
You can write thousands pages but that is not going to change mind of anybody other than COMMITTED, outside Indian minorities.
2019 election was like battle of Kursk . Like Nazis, secularist Hindus were stopped on their track. Their backers , local & international, were already talking about victory and forming government. What they got was the shock of life. Like Nazis, secularist Hindus will not mount any offensive against Hindutva and Secutva will be driven out of India into Pakistan and then there will inverse invasion of Hindu taking back Sindh & Punjab.
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty dumpy had a great fall. This what Indian secularism case is.
Rasgolla, write as much as you want, cry with blood tears but you and all those six hundred or so writers, petitioners etc. won’t be able to put together secular India, like all the kings’ men & horses could not put humpty dumpty together.
Rather than call it National Suspicion State, why not call it Rashtriya Suspicion State (RSS) ?
It’s a very apt and an innovative suggestion! Kudos to you Kili Jolsiyar!
As long as things went their way journos and liberals had no issues. Political leaders, journalists and liberals had an unwritten “gentlemanly” agreement not to dig too much into each others affairs and settle the issues under the table. That the understanding had become irrelevant, they are coming with new stupid narratives.
Stupid narratives that somehow enrage Hindu fascists !
Put bluntly, India is turning into a fascist, police state, while outwardly presenting some democratic traits. SG obviously cannot say that, but he is wrong to cloud the issue by saying that opposition to media and criticism happened with Indira Gandhi and Congress also. This is a false equivalence.
He ends up saying we have an issue of a ‘national suspicion state’ (code term for police state), but it happened also in Congress time, and also others are copying it in the various states of India.
The problem now is that you have a party whose members have scant respect of democracy, who swear loyalty to an unelected body instead of the constitution, a body which praised Hitler and has Hilterian notions of nationhood, and which uses its storm troopers to organise riots and pogroms to inimidate opponents.
Just look at examples which did not happen before :
Gauri Lankesh is killed.
Raveesh Kumar, Vinod Dua, receive death threats.
If you are a woman like Barkha Dutt or Shehla Rashed, you receive rape threats also.
The govt. employs an IT cell to spread fake news and label people as anti-national.
Police assaults students in university libraries.
Terror accused like Sadhvi can stand for election and be MP.
Fake encounter specialist is HM.
A PM whose only achievement is a pogrom.
All the above did not happen before. The Congress and opposition did not take the RSS threat to operate a state within a state seriously. India is paying the price. They should have probed their funds, and prosecuted them for violence. But then the Congress has RSS sympathsizers.
Logically, India has to run its course as Nazi Germany once Hitler was voted in.
That just about wonderfully sums up the state of affairs under the pogromwala.
Very well thought out strategy to drown out the voice of sanity in the time of political distress.
You could not find someone other than a chai wallah with a forged degree and mass murder, as the voice of sanity ? It reflects poorly on today’s Hindus !
Weren’t the communist countries sort of National Suspicion States? Everybody suspected, watched, and reported everybody to the state! Even children suspected, watched, and reported their parents to the state!
In the Nazi state, everyone was watched, and informers were there. Gestapo, SS, Hitler Youth….
And India is now led by Hindu Nazis, who have written praise of Hitler. We have RSS, Bajrang Dal, VHP, and BJP as a parliamentary front.
Democracy itself is not a guarantee of safety for citizens. Democracy can throw up people with scant respect for democracy, who only see it as a tool for coming to power – like Modi, Trump and Hitler before. And there will be a lot of people who will go with it.
Mr Rohit Desai: So should these repressive surveillance states become role models for India ?
Methods may change but values do not change with time. Let me quote from Shakespeare, the old-fashioned way.
Julius Caesar to Mark Antony, during his victory parade on the streets of Rome:
“Let me have men about me that are fat, Sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights. Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous. Would he were fatter! But Fear him not. Yet if my name we liable to fear, I do not know the man I should avoid So soon as that spare Cassius. He is a great observer and he looks Quite through the deeds of men. He loves no plays, As thou dust Antony…..Such men as he never at heart’s ease While they behold a greater than themselves, And therefore they are dangerous..”
