Silenced Truths

Shariq S. Vaidyan

The current political situation in the country is something we need to think about more deeply and discuss with greater seriousness. The developments orchestrated by Sangh Parivar politics in this land are perhaps not being discussed in the manner they deserve; or, with the help of various centres, the topics that should be discussed are being concealed.

In contemporary times, those who embrace Sangh Parivar politics describe themselves as patriots and nationalists. However, those who make such claims may be glorifying themselves, either because they are unaware of the nation's documented history and the history of their own ideology, or because they pretend not to know the history they actually do.

This is similar to glorifying Adolf Hitler, perhaps the most cruel and fascist ruler the world has seen, and his ideas. There is a similarity between what Adolf Hitler advanced and what the Sangh Parivar advances today, because both followed fascist methods.

When we speak of Adolf Hitler, history remembers another name — Hitler’s closest follower, Joseph Goebbels. He was the person who tried to make Hitler’s wrongdoings right by repeating a thousand times that they were right. I mention this name here for no other reason; the Sangh Parivar is a space where countless such Goebbelsians operate by glorifying the violence and riots they have committed.

This group is an obstacle to the country’s secular-democratic character. The Sangh Parivar dreams of erasing India’s diversity and secular nature and turning India into a theocratic state.  Those with humanity will never forget the crimes and atrocities committed in religious-based politics.

The Godhra incident and the subsequent Gujarat riots, the Delhi riots, and many other incidents are discussed in connection with their political circumstances. Perhaps behind these riots, one can see political leaders who stand in the frontline today.

The Sangh Parivar have explicitly praise Indian democracy, but implicitly they cut its roots. They implicitly do not respect the Indian Constitution or the national flag; they have a greater affinity for the saffron flag, Manusmriti, and the caste system.

Similarly, they often claim to be protectors of women. But the incident that shocked the conscience of this nation — when Bilkis Bano, who was five months pregnant during the Gujarat riots, was gang-raped and her family members murdered — will not be forgotten by anyone, nor will it be allowed to be forgotten. Similarly, the politics of hatred did not spare even an infant who should have been growing safely in a mother’s womb. The cruelty of driving a trident through a pregnant woman’s anus, and burning the foetus caught on that trident with petrol before people’s eyes, is the monstrous face of the same poisonous thought.

Such massacres, which even the history of humankind should bow its head in shame over, are not mere individual cruelties; they are bloody testimonies of a political mindset that stops seeing humans as humans and weaponizes religious hatred and lust for power.

These incidents still stand as the most horrific examples of how diabolical things can become normalized when the conscience of a society dies.

There have also been incidents in the country where attempts were made to eliminate many who raised their voices against them. Senior communist leader Govind Pansare, journalist Gauri Lankesh, journalist Mukesh Chandrakar — many who raised dissenting voices were murdered. Suppressing voices of criticism further reinforces that this is a fascist style.

But what needs to be examined today is how seriously these issues are being discussed in the country. This nation is not the private property of a single religion, a single caste, or a single ideology. India, a democratic nation, was formed by the coming together of many religions, languages, cultures, and thoughts. Its soul is secularism, the Constitution, and love for humanity.  

Politics that spreads hatred and fear and divides people will never strengthen a country; rather, it destroys the soul of society. History has proven that wherever fascism exists, it will ultimately swallow human rights, freedom, and truth itself.  

Therefore, remaining silent is no longer a neutral stance. Speaking out against injustice, remembering history, and protecting democratic-secular values is the responsibility of every citizen. Because when a society forgets the cruelties that happened in its own history, the path is opened for those same cruelties to be repeated. The future of democratic India should not lie in the voices of hatred, but in the voices of humanity, equality, and coexistence.