Politics of violence

It was indeed quite a sight to watch Navin Pathnaik, the Orissa Chief Minister, grilled mercilessly by Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN in the Devil’s Advocate programme. Only Thapar can do what he is best at: ask straight forward, relevant and challenging questions, without mincing words. Earlier, several leaders, including L. K. Adwani and Ram Jethmalani have walked out of Karan’s programmes, finding him impossible. Fortunately, Pathnaik withstood the ‘onslaught’, even as he fretted, frowned and almost sweated it out in the confines of the air-conditioned studio.
What one has to admire is Pathnaik’s resolve and consistency throughout the interview, denying allegations that not even the minimum was done to protect Christians when they were attacked in Orissa. He went on to say that everything possible was done to stop violence. However, one cannot still understand why Christians are living in such fear in Kandhamal and neighbouringdistricts. One even fails to reason why the government is shying away from acting tough on those who are out to destroy Christians in Orissa, even after such international pressures. There have been reports of hundreds being converted (not re-converted, for they were not Hindus but tribals before accepting Christianity) to Hinduism by force. And if conversion by force is a crime, why not punish these self-styled protectors of Hinduism? Why this double deal?
The answer lies not so much in the communal as the political angle of the development. Parties have realised that one of the best way to come to power and stay there is to polarise people on communal lines, kill some if you must and sow the seeds of hatred among the dominant class. Modi did it to near perfection in Gujarat . He is the model for most political parties, even as some of them do not wish to accept it openly. Raj Thakre is doing that in Mumbai. Unfortunately, the Congress and several other so called secular parites have their own agenda and hence are ambivalent as far as taking a clear stand on Hindutva politics is concerned.
We pride in calling ourselves the largest democracy. But I think we need to ask ourselves whether this democracy on which we have placed our trust is able to give all citizens security guaranteed by the Constitution. Why should some live in eternal fear while others roam about fearless terrorising and killing people? Why is that political parties, including the ‘secular’ ones, care little about people, especially the poor, when they call themselves public servants? The answer is very simple: altruism may be a pan-Indian virtue, propagated in our religious heritage; but that is not a virtue to be imitated as regards modern politics is concerned. Most of today’s political parties, including the Left, have compromised heavily on ideologies and are busy strengthening their base at any cost. While the Congress tries its traditional means of wooing subalterns and minorities, the BJP is anti-intellectual and playing, as usual, its Hindutva card. The Left are Marxists on paper. But their recent adventures in Singur and Nadigram only prove the fact that they are out to convert Marxism into neo Capitalism. Meantime, Media are content to maintain the status quo instead of critically evaluating such developments.