Politics of Hate

COMMUNICATION

The recent brutal murder of the brave journalist, Gauri Lankesh, in front of her home in Bengaluru reminds us of Hannah Arendt’s insightful observation, made long time ago: “...under conditions of terror most people will comply but some people will not...”.

Janaki Nair has reminded us that the weekly tabloid launched by Lankesh, Gauri Lankesh Patrike, challenged the establishment in every sense of the term and at every level.

While speculation is rife about the possible motive behind the murder, the 38-year old Surat garments trader, Nikhil Dadhich, is at the centre of a storm over his tweet—“a bitch who died a dog’s death”—put out shortly after the killing of the Bengaluru journalist. He is reported to have deleted the tweet later, and changed his Twitter profile, which earlier mentioned: “Honored To Be Followed by PM Sh.@narendra-modi Ji”.

The above instance is an exemplary case of the politics of hate. If we do not raise our collective voice against such politics of hate, brutal silencing of dissent will be more pronounced in the coming days. Our “fear of freedom” will lead to annihilation of our human self.

Kolkata Arup Kumar Sen