The politics of riots

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The politics of riots

The politics of riots

It is almost as if the next Indian elections are going to be based on riot vs. riot. Like the 1984 riots linked to the Congress will be pitted against the BJP stigma of involvement in the Godhra riots of 2002 and the trading of insults will rise to a piercing crescendo.
It is like my daddy is bigger than your daddy has become the lief motif for the next power era. Now that the scab has spitefully been lifted off the two terrible incidents of mob violence in India’s modern history what possible comfort has it brought us to see protests by the affected communities once again? It has sparked rage, protest, more violence and opened up the vents again. In what way has all this retrospection and that averagely dreary Rahul Gandhi interview (which is the cherry on the irresponsible TV media onslaught on the national intelligence) helped India move on? In fact, these interviews are incitements to rioting and should be legally open to action. To my mind this is an abuse of the freedom of the press. Now we have Sikhs getting angry, Muslims showing their rage, Hindus finding a misplaced messiah in Modi and thousands of bewildered Kejriwal supporters wondering what to do with having got what they wished for.
Why do we hurt ourselves? When the search for truth becomes maliciously self-destructive and concern masquerades as deliberate provocation you are only playing with people’s feelings and strumming their fate.
And what is so important about the words of Rahul Gandhi? He is not even standing for election, let him have his opinion and if you really look at it, there was nothing remarkably original about his saying that some Congress folks could have been involved in the 1984 madness. If he had said no there would have been a volley of accusations that he was covering up.
Stop this trample into the past. You are just bruising people who have already been hurt and lost loved ones and why make them go through the pain again. With just about 90 days to go for the general elections, the Congress and the BJP cannot go beyond the “riot” angle and that augurs ill for the country.
Whose riot is going to resonate the most? Is this what is going to decide how the vote goes?
In fact, never have we been so shorn of leadership, so completely devoid of a blueprint for the future and so dumb as to let TV anchors take over our lives. The Congress and the BJP, ironically, are beginning to coalesce into twins, so alike are they in their mirror images. Both have one “uh oh” leader. Both are scared of the anarchist. Both have lost their way. Both are falling back on transparent vote banks and both are shot ducks in the water.
Rahul has exhausted all his rhetoric. Modi cannot find his script except to wave his hand and that sheen he had gained, as a person who would deliver economically seems to be tarnishing. Kejriwal, the giant killer has no more stones in his catapult and has stretched his personal credibility to breaking point. You just cannot take him or his Cabinet seriously not when it is predicated to being anarchist and is spinning in its own cul-de-sac, unsure which road to turn into.
But instead of taking stock of their common enemies like poverty, injustice, unemployment and hunger they are all putting band-aids on gaping wounds. Indeed, the sun is down and the night is riding in.

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