During the past month or so countless speeches have been delivered in India by various leaders from various political parties. 2014 general elections for Lok Sabha are still going on, and many political parties are engaged in a fierce political battle to win seats in the lower house of the Indian parliament. Mostly these political speeches are full of emotional calls, crude jokes, and personal remarks, rarely they contain anything substantial or useful. The main aim of these speeches is to highlight their party's agenda, engage the audience, and challenge them emotionally to vote for their party. Even though these speeches don't contain much authentic data and are normally full of impossible promises they influence voters. Many people get inspired after listening to them, and it can also mobilize the masses if required. That is why any hate speech or inflammatory speech is very dangerous, because like other inspirational speeches that can have a positive influence these speeches can have a negative impact on people. It doesn't matter who is delivering that speech and where it is delivered, such speeches can instigate feelings of hatred among people against certain castes, religions, genders, communities, or groups. This feeling of hatred then can manifest in some ugly forms like communal tension, social boycotts, or even communal riots killing innocent people.
I wrote a blog post somewhat related topic after that infamous hate speech by MIM (Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi. BJP leader Amit Shah and SP leader Azam Khan have been already warned for the hateful remarks they made during election campaign speeches, note these are some of the top national leaders. Recently few more similar instances happened, surprisingly most people involved in these incidents were related to BJP or its allies. In one recent incident, Mr. Praveen Togadia from VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) talked with some groups about how to get rid of Muslim neighbors, the content of his speech was disgusting and full of hatred towards Muslims. This was not the first time he delivered such hateful speech, he is a serial offender in this area and so far no action has been taken against him in any case. Another instance was when Giriraj Singh, BJP's candidate from Bihar, told all Modi opponents to leave India and go to Pakistan. In another instance, Saharanpur Congress candidate Imran Masood threatened to kill the Bharatiya Janata Party's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The most recent one that I saw was the more serious incident where in the presence of Mr. Narendra Modi Shiv Sena leader Mr. Ramdas Kadam threatened revenge against Muslims and also said that Modi would destroy Pakistan within six months of assuming power. All these speeches have something in common, a feeling of hatred towards some community or person, such a deep hatred that people are willing to go to any extent to attack that person or group. This is not a democracy but fascism, in a democracy, people criticize each other, argue, and debate but don't threaten to kill each other just because of differences of opinion. Another common thing among all these incidents is that none of these people faced any action from their own party for making such statements. Rather, they became more popular and prominent faces in their respective parties. There is no strong deterrent that can stop them from making such statements or using such tactics. Freedom of expression should not be curbed under any situation, all these people have the right to express their opinions, and it's up to voters to respond to such statements. Obnoxious statements like these should be challenged as shutting these people up is not an option. Freedom of expression comes at a cost but communal violence is not that cost. People need to decide if they want such people to represent them in the assembly or parliament. As long as voters vote for such people even after delivering such speeches they will use such dirty tactics to achieve their goals.
Words like "secular" and "communal" are used very frequently and casually in Indian politics. Every party claims to be secular and accuses its opponent of being communal. BJP, Congress, or any other regional party (like BSP, SP) all play this game with each other. They all try to fool voters by playing this game. AAP is a new entrant in this field and it will be too soon to say anything about them in this area, so I will wait and watch before making any conclusions about them. According to me, there is no real secular political party in India, some are less communal than others, that's the difference, they all use equations of caste or religion at their own convenience. Some even don't hesitate to use means of communal violence to achieve their political goals which is more dangerous. In fact, I don't even expect any party to be completely secular. In a society like India where religion plays such an important role in people's lives, it is practically impossible to keep religion and politics completely separate. But to spread feelings of hate and animosity between different groups purposely, and create division among people for political benefit is a dangerous exercise. Communal tension, frequent riots, rampant gender discrimination, casteism, and regionalism, are the results of such divisive politics. Because of a lack of awareness about these things political parties make use of these ugly tricks to fool people. There can be several other reasons for this lack of awareness about this divide-and-rule policy, after all, the British used a similar policy to rule India for many years. Because of the proven track record of divide and rule policy in India, these political parties can't avoid the temptation of using it for their own political gains. It is for people to recognize this trap and avoid it. Only voters can diffuse this deadly weapon, these parties are not going to stop on their own.
Hate speeches are as dangerous hateful acts, they deserve strong condemnation and people should demand answers from respective political parties for such statements. We cannot ignore these things anymore, these things have already done enough damage to our society, and now the time has come to put an end to such divisive politics. This type of politics already resulted in the division of our country in the past, if we can't stop it now then we don't know what problems it might create in the future. Politics should be based on issues and topics related to development and governance, it should not be based on hate and revenge. Religion should not be mixed with politics as much as possible, and hate speeches should not be encouraged at any cost. Communal politics and hate speeches are different sides of the same coin and they should not have any place in civilized political discourse. I hope all political parties and voters understand the danger that lies behind the use of such tactics and behave accordingly. The time has come to change the direction of political discourse in India and only we the people of this country can do it. Let's hope we recognize this and act responsibly before it's too late.
Words like "secular" and "communal" are used very frequently and casually in Indian politics. Every party claims to be secular and accuses its opponent of being communal. BJP, Congress, or any other regional party (like BSP, SP) all play this game with each other. They all try to fool voters by playing this game. AAP is a new entrant in this field and it will be too soon to say anything about them in this area, so I will wait and watch before making any conclusions about them. According to me, there is no real secular political party in India, some are less communal than others, that's the difference, they all use equations of caste or religion at their own convenience. Some even don't hesitate to use means of communal violence to achieve their political goals which is more dangerous. In fact, I don't even expect any party to be completely secular. In a society like India where religion plays such an important role in people's lives, it is practically impossible to keep religion and politics completely separate. But to spread feelings of hate and animosity between different groups purposely, and create division among people for political benefit is a dangerous exercise. Communal tension, frequent riots, rampant gender discrimination, casteism, and regionalism, are the results of such divisive politics. Because of a lack of awareness about these things political parties make use of these ugly tricks to fool people. There can be several other reasons for this lack of awareness about this divide-and-rule policy, after all, the British used a similar policy to rule India for many years. Because of the proven track record of divide and rule policy in India, these political parties can't avoid the temptation of using it for their own political gains. It is for people to recognize this trap and avoid it. Only voters can diffuse this deadly weapon, these parties are not going to stop on their own.
Hate speeches are as dangerous hateful acts, they deserve strong condemnation and people should demand answers from respective political parties for such statements. We cannot ignore these things anymore, these things have already done enough damage to our society, and now the time has come to put an end to such divisive politics. This type of politics already resulted in the division of our country in the past, if we can't stop it now then we don't know what problems it might create in the future. Politics should be based on issues and topics related to development and governance, it should not be based on hate and revenge. Religion should not be mixed with politics as much as possible, and hate speeches should not be encouraged at any cost. Communal politics and hate speeches are different sides of the same coin and they should not have any place in civilized political discourse. I hope all political parties and voters understand the danger that lies behind the use of such tactics and behave accordingly. The time has come to change the direction of political discourse in India and only we the people of this country can do it. Let's hope we recognize this and act responsibly before it's too late.
Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.
[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]
Links:
No comments:
Post a Comment