Intolerance issue is one of the so oft used words nowadays, like SWAG and sapiosexual, simply bcos they think it's cool and know ghanta of its real meaning. People happily get into a debate, sorry..... start barking about it to anyone listening (and mostly those not interested in listening), thanks to Facebook. (I am aware three fingers are pointing towards myself right now, Get Lost)
Ofcourse it's the government's prerogative to defend itself under such charges. And along with most ministers, BJP MP, Kirron Kher too voraciously defended the government. Sadly on same old lines of "manufactured congress led intolerance" and where were all these writers when Kashmiri Pandits and Sikhs were massacred, during Emergency or when Alexander the Great invaded India. :/
All parties seem to memorize the history of failings of their opponents than their own Party's history. Nobody wants to stay in the present bcos that is too mainstream or simply bcos the past was so glorious or inglorious. Every point is countered with, "Yes, but what about 2002, what about 1984, what about Babri, what about Emergency?" Get your minds out of the past and stop using past atrocities to buttress your claim of legitimizing today's problem. Bcos my main question is "What about common sense?"
While murder of Kalburgi and Akhlaq are incidents cited as intolerance, the protests being led are mainly from writers returning awards of Sahitya Akademi en masse. The point of returning an award from an autonomous organisation, when the real source of grouse is with the government and not the Academi, makes the protest debatable about its efficacy. But the backlash from the government sounds like a Dolly Bindra rant to a nursery kid. Did you just realize you call them all intellectuals (you strangely call anyone against the government as so called intellectual) and then you present intellectuals as the bad guys. Whoaaa.... ever realised the whole government going against these award winning writers, people using pen and paper or maybe Macbook to write in regional languages, is being made to look like the bad guys. Kinda sounds like Bully Logic.
A little bit of better understanding why this protest is being done would help the government probably deal with it better than scream "Congress ka haath" in every direction. First of all, all throughout history, man has found various ways of peacefully protesting. Remember the Miss Call initiative during the Anna Hazare protests, pink panties being couriered to Pramod Muthalik or Japanese employees wearing a black ribbon at work instead of a hartal. And many more such innovative ones would keep springing in future. While returning awards is not new, a mass return of awards has found an echo now. That's how protests among common masses generally are. A trigger and spontaneous solidarity from fellow persons. Asking stupid questions like Why didn't you return in 90's and 1984 is showing ignorance to a basic human aspect of protest.
Imagine after 2019 in a make believe India, Lalu Prasad becomes the next PM. A year later he is exposed in a scandal. People are angry and in one rally, people take off their shirts in front of the media to "expose" the PM. It becomes viral and it starts happening every rally, every meeting, every session he goes to. Now imagine Lalu saying, this is a BJP conspiracy. Why didn't these people off their shirts in front of Modi when Akhlaq was murdered? Do you see my point of absurdity or still your skull is too thick?
There is another reason why the country is so politically opinionated and divided today. Something which did not exist in your favourite years of reference of 1992 and 1975 and so on. Allow me to put in some chronology for unneeded dramatic effect.
In 1991, the first Gulf War, CNN beamed the first war live to our televisions constantly. In 2002, this time it was our Indian Media giving 24/7 coverage of a major riots from ground zero. By 2010, twitter and facebook was a household name and smartphones magically appearing in almost everyone's hands. Now the real revolution began because anyone who is practically no one has an unnecessary opinion about something which is shared by millions to be responded by an equally biased millions with hundreds taking offense at the comments and another hundred started to rediscover their f's and b's in digital space.
This was just the beginning but if you remember 2011, just a year later, you will see the effects of everyone sharing an opinion from their comfort of their houses. We had in india the Mega rallies all over for Lokpal under Anna Hazare, the Occupy Wall street protests and most potent was the domino effect of Arab Spring.
So now 5 years into this new world order, everyone with a smartphone and a digital presence has a thing to say. It's power without responsibility. Absurd reactions instead of response. And it's only fuelled by TRP dependent Media. Your opposition will obviously milk it to their advantage. You have done it too, haven't you? But can you for once stand up and take charge as the government and not some scheming Komolika. Engage with the opponents and realise where is the fault in their perception. After all for the manufactured dissent that you feel is taking place, who can you blame for the manufactured silence over a burning issue?
