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Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Eyes Right

Eyes Right


India is her own worst enemy because she artificially denies the sentiments and inclinations, if not the rights, of the majority of her people in the name of a bizarre and unsustainable secularism. This has been so from the birth of this nation, 62 years ago, grown out of a desire to differentiate ourselves from Islamic Pakistan, even though we often disguise this arrogant perversity under the guise of robust democratic discourse. But can we afford to go on denying our majoritarian birthright and debilitating our will, because the only ones gaining from our stance are the enemies of the nation?

India must realise, that rescue lies in shifting the entire polity sharp right, standing up and being counted as a Hindu majority country with equal rights and protections for our many minorities. It may well feel akin to moving a very heavy oak conference table. But, making this move to the right, and truthfulness, would change the political tone, tenor and content of debate, and signal, once and for all, that we have had enough of being exploited by fringe elements.

We all realise, patently, every Leftist is not a Maoist, every rough-hewn citizen is not a gangster, and every Muslim is not a Terrorist. But we need to protect the one and destroy the other, if we, the rest of us, want to survive. And we need to get much better at telling one from the other. And also, very importantly, we have to stop subverting the interests of the majority continually in favour of one minority or the other that seem committed, not only to irritating brinkmanship, but, ultimately, to a dark and mysterious self destructiveness.

We have too many permanent burning issues and a much bloodied landscape already. But, with a shift to the right by the demands of common sense, led by the major political parties, we will benefit the economy as well, combining pragmatic policies with an openly majoritarian bias to replace an unsustainable hypocrisy.

Otherwise, in the face of political cant and apathy, it is anarchy, fuelled by the frustration of both motivated and ordinary people, that is inexorably taking over. It is anarchy unchecked that animates all agitations in India nowadays, more so than when VS Naipaul called it “a million mutinies now”; with the law and its enforcers missing in action.

And everywhere, whether it be a land acquisition related or anti-industrialisation agitation at Singur or Nandigram in West Bengal; Maoist mayhem in Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa; Gujjar self-assertion in Rajasthan, anti-Dera agitation in Punjab, and of course, the mother of all institutionalised ferment, that crown of thorns called Kashmir; no one seems to be the least bit scared of retribution.

If only we were Chinese, we wouldn’t have a Kashmir problem at all. If we were Chinese, we would set about reneging on Article 370 before the ink was dry on the document sanctioning it. The Chinese do not allow previous commitments to get in the way of present expediency, let alone their strategic interest. They have learned their lessons well, from being at the receiving end of their own colonial experience replete with horrendous European and Japanese exploitation and opium addicted slavery. The Chinese have also learned from the solemn treaty-breaking ways of the imperial British Empire, and indeed, the actions of the current king-of-the-world, the unilateral and all powerful United States of America.

So if we were Chinese, we would not hesitate to put down the cynical and unruly politics of the Kashmir Valley, pressing it into ruthless submission. We would have no compunctions about disabusing the Valley politicians of their grandiose notions. We would engineer a massive demographic rebalancing, aided, abetted, and incentivised, all over this multi-religious and vast country. We would deliberately and swiftly change the character and dynamics of Kashmir once and for all. There would be no Muslim majority Kashmir anymore than the Dalai Lama and his followers can hope to see a Tibetan majority Tibet going forward.

If we were Chinese, we would set about setting historic wrongs to rights. We would put all the shamefully displaced Pandits back where they belonged, restoring their homes, lands and dignity to them. In addition, we would extract reparations and indemnities for their trauma, suffering and humiliation from their erstwhile friends and neighbours turned usurpers.

We would drive out most, if not all of the rabid Islamic terrorists, and their vociferous supporters across the border. We would drive them into so-called “Azad Kashmir”, where they can savour life on the other side, much closer to their friends, compatriots and benefactors there.

We would let the rest of the Islamists, appropriately reoriented to ground realities, reminded of their duties, as much as their rights, from time to time, to participate in democratic discourse, and hold high office if elected at all by the reformed electorate and the restorative magic of universal suffrage.

But being India, we still allow, even as we may be forced to reconsider, by popular outrage and uprising, a particular dinosaur cum national humiliation enshrined as Article 370. An article and covenant which enables a coterie of fifth-column politicians, openly in favour of Pakistani intervention and influence in the Valley, and veiled terrorists with dangerously high levels of influence, to hold the Indian government as well as the Indian nation to ransom.

The infamous and unfair Article 370 is not only a bizarre historical inheritance today but also at the root of much that is wrong with our national politics of appeasement. Article 370 was an act of capitulation from the start, understandable in the aftermath of 1947, when it was used to assuage the apprehensions of a Muslim majority province in the backdrop of the Partition, but why do we uphold it today? Where were such niceties when we stripped the princes of their titles, lands and privy purses and nationalised banks at will?

Indeed in the face of government paralysis and endemic impotence on issues concerning Kashmir, it is the people of Jammu that are showing the country the way forward. They are likely to get their way on Amarnath soon enough and signal to all of us that the time has come to stop taking the docile support of the majority community in the face of continuous injustice, for granted.

(1,050 words)

Gautam Mukherjee
6th August 2008

In print in The Pioneer EDIT Page Leader as "Assert India's Hindu identity" and online at www.dailypioneer.com on Saturday August 09, 2008

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