Afterthoughts about the Jantar Mantar Protests

I have spent several days now wondering about a bunch of questions. Why did the government not respond to the appeals of the protesters for more than a month? Sonam Wangchuk was taken away to Safdarjung Hospital forcibly against his will. They quoted the court order and concern for his health. To what kind of Government is such a forceful removal a more acceptable option than engaging in debate? We are not about a semi-educated villager. We are talking about a scientist, a social activist, an environmentalist, a leader who could move millions to rise. Why did the police unleash such brutality on the young protesters? How was this easier than a government representative coming and giving the protesters a fair hearing? Why was the mainstream media quiet about what’s happening out there, and when they were speaking, they were analysing the involvement of the opposition and anti-nationals! When did the profession of journalism fall to such depths?

But here’s the big question: why did people like us still quiet? Look at WhatsApp groups. Family groups. Class groups. Residential society groups. They were all quiet. Absolute silence! People are talking about the war in Middle East. They were talking about FIFA world cup. They are talking about monsoon. And useless memes and good-morning messages never stop. But about the biggest demonstration in several decades – pin-drop silence! Why? Anti-Modi camp will try to write it off as Andh-bhakti. I feel it’s more devious than that. It’s masterful use of fear at many levels.

EXTERNALISING THE VILLAIN – A POLITICAL MASTERSTROKE

Consider the following list of problems:

• Ineffective education system
• Inaccessible, expensive and unavailable healthcare
• Crumbling infrastructure
• Rising unemployment
• Pervasive corruption
• Inequity along many axes: class, caste, gender
• Pollution
• Climate change

These are our real problems. We all suffer from them. They are what pulls down the daily experience, reputation and value of being an Indian. They are what makes us a poor, underdeveloped country. But the worst aspect of these problems is that they are internal. It’s hard to identify who is causing them. Since you can’t locate the perpetrator, you can’t easily solve them. A part of them lives in us too. Through that 100 rupee note we passed to the traffic police to avoid paying traffic violation fine. Through those 20,000 rupees we paid to purchase a fake degree. That jumping the signal to save a minute. The first step towards solving these problems is to accept that we are party to it – however small – and mustering the courage to try to stop being one. That’s why they are so difficult to solve.

The government has convinced the vast majority of the population that the following list of problems are bigger than the above problems:

• Increasing Muslim population
• Immigration
• subjugation of Hindus
• Hostile neighbours
• Terrorism

Some of these problems are real, some definitely aren’t. Definitely, none of them is comparable in their damaging potential to the first list of problems.

But these problems are good-to-have problems because of two things:

• The villain is clearly identifiable.
• That villain is not us; it’s someone else.

So, whether these problems get solved or not, they keep your conscience assuaged, your rage directed to something or someone else.

A government who is able to leverage the above fact will achieve unprecedented support – among semi-educated elders and villagers, among educated IT professionals, among guilt-ridden diasporas. This permission to fear and hate someone else – a clearly visible and identifiable enemy – for all your misery has a phenomenal balmy effect. This externalisation of the national problem alone helps a government earn an unshakable support among millions of honest and gullible Indians who had been writhing in discomfort for decades wondering why they can’t get rid of their misfortunes.

Making 6-lane highways, erecting humongous statues of leaders, building temples, doing surgical strikes and achieving space explorations gives those complementary visuals that the government is at work fixing stuff. This does the remaining work in persuading crores of supporters to wilfully blindfold themselves. Now, all they do is dream about seeing an India back in the days of its glorious past – no hostile community, no hostile neighbours, no terrorism, Sanatana Dharma proclaimed the indisputable king of all ways of life. They have just seen that starting to happen under the current government, and they will keep their eyes closed until they know it’s done. Of course, till then, their unconditional, vehement, sometimes militant support is at the service of the incumbent.

These blindfolded citizens, armed with stinging tongues and a devotion amounting to religious are the first line of defence for an authoritarian regime.

DANGER OF DISSENT

The next use of fear is by making it more difficult and dangerous for an ordinary citizen to express your unhappiness about any aspect of the government's functioning.

Dissenters are silenced at many levels:

• People like us can be conveniently ignored. We have small voices with non-existent following. Mostly, we are best ignored if we are few and far between.
• Next, every group we are part of has at least a few people who are ready to use sarcastic or abusive language, gaslighting and trolling against any disagreement or dissent, now that the number of supporters is above a critical value. Their job in life is to bring down the level of civility of any debate to a point where it becomes unpleasant to take a stand. In many such cases, I have sometime tried to hold my ground. But I have realised that the point of such discussions is just to make it unpleasant enough for you so that you stop. It's a cyberbullying game.
• The next level is to threaten. IT cell comes into action here. What one unpleasant so-called-friend, relative, neighbour can't do is done by trolls. They will throw filth on you through comments, posts, and even issue threats. Dissenters and non-supporters are called names like anti-national, anti-Hindu, AAP-tard, libtard, intellectual etc.
• The next level is hooliganism. The threats turn physical, legal or official. Framing in fabricated cases, detention, or physical bullying through police or goons. Police brutality on demonstrators and protestors is a live example. Social media are under continuous surveillance. People expressing any anti-state thoughts are identified and subjected to harassment, threat, bullying, or real harm often using state-institutions like police and law.

