Left-liberals sowed the wind; the harvest is the whirlwind.
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]O[/dropcap]ver five score former Indian Administrative Service & Indian Police Service officers writing an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on cow vigilantism is yet another instance of growing consternation over the violence perpetrated by saffron cowboys.
There have been several protests, including the widely-publicized Not In My Name last week, that have urged the government to check violence against Muslims. The Prime Minister has responded in earnest, warning the vigilantes not to take “law in their hands in the name of protection of cows.” But he did the same in August last year—with little perceptible effect. It is anybody’s guess as to what would be the result of his recent warning. At the heart of the matter, however, is something deeper than the inability or unwillingness of the law-enforcement agencies: zealotry has replaced reason with the consequence that disputes are settled using fists rather than arguments.
Intellectuals and public figures, like the instant lot of retired top officials, are quick to point fingers at the Sangh Parivar and other Hindutva groups of being fanatical, fascistic, intolerant, etc. But who, pray, did start this game? Who drew the first blood? And, in the process, perverted public discourse?
Who created the binaries of progressive bourgeois, secular-communal, etc.? Who portrayed the objectors of reservation policy as ‘elitist,’ ‘Brahmanical,’ anti-poor, anti-Dalit, etc.? Who began to label creative authors as ‘progressive’ and ‘bourgeois’? Who created the secular-communal gulf, which was responsible for over half-a-century rule of the Congress despite its gross incompetence and shameless corruption? For anybody allying with the Hindutva parties was dubbed as communal, despite the well-acknowledged fact that without the BJP (and earlier the Bharatiya Jana Sangh) it is was impossible to dethrone the grand old party. Even socialists like Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayaprakash Narain were not spared.
Those who are worried about intolerance today were the most intolerant bullies in their heyday.
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]I[/dropcap]ntolerant, and self-righteous, and supercilious, and tyrannical. Any writer, historian, journalist, or artist not in sync with the progressive canon was marginalized, maligned, and demonized.
The mindset is still the same despite the Left’s decline. As they say in Hindi, rassi jal gayi par bal naheen gaya.
Such was the terror of Left-liberal dogmas and doctrines that any view at variance with the accepted canon was superciliously dismissed as ‘communal’ and ‘reactionary.’ The people holding such views were discriminated against; often, they faded into oblivion.
For instance, there was the great economist B.R. Shenoy. In 1955, he was the only member on the committee of economists to have the brilliance and courage to submit a note of dissent against Jawaharlal Nehru’s ambitious Second Five-Year Plan which aimed at ‘heavy industrialization.”
Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman said, “Prof. B.R. Shenoy was a great man who had the economic understanding to recognize the defects of current planning in India, and what was even rarer, the courage to state his views openly and without equivocation. Rarely does such a man bless our society.” But Shenoy was found of no use in India; only a handful of people, the partisans of liberty, know about him, while snake oil salesmen like Amartya Sen are lauded.
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]S[/dropcap]ubramanian Swamy’s story is not much different. A brilliant economist, who had the distinction of co-authoring a paper with the legendary Paul Samuelson, he suffered the slings and arrows flung at him by the entrenched gang of pinkish economists; they did their best to suppress, as also did the Left-leaning Indira Gandhi.
There have also been excellent historians like K.S. Lal. They, too, have been maligned and demonized for their critical views on Islam and Muslim rule in India. There was a time when a simple word could, and did, destroy reputations built over decades of learning and hard work—communalism. Even the celebrated Jadunath Sarkar was not spared.
There was a time when a simple word could, and did, destroy reputations built over decades of learning and hard work—communalism.
Then there was the prominent journalist and author Arun Shourie. All his life, he crusaded against corruption and other evils. He wrote extensively, meticulously exposing the lies and duplicity of Left-leaning scholars. Yet, he was always dismissed as a communal intellectual.
Many other Right-leaning authors were also sidelined, defamed, and dismissed by using the weapon of mass deception—communalism. The Left-liberal establishment was self-righteous, arrogant, and malicious; it saw nothing wrong in rejecting any other viewpoint different from its own; it never reasoned with its ideological opponents. In fact, in their blind antipathy towards anything Hindu or Rightwing, the parlor pinks, tenured professors, and media Brahmins diminished the importance of thinking people in the saffron camp. So, whether it was the Ram Temple issue or triple talaq, it was the stormtrooper who made the difference. Now, it is the gau-rakshak (cow-protector) who calls the shots.
Left-liberals sowed the wind; the harvest is the whirlwind.
Note:
1. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
- Liberty Is Penalized, Violence Goes Untouched - December 21, 2019
- Rahul’s Howdy bloomer - September 22, 2019
- Chidambaram’s hypocrisy - August 22, 2019
I think the article is well-conceived and well-written. Left-liberal establishment is not an individual to name.
Not very well reasoned article.Author left it half way.Not very convincing.
Not impressed by this article. The author brings out the stalwarts of hindutva who were wronged- which is a good thing. But he glaringly fails to name the names who took the lead in bringing them down – unforgivable in my view. Using the words like “establishment ” and “storm troopers ” does not help. If you can’t or don’t identify the enemies of the nation, no less, you can’t win in a time frame without incurring significant damage. So, let’s hear the names of the leaders of gadders and the names of their significant chamchas are and also various domestic and foreign agents and agencies are involved. The Indian people have a need to know- fast and in unambiguous terms.