Author: Gautam Mukherjee
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 9, 2008
India is its own worst enemy because it artificially
denies the sentiments and inclinations, if not the rights, of the majority
of the people in the name of a bizarre and unsustainable 'secularism'. This
has been so from the birth of this nation, 62 years ago, grown out of a desire
to differentiate ourselves from Islamic Pakistan, even though we often disguise
this arrogant perversity as robust democratic discourse. But can we afford
to go on denying our majoritarian birthright and debilitating our will? Can
we afford to ignore that those gaining from our stance are the enemies of
our nation?
India must realise that rescue lies in shifting
the entire polity sharp right, standing up and being counted as a Hindu-majority
country, with equal rights and protections for our many minority communities.
It may well feel akin to moving a very heavy oak conference table. But making
this move to the right, and truthfulness, would change the political tone,
tenor and content of debate, and signal, once and for all, that we have had
enough of being exploited by fringe elements.
We all realise, patently, that every Leftist
is not a Maoist, every rough-hewn citizen is not a gangster, and every Muslim
is not a terrorist. But we need to protect the one and destroy the other if
we, the rest of us, want to survive. And we need to get much better at telling
one from the other. And also, very importantly, we have to stop subverting
the interests of the majority continually in favour of one minority or the
other that seems committed not only to irritating brinkmanship but ultimately
to a dark and mysterious self-destructiveness.
We have too many permanent burning issues
and a much-bloodied landscape already. But with a shift to the right by the
demands of common sense led by the major political parties, we will benefit
the economy as well, combining pragmatic policies with an openly majoritarian
bias to replace an unsustainable hypocrisy.
Otherwise, in the face of political cant and
apathy, it is anarchy, fuelled by the frustration of both motivated and ordinary
people, that will inexorably take over. It is anarchy unchecked that animates
all agitations in India nowadays, more so than when VS Naipaul called it "a
million mutinies now," with the law and its enforcers missing in action.
And everywhere, whether it be a land acquisition
related protest or anti-industrialisation agitation at Nandigram or Singur
in West Bengal, Maoist mayhem in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, Gujjar
self-assertion in Rajasthan, anti-Dera agitation in Punjab and, of course,
the mother of all institutionalised ferment, that crown of thorns called Kashmir,
no one seems to be the least bit scared of retribution.
If only we were Chinese, we wouldn't have
a Jammu & Kashmir problem at all. If we were Chinese, we would set about
reneging on Article 370 even before the ink was dry on the document sanctioning
it. The Chinese do not allow previous commitments to get in the way of present
expediency, let alone their strategic interest. They have learned their lessons
well, from being at the receiving end of their own colonial experience replete
with horrendous European and Japanese exploitation and opium-addicted slavery.
The Chinese have also learned from the solemn treaty-breaking ways of the
imperial British Empire and, indeed, from the actions of the current king-of-the-world,
the unilateral and all-powerful United States of America.
So if we were Chinese, we would not hesitate
to put down the cynical and unruly politics of the Kashmir Valley, pressing
it into ruthless submission. We would have no compunctions about disabusing
the Valley politicians of their grandiose notions. We would engineer a massive
demographic rebalancing -- aided, abetted, and incentivised -- all over this
multi-religious and vast country. We would deliberately and swiftly change
the character and dynamics of Jammu & Kashmir once and for all. There
would be no Muslim-majority Kashmir any more than the Dalai Lama and his followers
can hope to see a Tibetan-majority Tibet.
If we were Chinese, we would set about putting
right historic wrongs. We would put all the shamefully displaced Pandits back
where they belong, restoring their homes, land and dignity to them. In addition,
we would extract reparations and indemnities for their trauma, suffering and
humiliation from their erstwhile friends and neighbours turned tormentors
and usurpers.
We would drive most, if not all, of the rabid
Islamist terrorists and their vociferous supporters across the border. We
would drive them into so-called 'Azad Kashmir' where they can savour life
on the other side, much closer to their friends, compatriots and benefactors.
We would let the rest of the Islamists --
appropriately reoriented to ground realities and reminded of their duties
as much as their rights from time to time -- participate in democratic discourse
and hold high office if elected at all by the reformed electorate and the
restorative magic of universal suffrage.
But being India, we continue to meekly accept,
even as we may be forced to reconsider by popular outrage as is being witnessed
in Jammu, the national humiliation enshrined as Article 370. An article and
covenant which enables a coterie of fifth columnist politicians to openly
favour Pakistani intervention and influence in the Kashmir Valley and and
allows terrorists to hold the Indian Government as well as the Indian nation
to ransom.
The infamous and unfair Article 370 is not
only a bizarre historical inheritance but also lies at the root of much that
is wrong with our national politics of appeasement. Article 370 was an act
of capitulation from the start, understandable in the aftermath of 1947 when
it was used to assuage the apprehensions of a Muslim-majority province in
the backdrop of the partition. But why do we uphold it today? Where were such
niceties when we stripped the princes of their titles, land and privy purses,
and nationalised banks at will?
Indeed, in the face of Government paralysis
and endemic impotence on issues concerning Kashmir, it is the people of Jammu
who are showing the country the way forward. They are likely to get their
way on Amarnath sooner or later and signal to all of us that the time has
come to stop taking for granted the docile support of the majority community
in the face of continuous injustice.