Eminent lawyer Dosanjh takes aim at Chaddiwalahs and the Chaddi Supremo

by Guest Fri Mar 17, 2017 3:29 am

This is how it happens. He wins election after election. He rides that sense of perceived oppression and persecution of the majority by the minorities. He plays the nationalist card; the new nationalism never seen or experienced before in the land; the nationalism that could exclude and include at the same time; like now you have it and now you don’t. He holds his audiences in the palm of his hand, can make them dance to any tune, put them to sleep, reawaken them – never losing his hold over them even when he shuts down their banks and prohibits them from using their own money. He argues he was dishing out pain but it was all for their good. Proof or no proof of what if any good all of it was doing, people believed in him, even worshipped him – in large enough numbers for him to win the elections again.

He keeps winning elections, democratically. And he has a readymade army of volunteers. No, this army is not new. It has existed for a long time. It has never worked for a broader and inclusive nationalism. Its aim always has been the narrow nationalism of the majority. In another country, at another frightening time it was the nationalism of the race. In this case, it is the nationalism of the religion. Even against the alien rule of the white man this army didn’t rise because it perceived no threat to its religion at the time. It only existed for defending what it considered was an oppressed majority. The army is fully regimented. It now rules the streets, subdues the universities, suppresses dissent as sedition, and pursues to the end of the earth anyone that criticises their ‘God’ – the strong man and his word.

He is hailed as the new saviour. The army of volunteers, the RSS, was his alma mater. He was once a part of it. Some media in the free country now self-censor ‘for the good of the country’, ‘for peace’ and ‘harmony’ – I suppose the peace of the dead. Otherwise the Rashtriya SS is there to ‘restore peace and order’. The new India being built under the new redeemer needs the silence of consent; the dissonance of dissent ‘threatens’ the ‘peace’ and ‘integrity’ of the country. The once strong country with a deep democratic ethos is suddenly proclaimed by the Sangh to be fragile – unable to withstand any harsh criticism.

It is now considered harsh to call a spade a spade, to speak the truth as one sees it – in Mahatma Gandhi’s country. One has less and less and sometimes no right to one’s truth. Ascendant is the truth of the strong, particularly the strong man. His truth dominates all others, threatening many. Of course he has the Army of Truth working for him. That was how it once was in another country, in another era, not too long ago. It came to no good end.

Some say the fear of a bad end is at best unreal and at worst exaggerated. Hope wrestles fear. Here is hoping that hope wins. And India wins.

https://thewire.in/116740/this-is-how-it-happens/