Suspicion and treachery have been part of society and politics (including palace intrigues) even before the times of the Indian Epics and Pharaohs.
Media “suspects” the administration and the administration “suspects” the media. The public, except some purportedly “right thinking individuals”, just watch the fun knowing there is nothing in it. An age old story.
So, what is new?
Very good attempt to downplay the creeping march of Hindu fascism. There is nothing between media and adminstration, it was always like this, you want to say. You are obviously a fellow traveller of Hindu fascism. Were TV channels hounded by Income Tax department, CBI etc. ? In earlier times, were journalists killed like Gauri Lankesh ? Did people like Raveesh Kumar, Barkha Dutt and Shehla Rashid receive death and rape threats ?
Hitler set up Gestapo and SS after he took over. The Nazi media and radio were totally controlled. We are heading in that direction. Already, Yogi in UP has issued orders giving police powers to arrest without warrant. You will say the public think there is nothing in it – that is because you will be the on the side of the public which will be the Gestapo informer, and you will never be on the side of the public that questions the government and struggles for rights.
An insidious article timed to make people pause and weaken the national resolve to bust the criminal, politician, Bollywood nexus.
Plant ideas in peoples minds……
Are we being too suspicious of that innocent little girl Rhea? Naah we should go easy on her, she is just the regular girl next door.
Are we being too suspicious of those innocent little movie stars who snort drugs? Nah, let them go na, they entertain us and we want to be like them. After all the movie industry employs many people. It’s surely ok if a few powerful folk within the industry are involved deeply in crime, drugs and anti-national activities. It’s ok folk! Nothing to see here.
The Print, we are tired of your anti-national narrative.
From the fake name of the commenter to the content, the playbook of the IT cell is seen everywhere.
Spot on Mr Kishore – the BJP IT cell is imnipresent. And democracy India is going to pay the price for the canards it spreads.
He is as fake as you are Kishore.
We are tired of your ‘Hindu nationalism’ which masquerades for Hindu communalism !
Rasgolla, you guys are squatters or illegal Immigrants as per modern definition. Kufr, Idolaters, heathens, Pagans etc. , as you call Hindus Buddhists etc. are indigenous inhabitants of whole South Asia.
Beggars can not be choosers, Illegal Immigrants can not decide how a country should be. They should be thankful to be allowed to stay in.
If you are tired of Hindu nationalism or assertion by Kufrs then move back to your Jerusalem and Medina, as even Mecca was city of Idolaters.
A dark, paranoid state, where fear is the dominant emotion. Very different from that heartwarming image from Bihar, when the CM was Sushasan Babu, of young girls cycling to school on a bright, sunlit morning.
Police State, Surveillance State… probably no need for a new word.
But on a completely different note, you can think of making the comments section subscribers’ only. That way, trolls either stay away or they pay.
Read the article again, this time slowly. Shekhar Gupta criticizes all parties, including communists and AAP.
If he is useless, you Sujith must be useful- why?
In putting together lot many things in to one article, Shekhar man has made a dog’s breakfast of it.
The Print appeared to differentiate itself from the daily trash, but looks like it’s slowly losing the plot. C’mon, Shekhar, let’s have a piece that stimulates the cerebral functioning.
Nothing new. From the times of Indira Gandhi as PM India has always been a suspicious state. All Indians are suspect and guilty until proven innocent according to Indian governments. Try interacting with any government department to realise this truth. Especially the tax authorities. Nobody believes you or takes you at your word. India is still a low trust state. Operating under British made laws who were naturally suspicious of Indians, governments manned by Indians are no less different. As they said white sahibs were replaced by brown ones in 1947. Trained to be clerks, more fluent in a foreign language and ethos, completely cut off from their own cultural moorings and failing to understand those who they ruled, Indian bureaucracy created a classic low trust state.
