The Intolerance Joke: Intellectuals protesting lynchings under PM Modi are being amazingly selective
They are back — and how. After scores of writers returned their awards, mostly Sahitya Academy Awards, in 2015, protesting 'growing intolerance', now another set of 'eminent citizens' has sparked off Intolerance 2.0.
Forty-nine personalities, often referred to as 'intellectuals', signed a four-page letter sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling out what they believe is 'intolerance'.
The move has sparked off a huge political debate.
The 2015 'Award Wapsi' took place in the backdrop of the Dadri lynching where 52-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq was allegedly lynched by a mob on suspicion of storing beef in his refrigerator. But in 2019, there was no immediate spark — at least, there's no specific mention in this letter. Instead, it calls 'Jai Shri Ram' a 'war cry' and delves into statistics accusing India of being tolerant towards 'religious identity-based hate crimes'. It also expresses opposition to being branded as 'anti-national' or 'urban Naxal'.
But this show of dissent looks dubious to my mind for more reasons than one.
Selective outrage
While any religion-based attacks on any Indian should draw the strongest outrage possible, that didn't seem to have happened with these 49 intellectuals — at least, most of them. Tabrez Ansari was caught in June while allegedly stealing, and was beaten to death. The FIR mentions he was forced to chant 'Jai Shri Ram'. But for every Tabrez Ansari, there's a Bharat Yadav too — 15 men armed with pistols and rods came to beat Bharat to death near his lassi shop in Mathura, after they were asked to pay, reported The New Indian Express. The prime accused in the case was reportedly a Mohammad Hanif. The family of the victim was reportedly also called 'infidel'.
Both Tabrez and Bharat were wronged.
But the letter only talks about "lynchings of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities".
Bharat Yadav clearly doesn't fall in any of these categories.
Does that make his killing any less inhuman than the one of Tabrez, who too was horribly wronged?
This is just one example of the many that can be offered that doesn't suit the popular narrative of the Intolerance 2.0 brigade — and hence, is conveniently ignored. In June this year, people from the minority community reportedly attacked a temple in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, objecting to the use of loud speakers, as reported by Amar Ujala.
According to the publication, the priest was also reportedly beaten up, following which five men — all minority community members — were arrested by the police.
In July this year, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker was allegedly attacked in Aligarh. He was reportedly attacked with a burning piece of wood taken from a tandoor after he objected to abuses hurled at him while crossing the Shishe Wali Mosque in Aligarh, reported Patrika. Very recently, a video of a temple in Delhi being ransacked and its deities broken went viral.
The list goes on.
This is not to suggest the victimhood of one religion but to point out the selective outrage by these 49 'intellectuals'.
The narrative that was sought to be pictured was that India is under a tremendous attack of majoritarianism.
The reality is quite far from it.
Jai Shri Ram — a 'provocative war-cry'?
Are you serious?!
The letter attempted to delegitimise a religious chant. True, there have been incidents, and quite shocking indeed, where people from minorities were apparently forced to chant a slogan that is deeply Hindu. But that's not a phenomenon — that's an aberration. And for every incident where a Tabrez was forced to chant 'Jai Shri Ram', there's another incident of a Shekhar and Basant being forced to chant religious slogans intrinsic to Islam.
The point is that if Jai Shri Ram is a 'provocative war cry' that takes us to the 'Middle Ages', then so are other religious slogans that are used to intimidate.
In actuality, none are. All are religious slogans, close to millions of Hindus and Muslims respectively, abused by a miniscule section where the law of the land needs to be enforced unsparingly on all. But to suggest that the PM must step in only to stop 'Jai Shri Ram' being used as a 'war cry' is not only bizarre — it is drenched in hypocrisy.
More than 60% signatories are Bengalis
It is quite a coincidence to have at least 30 of the 49 signatories being Bengali — a whopping 61%. Not to say they are being used for political purposes, but in a high-stakes Bengal, where the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is losing its grip and the BJP has tasted success in the recent Lok Sabha election, either party can go to any length in the pursuit of power.
Moreover, some of the signatories have interesting affiliations. Aparna Sen, one of the signatories, for instance, has been a vocal supporter of Mamata Banerjee during the Nandigram-Singur days. Later, after the Modi government came to power, she was reportedly questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in relation to the Saradha chit fund scam. She was reportedly the editor of a magazine owned by the Saradha group.
Another signatory, Binayak Sen, was convicted of sedition by a local court, later upheld by the Chhattisgarh High Court. He is out on bail granted by the Supreme Court.
Another signatory, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, has been a known Modi baiter. In the run-up to the 2019 General Election, he was one of a group that reportedly urged people of this country to vote out the BJP. He also went on to state, "Koi bhi gaali aaj search kar ke dekh lo Twitter pe, dene waale jyadatar chowkidar hi niklenge". 'Chowkidar' was a prefix added by millions of BJP supporters to their Twitter names when PM Modi did the same in protest against the corruption accusations levelled at him by Rahul Gandhi.
Not just the 49 flag bearers of such 'tolerance', but 1.25 billion Indians enjoy the right to freedom of expression and dissent, regardless of their caste, creed, religion, region or physical ability. But the 49 have the privilege to be the voice of the voiceless. In portraying a false narrative based on a one-sided truth, they have, as I see it, betrayed the voiceless whose voice they sought to become.
Yes, India has its share of problems and this needs to learn to deal with it. Yes, the Modi government needs to come down heavily on each perpetrator, every time a Tabrez Ansari or Bharat Yadav are wronged. But to say that these problems mushroomed after May 23, 2019, or May 14, 2014 is preposterous.
Both India and Indians can see through the failed attempt to create 'Intolerance 2.0' that isn't.