In India's religiously polarised politics, the space for Nasseruddin Shahs of the world is ever shrinking.
The
script is now nauseatingly familiar. A prominent public figure
expresses his disquiet about the growing intolerance in India. All
hell immediately breaks loose. Polite commentary labels him a
Congress
stooge or challenges him to prove his patriotism equating Modi with
the idea of Indian nationhood; the excitable immediately warn of that
well trodden threat of shipping him across the western borders.
True
to form, India’s cacophony of news channels organised platitudinous
debates where all extremist voices were amplified. One particularly
enterprising network even managed to assemble members of Mr.
Nasseruddin Shah’s extended family as they have some
special insight on his comments!
Lost
amidst this din is the actual import of the original comments. There
is nothing which Mr. Shah said which was particularly exceptional or
surprising. Let’s look at the extant case. A mob assembled and led
by local Bajrang Dal sympathisers—euphemistically known as the
sword arm of the ruling BJP—-ambushed a police officer in
Bulandshahar.
Three weeks later, under the watch of a chief minister
touted by BJP sympathisers as 'no nonsense' and tough on crime, the
prime accused have still managed to evade arrest. The UP police which
has been accused of stage managing encounters appears helpless in
catching those credibly accused of killing one of their own. The
rabble rousing UP chief minister has made it amply clear to anyone
paying attention that he views the cow slaughter which allegedly
provoked the incident as a much higher priority. The local BJP
leaders including elected MLAs have been even more forthright:
repeatedly equating the life of a cow with that of human life. And
despite all attempts at obfuscation by the usual suspects, there is
little doubt that this is part of a larger pattern: the cow which is
venerated by large sections of the Hindu population has been
cynically used to encourage religious cleavages and often to openly
justify mob violence.
Therefore,
Mr. Shah is entirely correct in his argument that a cow is being
placed at a higher pedestal than that of a slain police officer. That
this otherwise anodyne point is somehow controversial vividly
illustrates the distance India has traveled in the last few years.
The only amusing aspect of this entire sordid tale is the immense
sensitivity of those who have encouraged this climate of insouciance
and impunity to any criticism of the natural denouement of their
rhetoric and actions.
But
here’s what makes Mr. Shah a tremendously tragic figure in Modi’s
India. He is not only being criticised and ridiculed by one aspect of
the political spectrum but the opposite as well.
His
simple argument that his children have had no particular religious
education in a very liberal household is taken as a convenient
rejection of his faith to curry favor with the prevailing
majoritarian climate. Mr. Shah’s heartfelt lament that his
children, if accosted by a murderous mob, would be hard pressed to
reveal their religion is dismissed as a convenient fig leaf and not a
genuine discomfort with faith itself.
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