On the heels of Congress President Mallikarjun Khadge’s ‘Rakshas’ remark, Tamil Nadu Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin has declared that ‘Sanatan Dharma’ needs to be eradicated like dengue and malaria. It comes as no real surprise as Stalin’s party, the DMK, is inspired by a racist and fascist ideology that has always had genocidal intentions against Hindus, particularly the Brahmins. However, both, Kharge and Stalin hold positions under an oath to uphold the Indian Constitution and for them to extend political ambition to the level of demonising and targeting entire communities is a betrayal of that responsibility. And, the irony is that the BJP is accused of being a fascist organisation!
There is a deafening silence among most of India’s intellectual class, which otherwise is so vocal on the human and constitutional rights of even convicted murderers and terrorists. Had a politician, particularly one belonging to the BJP, said something similar about any other religion or community, the protests emanating would have been so loud that the reverberations would have been felt as far away as Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford and Harvard!
Some may claim that this is just political rhetoric, but they must not forget the DMK’s record in Tamil Nadu of systematically targeting ‘Sanatanis’ ever since they identified with the ‘Dravidian versus Aryan’ theory formulated at a time when race was very much an accepted basis for superiority and discrimination in the West. Politics in Tamil Nadu since Independence has remained stuck in this morass.
Should not there be provisions in the law with enough clarity to ensure politics does not spread into such forbidden and dangerous areas? Stalin has declared he stands by his statement and is willing to face any legal challenge. This confidence is obviously based on the fact that any judicial verdict will take years to come, by which time the political goals will have been achieved. Would people want that the failure to obtain legal redress for such provocations should make ‘Sanatanis’ take to direct action of the kind seen in response to ‘blasphemy’ in many countries across the world? Even otherwise, the concept of free speech should not be allowed to be tarnished in this fashion. Even if one is disillusioned with one’s ancestral belief system, one should move forward in a positive manner to acquire a higher spiritual dimension, not get caught up in some retributive, self-perpetuating cycle that actually diminishes one’s identity. That’s not being Indian.
