We Have Blood On Our Hands

image courtesy : climate depot.com

A singular thought has been gnawing at my mind since the beginning of the riots in North-East Delhi. It should have sooner, much sooner. WE HAVE BLOOD ON OUR HANDS. EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US.

The violence unleashed since the abrogation of Article 370 to Jamia, JNU, Anti-CAA-NRC protests and now the Delhi Riots is a result of tolerance to horridness, inaction and unacceptance of responsibility by each and every citizen of this country.

We can no longer conveniently blame the 30 odd percent Indians who voted for the Mo-Sha Regime. We all knew this was coming. There was no doubt whatsoever. The duo has a track record of discriminating against minorities, using force, violence and the state machinery to accomplish their divisive and villainous goals and agenda. We had seen it in the pogrom carried out in Gujarat in 2002. We could see the signs of it building up again in the slogans, mob-lynchings, hate-speeches. But we did nothing.

There is somehow no hope or expectation of remorse or guilt from the Bhakts category. They are probably rejoicing the blood-shed. These are people so blinded by a hate based on no personal experience. It is purely a blood-lust for them. You can see the twinkle in their eyes when they hear about violence and atrocities against the minorities, Dalits, women. They unscrupulously and emphatically claim in public that the minorities deserve this treatment. They claim this is ‘Our Land’ (by what definition, only they seem to know) and no price is too high to reclaim it (from whom, only they seem to understand). These are typically people with low or skewed understanding of history. The herd-mentality crowd who needs some leader to follow and they latch on to him frantically without fully understanding what they are committing to and then vehemently and mindlessly protect him and that ideology at all costs.  They need someone to be inferior to them or someone to blame to feel better about themselves. These are violence loving individuals who could never fathom the meaning or virtues of equality, brotherhood, non-violence exhorted by our founding fathers or ‘ahimsa’ and ‘satya’ preached by the founders of their very religions.

Then there are the fence-sitters. The ones who use the argument “if not Modi, then who?” This is the kind who can see deficiencies (or at least pretend to do so) in the Modi government. These are the people who argue in all righteousness about why any state should have a special status or why illegal immigrants should be allowed to enter an already poor and resource-scarce country without diving deeper into these subjects. They complain about BJP’s infringement on personal freedoms with beef ban but don’t really care as it doesn’t affect their eating patterns or livelihood. This is the category which believes in what I call ‘intellectual masturbation’….. superficially discussing the pros and cons of any matter in an unattached fashion over coffee or drinks. This is the typically educated intellectuals who don’t really care beyond a point as these issues will if not never, affect them last. Expecting any sense of responsibility or regret from them on the events unfolding is pointless.

And then there is the third kind, the so-called liberals. Those of us who can see and understand everything that is wrong with the system and government. Those of us who fight and argue with our fence-sitter and bhakt friends and families. Who attend protest marches, talks and lectures against the atrocities of the government. Who write songs, poetry, essays and plays calling out this fascist regime. Who lash out against the wrong-doings of the government on social media but are unprepared to go any further. We do not wish to upset our social circles beyond a point. We choose to not state the obvious, maintaining the lines of civility socially. We are careful not to upset or hurt anyone’s sentiments and believe to each his own. We cannot be spared the burden of the barbarousness committed on our watch. We cannot distinguish ourselves from the bhakts or fence-sitters. We are to blame too. We don’t do enough. We are not prepared to call out our fathers or brothers as fascists because it will upset the status quo of our lives. We are not prepared to publicly point out the toxicity and hate spewed by friends and acquaintances. It is socially unacceptable. So, though we may be a tad bit more aware or active than the intellectual masturbators, there is nothing that can absolve us of our responsibility in the carnage going on since this government came to power.

The only people who can be spared accountability of this blood being spilt in the name of religion are the people who have been relentlessly working on the ground against this fascist regime. People who put themselves out there, who work with the affected parties, stand strong with them physically, emotionally and financially and even risk their lives and well-being for the right thing. Those are the only people who have not been a part of this blood-shed and monstrosity.

The rest of us are all party to the nefariousness meted out under this fascist government. How much ever we try to distinguish ourselves from the rest, there is no denying that each of us has blood on our hands. We are the ones who killed Faizan, Aman, Ankit Sharma, Ashfaq Hussain, Deepak and all the 43 who died in these riots. We are the ones who orphaned those children. We torched their houses and businesses and looted them. We are the ones beating and molesting the women and children in the aftermath of the riots. They have been displaced forever because of us.

History will not spare us, any of us. We will all be judged as the monsters who allowed this to happen on their watch, as the Hindus (read as fascists) who participated in and contributed to the barbarity carried out against Muslims in our ‘secular’ land.