‘Trained to be clerks, more fluent in a foreign language and ethos….’
They are being re-trained with the native ethos – Hindu casteism, communalism and discrimination.
YOUR SITE IS VERY ANNOYING. TOO MANY ADS AND THAT TOO VIDEO ADS KEEP APPEARING DISTURBING THE READER. I DO AGREE ADS ARE NECESSARY AND INEVITABLE BUT YOU JUST NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE PLACEMENT IN AN INTELLIGENT WAY. SEKHARJI! ARE YOU HEARING ?
What a beautiful and timely written article. Something people don’t talk about but often feel it. Keep up the good work sir. And please do write one article on fault lines in the working of Indian Judiciary.
Anti Modi again! When will you understand that me and other commenting on this thread will only agree with you when you praise modi? It doesn’t matter what points you make as long as you support him. Period.
“If you’re with Modi you’re with India, and if you’re anti-Modi you’re anti-India. That’s it.” – Aristotle
A relentless a narrative build over period of time to paint other parties and individual that they are colluded and have an alliance with enemy country and all rubbish shouting match in TV news studio then it of course a matter of time when a rift and doubt ecosystem will created among our own citizen. This is suit politically to politician and TV to gain TRP ultimately its about for someone to power and others for money game who care about country. Did a organisation or country, or state or district or even a village grew by fighting each other or they grew by collaboration and with co-operation among them but these collaboration becomes an optional now.
I will be submerged by the autobot army of the Right. But let me try.
Ask a child whether he prefers hate and suspicion or logic and reason. He will be confused.
Ask his parents the same in front of him. They will say, logic and reason. And yet in real life, they choose hate and suspicion. That is the dichotomy.
Suspicion – maybe. But I think this suspicion is a by-product of what really ails us – and that is loss of confidence. All earlier govt up until half-way through of Modi 1, had confidence – confidence that they can take the country on the path to growth, path to prosperity, path to greatness – and that confidence permeated to the people. Since 2017 this confidence has started ebbing – first among the people and then in the mind of the govt itself. This lack of confidence is causing the govt to crack down hard on views it does not like, labeling all critics as seditious and jailing students. The lack of confidence among ordinary citizens is leading to impotent rage manifesting as viciousness. Even apolitical people like Rhea Chakraborty and her family have found themselves caught in the trap of this viciousness. On the other hand, lack of confidence that the opposition can do better is leading to hand-wringing and helplessness amongst the liberal intelligentsia. Overall it is not a good situation for the country to find itself in.
Writing matter-of-fact things is fine, Mr Gupta, but we as Indian citizens should have to worry more- in fact, like never before- about the nature, pace, and the quantum of all-round degeneration that is taking place today of the Indian societal fabric under the Modi dispensation at the Centre that has almost only fascist principles to look up to for the governance of the country. Can you, Mr. Gupta, pen down a revolutionary, practical, “to-do” list to get back to the spirit of having the kind of India as was dreamt by the founder leaders who were responsible for achieving Independence for us in August 1947?
We have become a fearful state. Stalin and Beria would have approved. Why has liberal become a bad word?. It used to be linked to freedom..of thought , now it seems that the state will decide how you have to think, what language you may use , what you may eat,, what content is good for you to watch or read. Mythology trumps history, the ill educated have learnt that shouting and false flagging can drown out the voices of the sane.
And we aspire to make a mark on the world stage?. We cannot and will not until you learn that social harmony and togetherness is vital. Too much energy that can be otherwise spent in productive pursuits, is wasted on,yes, suspicion and hate.
We created suspicious characters over 70 years in every walk of life by design and encouragement. A lot of them in key positions of ruling, now that an attempt is being made to clean it up it suddenly becomes”National Suspicion State”
New criminals cannot clean up just because they claim they are nationalist Hindus !
