Letter to the readers, Mainstream, Jan 8, 2022

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, January 8, 2022

It’s been many years now that there is growing social and political tolerance, for a culture of violence that has come to include vigilantism, lynchings, sexual assault and hateful public speeches calling for ethnic cleansing or communal violence, intimidation of critics, acts of vandalism against places of prayer of minorities, etc by some members of India’s ruling party, or political groupings claiming allegiance to Hindutva or other Chauvinist ideology and also at times involving so-called ‘Hindu religious leaders’ (late last year a ‘Dharam Sansad’ held in Haridwar openly incited violence against minorities) Such actions are clearly in violation of the rule of law but lack of punitive action by the authorities embolden the perpetrators. The police occasionally agree to register police complaints but take no action. If arrests do happen they come after enormous public outcry or under orders from courts. Police seem to follow double standards in the way they act in the face of political speeches or even social media posts by government critics who get charged with serious offenses such as sedition etc or are arrested and or held in detention while no charges are brought for long. The regime in power in India sits atop a toxic social-political eco-system that is increasingly polarising society along religious lines and overtly using religion to colour its public political stances. The recent public religious spectacle at the inauguration of the Kashi Vishwanath temple complex directly involving the Prime Minister (and funded by public money), demonstrates the rank hypocrisy of the BJP and the Hindutva political formations that once used to denounce social democratic parties in India for practicing pseudo-secularism and hinting as if the BJP represented a genuine secular stance. All that convenient political posturing is evaporating now, the ruling Hindutva ideology is implicitly promoting majoritarianism. Is Modi-led India headed in the footsteps of neighbouring Pakistan?

Tributes:

Neil Nongkynrih the Indian concert pianist and conductor who founded the Shillong Chamber Choir (SCC) died on January 5, 2022. He had been awarded Padma Shri in 2015.

Peter Bogdanovich, the well-known American film director, actor, film critic and film historian passed away on January 6, 2022

Gerson Da Cunha, a veteran advertising professional who worked for Lintas in Bombay, also an accomplished theatre actor and a journalist in his early days passed away on Jan 7, 2022

We pay our tributes to the above people

January 8, 2022 – HK