From Davos to Kasgunj : The Tribune India

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From Davos to Kasgunj

The lament by the District Magistrate of riot-hit Kasgunj (UP) about “fringe groups coming up in every part of the state, taking the same ugly route to instigate people of the minority community by forcefully entering their locality in the name of nationalism” was not a cry in the wilderness.

From Davos to Kasgunj


The lament by the District Magistrate of riot-hit Kasgunj (UP) about “fringe groups coming up in every part of the state, taking the same ugly route to instigate people of the minority community by forcefully entering their locality in the name of nationalism” was not a cry in the wilderness. The police chief of Saharanpur had accused a BJP MP of inciting a mob to vandalise his residence while his children and relatives cowered in terror. Both bureaucrats have been rapped on the knuckles for stepping out of line. The Kasgunj DM was compelled to scrub his Facebook post; the police chief summarily transferred. Their concerns were more succinctly highlighted by their superannuated peers in successive letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the last was penned two days ago. 

Their missives have drawn a wider arc of the threats to free speech and other fundamental rights: vigilantism, crack down in universities, systematic trolling, hyper-nationalism and majoritarianism. In all cases of breakdown of law and order, the mobs had no fear of “inevitability of punishment”. The country has been spared a catastrophic conflagration so far. But the ordinary rules of society are breaking down once too often. Muslims, in particular, are being made to feel burdened by their identity. It is not too difficult to answer the Kasgunj DM’s query about a “strange tradition that has started of late”.

Fringe Hindutva elements have not conjured out of thin air the confrontational approach of taking out processions through Muslim-populated localities and raising anti-Pakistan slogans. Narendra Modi-Amit Shah had not spared any state Assembly election from loaded references about Pakistan in order to project the Indian Muslim as the “Other”, as part of a polarising strategy. The mobs simply picked up from where they had left off. The country desperately needs a warm bath of stability if it is to address the underlying social complaints that are assisting in fanning civil disorder. It may not be a great idea for serving officers to put up personal opinions on social media. But this does not diminish the depth or the validity of their concerns.

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