Intolerance on the rise in India
Last week, as I met some former colleagues at a cafe in Khan Market, a man with a group of friends sitting nearby, kept passing curious glances at us. I assumed that it was the mere nature of our conversation, which ranged from media gossip to political events that had piqued his curiosity.
After a few moments, as I was crossing his table to check the desserts on display, he got up and asked: “Aap Rana Ayyub hain?”"Yes," I said. "Aap ko kaise pata?”.
He explained that he had seen me on television news debates and was impressed with my articles.
It is human nature to feel pleased when one's work is recognised or praised. I couldn't help suppress a smile.
My colleagues though looked uncertain about this unexpected praise. I asked them what was the matter and they said I should be careful with strangers, especially since my views are usually sharp and critical.
They said that times have changed and public opinion has become deeply divided and polarised. I brushed their apprehensions aside. I was convinced that the Indian society cannot be so easily influenced by some extreme ideas and are tolerant and respectful to voices of dissent.
I was wrong and I learnt this the very next day.
I was at the Delhi airport, waiting to board the flight home, when an elderly man walked up to me, and asked, if I was the "same girl". I thought he was mistaking me for someone else.
"Arre wohi Tehelkawali, who is always impolite towards the PM sahib,” he sneered to his friend.
I replied, yes, I was a former journalist with Tehelka.
“Arre, this girl is part of the paid media group… always anti-national in her tweets.”
I am not someone who wears my patriotism on my sleeves. That does not mean I have any less respect and love for my country.
Over the years I have grown an aversion to those who share a condescending view of nationalism and confronting them has never been an idea worth entertaining. So I let the incident pass without raising an alarm.
My family and close friends, however, reacted in anger, when I narrated this incident to them. They asked why had I not reported the man to the concerned authorities. How could someone confront and humiliate me for my views?
The beauty of our country, the world's largest democracy, has been that it believes in the plurality of views. Voices of dissent are not silenced or heckled but given a patient hearing. But election 2014 has changed the nature of our very discourse.
The gentleman, a nameless entity for me, is just a symptom of a larger malaise which has begun to afflict our country's beliefs, our culture.
How does one explain and justify the recent attack on senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai by members of the "friends of BJP" at Madison Square Garden in New York? Sardesai was jeered and mocked at, called a "Congress pimp", among other profanities.
This led to a scuffle between him and others who screamed "Jai Shree Ram" and "Bharat Mata ki Jai". Did the mob forget that Sardesai was as much a Hindu and an Indian as them?
The reason Rajdeep was subjected to this behaviour was not just the image of him being a left liberal but also because he decided to ask questions on Modi's past to activists, including those from the LGBT community who were part of the protest.
The question is not whether it was Sardesai's fault or not, the issue is about our intolerance to those voices who were there to protest the presence of a man who bears the stains of a carnage that was carried out by men who allegedly owed allegiance to him.
Modi was in America as India's representative; as the representative of 1.2 billion citizens; as the BJP candidate who had won an absolute mandate; as a leader who wows international leaders with his charisma and resolve.
While there is no doubt about this, his die-hard fans must remember that today, now more than ever, there has to be an even greater respect and space for those who want to disagree with our leader.
Narendra Modi started a brilliant campaign “Swacch Bharat” on Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary. It is ironical that one of his NRI supporters wrote to me saying: “I am your Godse, are you ready?”
Can one hold the PM accountable for it? Perhaps not. But if a million people hail him as their supreme leader, does it not become his responsibility to guide them, speak on their behalf that such behaviour will not be tolerated in this new India he envisions?
When the elderly gentleman accosted me at the airport calling me "paid media", the PM’s maiden interview to ANI in which he referred to those journalists who opposed him as "news traders" looped in my mind.
The PM should realise that for a developed nation, he will not just have to take to Valmiki Sadan with a broom. He will have to cleanse the country of its prevailing bigotry and hatred. He will have to take the lead in propagating the culture of tolerance.