The top man has a forged degree, and he organised a pogrom. Both are criminal offences in other countries and you would not be able to contest.
His Sancho Panza, the mota, was in prison for sometime for fake encounter killing. He is in charge of law and order. Looks like natural justice is sentencing him – Covid could end him.
The govt.s’ benches are packed with rapists and even a terror accused Sadhvi.
So what is the cleaning up you are talking about ? Hindu criminality runs amok and you will support that.
Actually The Indian Elite is having Psychological problems like the American n Israeli Elite, this is the reason for Suspicion.
In all developed countries it is trust but check. And there are set procedures for check which are not there in India. This is process answer but Guptaji is political so political answer.
1. Ok …China is on border and Pakistan has always been there…as far as response it has been most professional…..but people should not be suspicious. Hindi- Chini – Paki bhai bhai.
2. Ms Ranaut house is rubbished in 24 hrs…..but no one should be suspicious.
3. An actor from middle class background dies with more money in his account than last 7 generation in his family….people should not be curious…same with Sri Devi, Mrs Tharoor…but do not be suspicious
4. One clerk in PNB is able to bring a bank to brink of bankruptcy but should not suspicious.
5. Rida tapes ..facebook exposes from Analytica couple of years back but no need to be suspicious.
6. Malaysia gave shelter to Zakir Naik before barking and biting but no need to be suspicious.
In your list, some other promiment suspicious events are missing :
The chai wallah has a degree in All Political Science, but no one recalls studying with him, no one recalls teaching him, his aides showed a certificate printed in a font that did not exist at the time. Forgery perhaps ?
HM was indicted for fake encounter killing. How did he become HM ? After demonetisation, his bank got the maximum number of cash deposits.
Amit Shah’s son opened a company with 0.5 lakh, turned it into a 80 crore operation, and just before demonetisation, closed it down. Anything suspicious ?
Anil Ambani who is bankrupt gets backhand money from the Rafale deal. Anything suspicious ?
Finally, what is the RSS’s source of funding ? Why have they not been probed ?
As useless as always . trying to build liberals narrative and make people think oh this right
Immediate suspicion on SG. Good
Haha its funny how you prove the exact point he’s trying to make! Looking at every liberal with suspicion! Never seen a point prove itself so fast
Well said Mr Abhinav !
When one cannot digest the truth, my dear friend, everything, even something as relevant as what has been written in this article, appears useless. Just take some time out and contemplate on what has been suggested by Shekar Gupta. I am sure that eventually you will agree with what he says. Suspicion of the other has now become second nature of a majority of Indians and this has been the priceless gift of the present regime.
Very well said Mr Gunvinder Singh.
The Modi government is slowly strangling democracy – aided and abetted by Indians. As the many comments supporting this descent into fascism show.
. Suspicion of the other has now become second nature of a majority of Indians
Because until now Indians, Hindus in particular, were exhibiting child like innocence, as per Indira Gandhi. Hindu majority until now was like elephant asleep and so called secularist Hindus & minorities were playing on it like rats . Now that elephant has awakened rats are terrified and so gone insane. We can see that from comments from people like Rasgolla, Kili Jolsiyar, Rohit Desai & you.
Earlier, you said Hindus like Nehru were like monkeys asleep.
Now, that the Hindus have woken up, the world is in awe !
i have said Hindus like Nehru were like monkeys asleep. I have said they were like monkeys and mischievous ones. Therefore they created this HUMPTY DUMPTY of secularism
Remember the rhyme. Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty dumpy had a great fall.
Rasgolla, write as much as you want, cry with blood tears but you and all those six hundred or so writers, petitioners etc. won’t be able to put together secular India, like all the kings’ men & horses could not put humpty dumpty together.
Is he targeting any political party particularly? I am more curious about your motives.
He is afraid to target a party : because they will bring IT raid, send hate mail, death threats or assasinate him. There is only one party that does that, and you know who that is.