Politics

[Poem] Fog of fascism has arrived in India. Brace for a long winter

Nadim AsrarNovember 30, 2016 | 17:34 IST

  • Just when you were mocking Shilpa Shetty
  • for having an opinion on Animal Farm
  • without reading it,
  • your Supreme Court has turned the joke on you.
  • It has made the playing of the national anthem mandatory.
  • In theatres.
  • And you must rise.
  • To salute the flag, fluttering on the screen.
  • (Before Ramdev sells his toothpaste to you)
  • Stand you must for the anthem.
  • The long bank and ATM lines must have prepared you for it.
  • It's been three weeks now, after all.
  • It was an order
  • that stopped short of making
  • the RSS hands-on-chest salute mandatory.
  • We will come to that later, said the court.
  • Hang on.
  • Most parts of India today
  • woke up to the season's first fog.
  • A few hours later, we realised
  • it was the fog of fascism.
  • It might be a long winter ahead.
  • So, grab your popcorn.
  • The macabre theatre of fascism is about to begin.
  • And it's no comedy.
  • Even those who think
  • they will survive the grandstanding
  • won't.
  • There are no survivors in fascism. Only history.
  • As the play unfolds, here's a bigger tragedy:
  • there is no space outside fascism.
  • They first owned your religion.
  • You did not flinch.
  • They became stronger.
  • And defiant.
  • They killed, raped, burnt,polarised, pulverised, repeated.
  • With impunity. In your name.
  • You did not flinch.
  • You did not say: "not in my name".
  • They grew emboldened,
  • moved more fiercely.
  • They occupied the country.
  • And the popular imagination.
  • Helped by dreamweavers on television.
  • You felt something was wrong.
  • You flinched a bit.
  • In a meek effort to raise the voice. Or hand.
  • But that would make me an anti-national, you feared.
  • Your wisdom prevailed. You chose silence.
  • And they loved it. And you.
  • And promised more nightmares.
  • Disguised as dreams.
  • Stop mocking Shilpa Shetty
  • We are all in the farm.

Also read: My father was in RSS, why I dread men in khakhi knickers

Last updated: December 01, 2016 | 09:34
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