Democracy. The power of the people, for the people, and by the people. A democracy is supposed to be where we feel safe. Safe to be who we are. Safe to voice our opinion.
Secular. A word found in the preamble of the Indian constitution. The Constitution of the worlds largest democracy. A democracy that was built by the efforts of leaders who raged against fascists and those that would treat other human beings as inferior. Is this the India Gandhi and Nehru dreamt of? A country where a person isn’t allowed to speak? Where students in an act of protest hit a leader who retaliates by burning the campus gates? A country where students are harmed for protesting? When protests are one of the main features of a democracy? Is the India that Gandhi dreamt of a country where only people fitting certain criteria are allowed? Where the minorities are ruthlessly shut down? Is the India Tagore dreamt of one where institutes of education are burnt down and students latti charged for voicing their opinions? Is the India we are going towards one where we are shutting ourselves to eve hearing the opposition instead of questioning them?
Because the country is becoming a land full of fascists and not a land where people are free to be who they are. And even those fighting against this fasicm are empowering it by engageng in their own form of fasicusm by not letting these people have their due say and taking the law in their hands. A political party is using one of our major religions as a political chant not only disrespecting the gods of that religion but disrespecting our very constitution. They are turning our homeland into a religious war zone and harming kids and young adults for having the “audacity” to stand up when adults failed us. Today they burnt and destroyed one university, tomorrow they’ll attack another, trying to shut down by thought process that is different from theirs, instead of defending their ideas in a reasonable fashion. And half our country voted for this. And the half the did not? They are not letting this half speak, and thus reducing their own democracy. Perhaps the Mahabharata was right. Because this is Kalyug. Where everything that our freedom fighters fought for is turned to dust under the guise of progress.
A/N- I never speak on politics because I usually am still trying to get all sides of a story and by the time I do it’s all yesterday’s news but today people ransacked a university in my home city and the news is not covering anything about that and I feel that if I don’t speak up now, I won’t have any right to later. I am sorry if this offended anyone but this is what I feel.