JOURNALISM GONE TO DOGS

It is shocking to see that the incidents in Jantar-Mantar barely found a mention in mainstream medium for the first one month or so: news channels, newspapers—hardly any of them is saying anything about the massive demonstration going on in Jantar Mantar.

Uncooperative media houses can be intimidated by the government using various means accompanied by corporatisation of major media companies. These corporations could be friends with benefits with the government and have a lot to gain by ensuring that their newspapers and channels publish what presents the government and ruling party in bright colour.

Under such conditions, most mainstream media houses turn into already lapdogs of the ruling regime or get tamed through intimidation.

Another way to abuse journalism is by spreading so much misinformation that there's no way to tell what's the fact. Eventually, people just believe what they want to. This causes unbridgeable gaps between groups since members of one group think of those in another as lunatics. Such groups are easily to rule on especially when the biggest group supports you.

Let me be very clear. I am not claiming that the current government has done all the above. All I am saying is that if they have done such a thing, they are not the first. This method has been used multiple times by fascist and radical leaders to sway the popular opinion with amazing efficiency. Fear always works when used on a large population. You just have to find the right villain – jews, leftists, Muslims, intellectuals, NRIs. And you have to capture all mainstream media. And you have to intimidate isolated voices of dissent before they can hear one another. There! You are one of the most popular leaders in History. Example: Hitler!

GREY REALITY

As most Indian get informed about such movements from social media and compromised mainstream media, we all get a very skewed view of reality based on what the sources want to project. I was particularly concerned about the possibility of multiple sides of the reality being there and deliberately exposed myself to multiple viewpoints which were in opposition to the legitimacy of the movement. Here are some which emerged:

• The movement was funded by anti-India elements and was by definition an eyewash.
• The movement was compromised due to involvement of multiple parties without any control.
• The opposition parties rode on the opportunity to create trouble.
• The protests weren’t completely peaceful. There were instances of violence and abuse from the protesters.
• The demands were not aligned with the stated goal.
• Sonam Wangchuk was running his political agenda.

MY VIEW

I am not in a position to agree or disagree with any of the above claims. All of them may be partially true. I again proclaim my wholehearted support for the protests for the following reasons. These are not dependent on facts but on how I look at things:

• There are undoubtedly a very large number of people who are not completely convinced with what a great government we have today. I am not fully against the current government. But I am not a big fan. There definitely is a strong divisiveness visible in their political stance. They also tend to be manipulative (especially when it comes to public opinion) and authoritarian. They have openly used the way of mass misinformation and throttling of journalistic freedom to sway public opinion in their favour. One of their worst acts has been to let the genie of Islamophobia out of the bottle: it has completely vitiated the atmosphere around. This has given them tremendous political mileage. But the damage this has done will take decades to undo, if at all.
• Over the years, we have been silenced through variety of intimidation techniques discussed above. Rooms where abusive sentiments about one specific community are expressed, listened to and normalised with impunity are not safe for healthy, respectful debates. At least I am hesitant to express my lack of devotion for the current government openly in such gatherings which constitutes a large majority of them. Silencing of such voices through the creation of a threatening public atmosphere has created a misplaced feeling that that the government currently enjoys total fandom.
• The importance of the resignation of education minister was symbolic at best. What really happened was that people like us got a voice through the protesters. I think that it’s a major win of democracy in that sense, since there was no precedent of the current government taking kindly to any kind of dissent or disagreement. It’s set an example that when the public wishes to say something, the government must listen.
• The government should reign in their IT cell and blind fans who are going crazy on social media trying to project this episode as another of their big covert political victories (look for videos saying something like ‘the protestors didn’t realise what the government just did to them! …’). This is also turning into a pattern where political goof-ups and defeats are projected as covert tactics by the invincibly strategic government. This is clearly to assuage the hurt sentiments of the fans who take any political defeat of the government as personal and keep them on the government’s side.
• I am equally disinclined to write off this government as out-and-out bad, as some people would like to picture them. Not all the stories about their achievements can be a fiction. Some definitely are authentic and we should give it to them. I feel, on the good side, there are traits of action-orientedness, assertiveness and development orientedness in this team. I think, it’s very important to have a balanced view of matters and not just burn effigies.

LET’S NOT REPEAT THEIR MISTAKE

The force of the recent protests was undeniable. Eventually, it boiled over to the point where the government was literally forced to listen. For several weeks, the government acted as if they are too big and strong for the protestors to even lend a listening ear. It was convincingly proved that they are not invincible. I wouldn’t consider it an exaggeration if we say that the government was literally brought to its knees. It’s a great win for democracy. Governments of future should remember that they are elected to serve, not to rule. When the public wishes to say something, they better listen.

But now is also the time for us all to stand back and remember the risks of excesses. In our excitement, we may end up making the same mistake that most of our pro-regime compatriots have been making for the last decade or so, i.e. externalising the evil (see above). Our fight is against a broken education system and corruption, not specific people or organisations. While the current regime may have become an instrument of this evil, they are not the evil themselves. Let’s not direct all our wrath against them and forget who or what we are fighting against. Let’s remember the famous saying: "Hate the sin, not the sinner." Vanquishing the external enemy is the easier bit and often doesn’t mean much. The really hard part of winning this battle involves asking uncomfortable questions and turning the spotlight on us. Let’s face it: It’s possible to change the destiny of our beloved country, but only when its people understand their responsibilities as much as their rights.

The struggle against the elusive evil, a part of which resides in each one of us, is going to be a long one.