Friends, Indians, countrymen...a declaration follows

For the first time in history, multi-party fascism has been achieved in, in India….

This is a fascism that has overturned every theory that history has learnt about fascism….history has been witness to single megalomaniac dictators (or a small cabal) who have achieved fascism in their country…..now we are the cusp of history making itself as we witness how fascism can be achieved with 30 odd (and counting) different political parties with widely different political leanings and messages…..

Multi-party government was supposed to be the greatest achievement of mankind since the invention of the wheel…..multi-party meant that one group or one opinion could not impose its will on the people…..there will always be someone who would initiate a sane and articulate dialogue (dialogue = democracy, we have learnt) which will go against the grain of intolerance and rigidness and loss of reason that grips nations from time to time…..what this dialogue would mean is that sanity would win in the end and those opposing open dialogues and fair debates would be dumped on the wayside, the opposition was supposed to the safety catch as they would monitor the government’s every move…..dialogue would open up the heart and mind of people enabling them to become more open to the views of the other people…..totalitarianism and unilateralism would be become foreign words…..

But two events show that this very fine concept is as dead as dead can be…..

The first one is of course the reservation issue that has caused a conflagration around the country…..what unfolded before our eyes was tragic and absurdly bizarre….the government in power decides (unilaterally, without discussions of any sort) to increase the number of crutches to be doled to half of total seats in well, everything possible (except in nuclear sciences….because they know the dangers of crutches in those sectors very well)…imagine suddenly getting to know that half of your country has ceased to be your own….

Now sample this….of all political parties in India (yeah those 30 odd and counting), none come forward to support the cause of students who go on a hunger strike (on for 12 days now)….forget support, nobody even tries to engage in a meaningful dialogue and nobody is willing to even give space to their views….they are termed as illegal and every move imaginable is tried to oust them….

Vox Populi (voice of the people) has suddenly become voice of the ones who have to gather votes every 4 years, nobody else….

Yeah and we still teach our children that Gandhi’s hunger strikes brought down an empire….laughable especially since today it cant even bring down an MLA…..

Party after party decides to suddenly wake upto the revelation that this is the only way for social emancipation and it has to be now….forget that we need to have quality teachers, forget that we need hostels, labs, infrastructure, forget about the legitimate fears about caste-based discrimination (either way) spiraling beyond control…..even the student’s demand that a non-political committee be set up to examine whether reservation at all works is not given consideration (because they know it doesn't work)…..the government refuses to tell us where they came up with the figure of 27% (that’s because they don’t know themselves)…..nobody listens to the argument that this is going to entrench the caste system for eternity in this country….

Merit, quality, primary education, moving towards a caste-free society, open discussions suddenly became foreign words and to the parties – dirty words….

All we heard was that since constitution approves of it, it is the law of the land….of course they forget to mention that they themselves amended it to their liking a few months ago….

So what do the students do as a last resort? Appeal to the president whose books they admired so much….to ask him not to approve the bill….and what do they get? A vague assurance that seats for general category students will be increased as well…..

We applaud you Mr president, your dream of a developed India by 2020 will now be a caste-ridden, crutch bearing, dole-depending teeming mass with reactionism their favourite tool of mass-upliftment. We know why you refused to help….you need that chairman position in some government organization after you cease becoming president and you need the government for that or maybe you like feeling like a viceroy roaming your huge house of 300 rooms and your football field garden and you don’t want that to be cut short….of course, we realize now that you too have sold out…..

Its frightening to see how every party coalesced into one gooey mass that has no aim except cater to the lowest common denominator of democracy – votes….seeing beyond that is sacrilege in the extreme…the students demanding their future have just been burnt for heresy…..feel the flames???

The second issue of this tyranny of democracy revolves around ‘Fanna’, the Aamir Khan starrer being banned in Gujarat….a group of people decide that they don’t like what the actor said about an issue (Narmada rehabilitation) that they feel emotive about….they then decide to show the actor (and punish him) that in this country nobody is to be allowed the right to speak his own mind if his opinion hurts one of the thousands of small and big gods, thousands of different tribes and backward/forward classes....in short, unless you are a career trouble maker (read social activist), you should stick to what you do…in this case, make films and more unrealistic the film, the better…..films like Rang de Basanti are not good, it gives people ideas you see!!!!

Here too, the opposition (supposed to be the watchdog of democracy) goes along with the loony fringe that BJP really is….and you know for what? You got it…votes....

Forget the fact that in a democracy, people decide….they know of course that if they release the film in Gujarat theaters, its going to be one of the biggest hits….so a whole population is held hostage by a handful of self-appointed guardians (of what we are never sure)….we saw the same thing with ‘Da Vinci code’ with the Christian groups suddenly realizing that their faith is in danger from a single film and since that is so, its ‘dangerous’ to be viewed by people…it just might give the people ideas….

Fascism have always intended to create a public that is ignorant of everything and disbelieving in anything except in the what the leader says (communism, as it developed in many countries followed this route as well, there it was the party)….here fascism has been created by simply shrugging off all democratic mores in pursuance of vote bank politics…..

Every party of all hues right, left, centre have fallen into this mindset and what we are seeing is just a trailer of what holds in store for this country…..

As the cliche goes...be afraid, be very afraid.....

Not sure if that is a cliche anymore for us.....