The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
These lines from Yeats’ poem The Second Coming aptly sum up the political scenario we find ourselves in at present. As a student, I can state without a doubt that the academic circle has faced acute ramifications from the actions of the State.
It began with the FTII controversy, where students vociferously, but vainly, protested against the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the Chairman.
In the last two years, the autonomy of universities has faced repeated assaults. Universities have become political battlegrounds. Voices of dissent have been branded anti-national, seditious or deshdrohi. For the first time, I feel threatened and afraid. Well-wishers advise me to avoid posting ‘controversial’ material on social media lest I invite trouble.
There have been instances when members of ABVP, the student wing of BJP, beat up students with other political affiliations, and vandalised campuses. The state has become our moral guardian, dictating what is fit for us to eat, read and watch.
Valentine’s Day has been slyly renamed Matru Pitru Pujan Diwas. I saw the flashy posters of the same in Delhi metro compartments. In 2014, the Modi government rechristened 25 December Good Governance Day. There is a Wikipedia page about it if you are keen to know more.
Secularism seems to be dying a slow and painful death, gripped in the jaws of the government that came to power two years ago. Instances of jingoism are more commonplace than ever. The nation was in an economic morass in the reign of the Congress government.
The question is, are we any better now? Does replacing the word ‘corruption’ with ‘intolerance’ as the catchphrase in our new political lexicon signal Achhe Din? Will innumerable international trips bring about immediate resolutions to the severe crisis here at home?
The State seems to be vigorously propagating a fascist ideology by adopting the cunning tool of silence. The most pressing questions have gone unanswered. All we have received are insouciant remarks by political leaders on most tragic brutalities such as the lynching in Dadri.
Is the State safeguarding its ideology over the people? In this tense political atmosphere, dissenters have spoken up from all segments of society. Filmmakers, artists, authors, scientists, students, professors, have all protested vociferously and unanimously.
Yet this wave of protest seems to waver in the face of a burgeoning political dystopia. These voices of opposition dissipate even before reaching the common man. All he hears and understands is the rhetoric of nationalism in lofty speeches.
Yeats’ apocalyptic vision provides a fitting commentary. The worst are indeed full of passionate intensity. The best, however, do not lack conviction. They lack the outlet to stage their protest.
As a young citizen, I do not understand the complexities of the State machinery. I do not even hold any political affiliations. Yet, I find the present situation unsettling, precisely because the occurrences that threaten our harmonious, secular and democratic existence are not exceptions anymore... they are the norm.
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