Ofcourse it's the government's prerogative to defend itself under such charges. And along with most ministers, BJP MP, Kirron Kher too voraciously defended the government. Sadly on same old lines of "manufactured congress led intolerance" and where were all these writers when Kashmiri Pandits and Sikhs were massacred, during Emergency or when Alexander the Great invaded India. :/
All parties seem to memorize the history of failings of their opponents than their own Party's history. Nobody wants to stay in the present bcos that is too mainstream or simply bcos the past was so glorious or inglorious. Every point is countered with, "Yes, but what about 2002, what about 1984, what about Babri, what about Emergency?" Get your minds out of the past and stop using past atrocities to buttress your claim of legitimizing today's problem. Bcos my main question is "What about common sense?"
While murder of Kalburgi and Akhlaq are incidents cited as intolerance, the protests being led are mainly from writers returning awards of Sahitya Akademi en masse. The point of returning an award from an autonomous organisation, when the real source of grouse is with the government and not the Academi, makes the protest debatable about its efficacy. But the backlash from the government sounds like a Dolly Bindra rant to a nursery kid. Did you just realize you call them all intellectuals (you strangely call anyone against the government as so called intellectual) and then you present intellectuals as the bad guys. Whoaaa.... ever realised the whole government going against these award winning writers, people using pen and paper or maybe Macbook to write in regional languages, is being made to look like the bad guys. Kinda sounds like Bully Logic.
A little bit of better understanding why this protest is being done would help the government probably deal with it better than scream "Congress ka haath" in every direction. First of all, all throughout history, man has found various ways of peacefully protesting. Remember the Miss Call initiative during the Anna Hazare protests, pink panties being couriered to Pramod Muthalik or Japanese employees wearing a black ribbon at work instead of a hartal. And many more such innovative ones would keep springing in future. While returning awards is not new, a mass return of awards has found an echo now. That's how protests among common masses generally are. A trigger and spontaneous solidarity from fellow persons. Asking stupid questions like Why didn't you return in 90's and 1984 is showing ignorance to a basic human aspect of protest.
Imagine after 2019 in a make believe India, Lalu Prasad becomes the next PM. A year later he is exposed in a scandal. People are angry and in one rally, people take off their shirts in front of the media to "expose" the PM. It becomes viral and it starts happening every rally, every meeting, every session he goes to. Now imagine Lalu saying, this is a BJP conspiracy. Why didn't these people off their shirts in front of Modi when Akhlaq was murdered? Do you see my point of absurdity or still your skull is too thick?
There is another reason why the country is so politically opinionated and divided today. Something which did not exist in your favourite years of reference of 1992 and 1975 and so on. Allow me to put in some chronology for unneeded dramatic effect.
In 1991, the first Gulf War, CNN beamed the first war live to our televisions constantly. In 2002, this time it was our Indian Media giving 24/7 coverage of a major riots from ground zero. By 2010, twitter and facebook was a household name and smartphones magically appearing in almost everyone's hands. Now the real revolution began because anyone who is practically no one has an unnecessary opinion about something which is shared by millions to be responded by an equally biased millions with hundreds taking offense at the comments and another hundred started to rediscover their f's and b's in digital space.
This was just the beginning but if you remember 2011, just a year later, you will see the effects of everyone sharing an opinion from their comfort of their houses. We had in india the Mega rallies all over for Lokpal under Anna Hazare, the Occupy Wall street protests and most potent was the domino effect of Arab Spring.
So now 5 years into this new world order, everyone with a smartphone and a digital presence has a thing to say. It's power without responsibility. Absurd reactions instead of response. And it's only fuelled by TRP dependent Media. Your opposition will obviously milk it to their advantage. You have done it too, haven't you? But can you for once stand up and take charge as the government and not some scheming Komolika. Engage with the opponents and realise where is the fault in their perception. After all for the manufactured dissent that you feel is taking place, who can you blame for the manufactured silence over a burning issue?
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