Side effects of Intellectual Depravity

It is not the brutality of bad people, but the silence of the good ones, that breaks a society. Though repeated many times by many people in various versions, it appears the quote has passed its expiry date. Or it may need an upgrade. With silence, there shall be addition of hypocrisy. Everyone from politicians to media to online ventilators (this is the term I coined to call those people, who vent their frustration online behind various masks over their identity) tried hard to get their two moments of fame from the death of Akhlaq, nobody bothers to correct the course of current state of rotten politics over religion or caste, for that matter.

In legal language, this would be called homicide, the generic term being murder - nothing more and nothing else. We behave like we are shocked: all news anchors, reporters, newspaper readers, common citizens irrespective of their religion, and politicians as well. Somehow, as a society or as audience, we liked to get shocked. We get shocked at many things. In fact, every news that doesn't have shock value can never generate interest in readers or viewers.

I remember reading newspapers as a child, some thirty years ago, wherein the religion of the riots victim was not mentioned. May be even without giving body count of Hindus and Muslims, they could sell their newspapers. Probably marketing skills of current set of media are poor and they heavily depend on sensational headlines. Why we always see the adjectives for victims classifying them into a sort of class that was preyed upon? We see, Muslim minority was killed, Dalit elder was killed. Yes, I do agree that the victims do have a religion or caste. But, what purpose it serves to denote every victim by their caste or religion, apart from dividing the society on these very lines that the media professes they despise? Victims are Victims and Culprits are Culprits!

If at all there is some law implementing machinery in the country, it should be working overtime to punish the culprits, irrespective of their associations. If the law cannot be implemented in letter and spirit, it is the country that has failed; the culprits and their masters go on to taste victory on such a system. Now, it is not uncommon for many an esteemed people to return the awards they received from the government, whenever they feel the government failed in something. In a functioning democracy, the government is an easy target.

Yes, this single factor has the best utility as it gives chance to one and all to vent their frustration. So in democracies, neither coups nor uprisings do happen on a large scale. However, in these days of sycophancy, most of the awards are questioned as in the case of Nayantara Sehgal. First, the beloved aunt was awarded by her nephew, raising questions about her qualifications to the award. Second, the same nephew was the only prime minister in the history of India to make the most insensitive remark on one of the largest genocides happened post-independence - the killing of Sikhs. I wonder what happened to her conscience when Rajiv Gandhi declared killing three thousand Sikhs in revenge to his mother's assassination - as incidental. Time and again it was the policy of the Congress to sow the seeds of divergence that often matured into movements of sedition. Thou shall reap what you sow.

In the nearly half century rule of her relatives, when the forest dwellers of India were tortured and gave birth to naxalism that encompassed entire central India, where has her conscience gone? Why she could not prevent the state atrocities against those living in forests? Why she chose to look other way, when her uncle's policy created the largest fighting place on earth in the form of Kashmir. Where was her conscience when Rajiv Gandhi amended constitution to devoid divorcing rights provided to Muslim women by the court of law? To appease Hindus, in the same go, he opened the locks of the shrine that was closed forty years earlier, opening the Pandora's box that gave rise to situations that the country is still grappling with. Why she was silent at that time? There was no BJP before Rajiv Gandhi. They got only two seats in the parliament while a regional outfit of two years, Telugu Desam Party was the largest opposition with 36 members. Whose policy failures have gave lifeline to the party that was almost non-existent in Indian polity? Selective decries by self-declared intellectuals are no better than the shrilling voices of fundamentalists.

This is the reason why the current generation of Hindus and Muslims are polarised today more than ever before, as none of the commentators are purely impartial. They simply don’t have credibility. Nearing ninety, if she chooses to play politics at this age, it is really a pity because this would amount to her acceptance of her mistake for being silent in earlier days, when she could really help change the situation. Now, all that she could achieve is reprisal from one and all for trying to achieve her two days fame in the twilight of her life. Now, inspired by her, it appears many an academy awardees have returned their mementos. Seems the award has some shelf life and is being returned after expiry date. And the academy chairman declares that Sahitya Academy is an independent body and has nothing to do with the Government. Pray god to give other intellectuals to wake up in time.

Post script:

On the other hand, ex-Paki minister writes a book claiming they are not hawks and market in India. Self claimed patriatic political parties disrupt the book launch and threw ink on the organiser. I wonder, why the poor organiser gets coated and not the hypocrite writer himself, if at all to be painted in ink. Probably, we have only paper tigers, who can prey on rabbits! By the way, where were these tigers when the terrorists sent by the DOVE nation were killing innocent people at the facade of Mumbai? Sleeping comfortably and watching cricket planning how to dig holes

By Kannan

The writer has authored a book. He can be reached at [email protected]