13 October 2015

The Season of Returns


          Suddenly, it has become the 'Season of Returns'. In fact, it threatens to beat the returns offered by banks and even bookies and punters and the stock market, all combined. And the frequency with which learned and esteemed writers are popping up all across the country, India suddenly seems an extremely talented nation. Where were all these 'famous' writers hiding till date, is not a question to be asked. Of course not, such inconvenient questions are definitely not in order, especially when India as an entity is being threatened by a very communal government, that has imposed an "undeclared emergency". At least Mrs Indira Gandhi in 1974 was courageous enough to openly declare emergency and thus boldly state her intentions. The current PM seems to lack even basic grace. A chaiwaala will always remain a chaiwaala. Zero grace, zero etiquette and simply no desire to ensure social butterflies are ensured their continued share of nectar. How demeaning can it get?

     BJP and other communal elements (all with that dreaded H word somewhere in their names) actually refused to accept the real provocation. A man had been lynched merely because he wanted to eat beef! Yet communal voices kept floating silly rumours in the air... "The actual has not been proved", "Beef does not get any mention in the FIR". High time we trashed such rumour mongering that was threatening to derail the very process of secularism. Didn't anyone hear all that the mainstream media had been speaking about what true reality was? Didn't anyone bother to see how they had dropped their glasses of scotch and vodkas and rushed over unpaved roads to gather truth from a remote village somewhere in UP? If that cannot be treated as how sincere the media reporting was, what possibly can? Tyranny of distances were ignored,

 all inconveniences left aside in an attempt to reach the beef of the matter. 
     Any wonder why Nayantara Sahgal got so distressed, a feeling that had been thankfully alien to her for all the years that secular governments had been ruling. So much was her distress that she returned her Sahitya Akademi award! One stroke and suddenly she thrust herself from being famous as an awardee to a non-entity! (Err, was it the other way around? Ahh! I am not allowed to ask!) Never mind that many of those who profess to possess in-depth knowledge about anything and everything had to Google to find out who she was and what exactly that she was returning. Also, never mind a trivial fact that there was no mention of return of the money and other favours received along with the award. Come on, you can't really expect someone to return all that, after so many years. Again, never mind that the Sahitya Akademi award was an extremely private award with the government no where in picture. Such trivial issues deserve mere contempt.

    Many communal lumpen elements even dug up evidence that Ms Sahgal had accepted the award in 1986, two years after a trivial genocide that killed thousands of Sikhs, in the aftermath of riots due to Mrs Indira Gandhi's assassination. They forget the fact that she had graciously protested against the riots, even founded the 'People's Union for Civil Liberties' which investigated the riots.  

 Yet RW lumpen elements, who had been protesting peaceful killing of a few cows here and there were exposed, as they bayed for her blood. They started questioning her secular credentials. They asked why she had been silent when other people had been killed or limbs cut off. Can any of these RW elements point out even one instance where people were killed over beef? Quoting cutting off of a hand of a professor in Kerala does not make any sense, does it, when he had brought it upon himself by insulting Prophet Muhammed, PBUH (I have been taught to say this each time I take his name!). Questioning her stand on 1984 also is irrelevant as her PUCL has ensured justice for all Sikh victims (Ok, give it to her! She tried). Yet everyone seems to be hell bent on proving her wrong. Imagine, a niece of India's first PM, Pandit Nehru being questioned by all and sundry. What has this nation come to? This is precisely what happens when you elect undeserving people with lowly backgrounds to highest positions in the government. 

     Ms Sahgal can also take heart that her actions have triggered a series of returns, the kind I referred to right at the beginning. Former Lalit Kala Akademi chairman Ashok Vajpeyi who returned it protesting "assault on right of freedom of both life and expression" was the next to surrender his prestigious award. He, of course, is not related in anyway to Atal Behari Vajpayee and would never even agree to such an association! Secularism was being threatened and it indeed is wonderful to see so many literary stalwarts closing ranks. Sarah Joseph of course would call it merely coincidental that she was an Aam Aadmi Party candidate and her politics had nothing to do with her returning the award. The "fear that engulfed in what one eats, when one expresses love and curbs on what one wants to write and speak definitely did not augur well!" I fully agree, especially since her silence was most eloquent when people of the North East were being lynched in Bengaluru based on rumours. Now maybe she was just ignorant and hibernating then. Then came names which suddenly became household ones... Gurbachan Bhullar, Ajmer Singh Aulakh, Atamjit Singh, Ghulam Nabi Khayal, all of who had been blissfully living in peace and serenity for all these years and this blatantly communal government headed by Modi suddenly was hell bent on ensuring all hell breaking lose. 

    They could have, of course, blamed state governments for the incidents. After all, law and order is and has always been a state issue. Again, to be honest, they did indeed blame the state government, again led by Modi for the 2002 riots in Gujarat. See, they had indeed been keeping track and right in the forefront of ensuring communal peace and harmony. It was always the RW lumpen elements that were in the forefront, hell bent on destroying the very spirit of secularism, as enshrined in the Constitution (Don't dare state now that it was included by Mrs Gandhi. If she had not done that much, India could never have been saved. It would have been reduced to a Hindu Pakistan, whatever that means).

    Latest to jump on the bandwagon is noted Hindi poet Rajesh Joshi who was conferred his award in 2002! Rings a bell somewhere? I can see all those lumpen elements smiling asking why he didn't bother to refuse then. Come on guys, such an honourable award, and imagine, if he had refused it then, could he have given it up now? Such foresight is admirable and no wonder all these people are right up in the top and highly honoured. 

     Feel glad I could express my own anguish and sympathy. India needs to be saved. I sometimes wish I had an award of my own, which I could return to express my own feelings. That's how strongly I feel over the deterioration of law and order happening under this anti-minority, anti-secular and communal government, a government elected with barely over 31% votes! Imagine 69% voted against Modi and yet he dares to occupy that exalted Prime Minister chair occupied by such esteemed personalities like Nehru, Indira (is India, India is Indira) Gandhi, Rajiv and of course the most affable, learned and assertive Manmohan Singh. High time we have a popular government back to rule, a government that can make sure Hindus stop demanding unnecessary rights and minorities can get their rightful first share of everything.

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