The New Year Under The Shadow of Fascism

Nalini Taneja

IT IS just the beginning of the New Year, but one can see, very literally, the basic divisions of society on people’s faces. There are those who have partied, celebrated, and are busy making further ‘plans’ for the goodies to be bought this year; of places to go, gifts to give, holidays to take, and a general well being about them, that all is well and roaring; and if it isn’t for others they don’t know it.

On other faces anxiety and apprehension are writ large. The year has ended disastrously and is beginning threateningly; what else is in store for them?

A divide between the beautiful people who make it to the third pages and others who live out their lives in a humdrum fashion, and on the other end of the spectrum those others who have no time for cognizance of such niceties as new year because they are too busy making two ends meet was always there; and we are not talking about that this year. This year somehow rings more ominous--despite brave attempts by some NGOs that ‘this December 6 is ours’, or that India-the real one is ours!

INDIFFERENCE OF MIDDLE CLASSES

Never was a new year ushered in by such indifference for the plight of millions on the part of the middle classes in this country. This is in fact true of the entire south Asian region. Never before were those other millions so much out of any calculations in their scheme of things. It could not have happened otherwise in the era of globalisation and all that it entails. It could not have been otherwise under the rule of the BJP, presiding over a monster conglomeration of fascist outfits even as it is led by them. A relentless attack throughout our region on people’s livelihoods and on those not belonging to the charmed religion has created anxieties that are qualitatively different this year. For the first time people as communities are not sure whether they will live out the next year; others whether their bellies will stand by them through drought and overflowing grain godowns outside their reach. Never did people expect less out of others, feel so lonely about having to fend for their own selves.

These ten years have hardened hearts on one side and filled others with despair, and both states of mind and being have everything to do with the fascist hysteria that this last year has seen.

Togadia and his ilk coolly pronounce a death sentence for all those who stand in their way. It is publicised on the front pages of all dailies so that it is not missed, and they get away with it. "All Hindutva opponents will get the death sentence and we will leave it to the people to carry this out,'' he says, chillingly cool.  "The Muslims here will enjoy the same place or status as Hindus enjoy in Pakistan, maybe even slightly better status.” And as for Pakistan, the VHP was in favour of "dismembering'' it, reminding everyone that "fundamentalism and extremism cannot be finished till Pakistan is dismembered.'' (Report, Neena Vyas, The Hindu, December 18, 2002).

Narendra Modi, the chief architect of a genocide, wins approval of the Naidus and the Mamata Banerjees and the Chautalas bound to him by common ties of privatisation and agricultural policies that spell disaster for India’s poor across religions. Those who care for the country and its people are branded anti-national, even as the real enemies of the nation draw out their knives for a projected final kill.

PM ENDORSES TOGADIA’S THREAT

The prime minister in his New Year speech, having made his fuzzy and mandatory references to diversities, asserts the Hindutva as a way of life for India, calls on Indians to celebrate their Indianness which again he equates with Hindutva, and in his own way endorses Togadia’s threat of mob ‘justice’ by suggesting “Shouldn’t our society come down heavily against those who commit atrocities against women, dalits, adivasis, and other weaker sections?” What does he intend to do about it in the coming year we would like to ask him, and also how does it always happen that Muslims and Christians get left out when he decides to express concern over things as they are. What he certainly does not forget is to remind us he would “like our people to reduce their dependence on the government for everything…. Shouldn’t citizens initiate a drive for water conservation, energy conservation, and conservation of our precious cultural heritage?” He is telling the people of this country squarely they better fend for themselves; the State has no responsibility towards them, in ensuring them a share in the nation’s resources or in protecting their lives if they are on their own unable to withstand the attacks on their lives and cultural heritage/expression.

The BJP rule has let loose a kind of violence and despair that expresses itself in callousness and indifference as much as in social Darwinism. The ‘haves’ today have more than ever, the ‘have-nots less than ever before. To quote Aijaz Ahmed: “While farmers commit suicide for want of food, the speculators and money bags pick up the privatised public assets for a song”. 

The dominant visual in one’s mind’s eye as the New Year begins is perhaps that of the description in Gujarat of the full discos and people dancing to blaring music even as lakhs were at their wits end, in another part of a city, trying to save and salvage their lives. The only ones celebrating are those jiska ka koi kuch nahi bigarh sakta (who cannot be touched or harmed come what may), who will revel in plenty even when there is drought, who know they are safe in their homes with their household intact even as fascists lead mobs in the name of a “Mahabharata”, because they are considered the Pandavas whatever happens.

It is sad that so many people still think that fascism is something out there, in some distance, that it will not include them in its toll even if it comes. This New Year’s resolve for us can only be to somehow break this complacency, as much as to stand by those who have already become victims of the BJP’s rule.