Mob lynchings are becoming so commonplace that they don’t attract serious media attention any longer.Sharmistha MukherjeeThe writer is president of the Delhi Pradesh Mahila Congress and an AICC national media panellist. Other than giving TV news channels a hot topic of discussion for a few hours, it did not create much of an uproar, and was dismissed by many as dastardly remarks by some fringe elements. First, the credentials of those who adhere to secular values are questioned, calling them “pseudo-seculars”; and then disparaged as “sickular”, now not only is secularism being trashed openly, but it’s almost become a term of abuse.
Yogi Adityanath was once seen as a “fringe” leader, but today he is the chief minister of India’s most populated state. People have been put behind bars for comments far less offensive.India seems to be going through a phase of the boiling frog syndrome.The scary part of this narrative is that the peripheral is gradually being merged into the mainstream. People who were never interested in “politics” earlier have started speaking out. One of the worst possible consequences of communal politics is that it desensitises, and ultimately dehumanises, people.
The killing of rationalists, questioning the credibility of each member of “award wapasi” protests, suppressing independent voices of dissent and targeting students who in any society are usually the most rebellious, blatantly communal and poisonous comments by leaders of fringe Hindutva groups as well as some elected ruling party members, all seem to be becoming a part of China wholesale Composite Material the everyday reality of “New India”. In the Padmavati row, for instance, a lady from Rajasthan, herself a Rajput, emphatically spoke out against the movement and the recourse to violence by the Karni Sena, clearly declaring that the Karni Sena doesn’t represent the sentiments of all Rajputs. The vicious atmosphere of hate blinds some people to such an extent that reason and perspective becomes the first casualty. That the people of India are not frogs, they are human and humane. This is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to recognise or react to threats that arise gradually.
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