India’s poisoned chalice

As Indian peoplecontinue cheering the brutal lockdown of Kashmir

At the Nuremberg Trials, US prosecutor Robert Houghwout Jackson had said, “We must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants today is the record on which history will judge us tomorrow. To pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to our own lips as well.” Today, the Indian people should know that cheering the brutal lockdown of Kashmir and the atrocities committed there, is the poisoned chalice, which someday soon they too would have to drink from.

The RSS used to be banned in India. The society had some semblance of patience, solidarity, and decency. Hindutva extremism was not as mainstream as it is today. The fact that the “Butcher of Gujarat” was elected and then re-elected with an overwhelming majority to the highest office of India speaks volumes about the moral bankruptcy of Indian society.

What is worth paying attention to is not only what Modi and his RSS supporters do but the unprecedented support for this madness inside the Indian mainstream. This drift towards ultra-right nationalism is dangerous not just for the Kashmiris but for the Indian people too. Power systems are wired for overreach. The US government first spied on foreign communication and later sneakily started surveilling US citizens, under the guise of national security. Those two magic words are the most dangerous because they trump everything.

Many refused to acknowledge the totalitarian outreach, repeating the foolish argument they had nothing to hide. Pretty soon, those tentacles threatened what was important to these people, such as social security programmes, lowering of taxes on the rich, etc. Conversations with doctors and lawyers could no longer be privileged information and those with nothing to hide started feeling the shivers down their spine. Refusing to protest against one’s own government’s tyrannical actions is done at one’s own peril.

We have read and witnessed that in order to punish unruly behaviour, power systems label people as the “enemy”. Dehumanising the victim morally and legally justifies the atrocity. When innocent civilians are killed in US drone strikes, they are instantly label0led as “suspected militants”, justifying their murder by dehumanising them. US citizens Anwar Al Awlaki and his teenage son were killed in drone strikes without any due process of law. President Obama justified the action in the name of national security.

The US attacked the Philippines over 100 years ago. People were killed and the country was pacified with a sophisticated propaganda campaign. The same tactic was used soon after by US president, Woodrow Wilson, in his Red Scare. The Creel Commission was created to convert a peace loving and anti-war American population into one that wanted to kill anything German during the WWI.

History is replete with examples of countries using extreme measures abroad and then bringing them home to counter the domestic enemy: the people. Indians should not be surprised if in the future a mainstream Indian state or city is completely locked down for months. The people would have to reap the fruits of these seeds they are actively sowing.

When free speech is criminalised, it doesn’t only affect people in IOK but would lead to the erosion of rights of the Indian people too. That is what happened recently. In 2016, students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University staged a protest in support of a free Kashmir and against the capital punishment meted out to activist Afzal Guru. The students were arrested under sedition charges. Similarly, the rape epidemic in India and the refusal to give justice to rape victims is another sign of trouble. When soldiers of an occupying army indulge in rape, torture, and other horrific crimes in the occupying land, they can’t be expected to be law-abiding citizens when they return home. The chickens will come home to roost.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2019.

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