[Poem] Fog of fascism has arrived in India. Brace for a long winter

• Just when you were mocking Shilpa Shetty
• for having an opinion on Animal Farm
• without reading it,
• your Supreme Court has turned the joke on you.
• It has made the playing of the national anthem mandatory.
• In theatres.
• And you must rise.
• To salute the flag, fluttering on the screen.
• (Before Ramdev sells his toothpaste to you)
• Stand you must for the anthem.
• The long bank and ATM lines must have prepared you for it.
• It's been three weeks now, after all.
• It was an order
• that stopped short of making
• the RSS hands-on-chest salute mandatory.
• We will come to that later, said the court.
• Hang on.
• Most parts of India today
• woke up to the season's first fog.
• A few hours later, we realised
• it was the fog of fascism.
• It might be a long winter ahead.
• So, grab your popcorn.
• The macabre theatre of fascism is about to begin.
• And it's no comedy.
• Even those who think
• they will survive the grandstanding
• won't.
• There are no survivors in fascism. Only history.
• As the play unfolds, here's a bigger tragedy:
• there is no space outside fascism.
• They first owned your religion.
• You did not flinch.
• They became stronger.
• And defiant.
• They killed, raped, burnt,polarised, pulverised, repeated.
• With impunity. In your name.
• You did not flinch.
• You did not say: "not in my name".
• They grew emboldened,
• moved more fiercely.
• They occupied the country.
• And the popular imagination.
• Helped by dreamweavers on television.
• You felt something was wrong.
• You flinched a bit.
• In a meek effort to raise the voice. Or hand.
• But that would make me an anti-national, you feared.
• Your wisdom prevailed. You chose silence.
• And they loved it. And you.
• And promised more nightmares.
• Disguised as dreams.
• Stop mocking Shilpa Shetty
• We are all in the farm.

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