As conspiracy theories go, this one requires the biscuit. We are to think that Rihanna, Greta Thunberg and sundry other international celebrities are in league with Khalistani groups in a plot to destroy Indian democracy. If this theory had been getting spread by some lunatic, Hindutva fringe group, it would not come across mention in this space. Sadly, it is getting spread by senior officials in the Government of India and by BJP spokesmen. The Delhi Police, controlled by the Home Ministry, are so convinced of the truth of this bizarre theory that by the finish of final week a case was registered against ‘unknown people’. It was based on a ‘toolkit’ for destroying India that was supposedly downloaded from the web site of the teenage climate activist. The charges and the conspiracy are each absurd and hilarious, but they are getting taken seriously in the most exalted corridors of the Government of India.
So seriously that the initially response to Rihanna’s tweet supporting the farmers’ protest came from the Ministry of External Affairs. If she had been the president or prime minister of a important nation this response would be acceptable. She is just a pop star. Was there any require to respond at all? The Government of India was so rattled by Rihanna’s tweet in assistance for the farmers that inside hours the Home Minister had also leapt into the fray along with dazzling celebrities from Bollywood and the sports globe like Sachin Tendulkar and Lata Mangeshkar. Kangana Ranaut, who flaunts her ‘bhakti’ for Modi on her sleeve spat out such venomous tweets in response to Rihanna that some had to be taken down.
To inform you the truth, my initially response to this conspiracy theory was to laugh. Then I remembered that one of the issues that I hear most on social media is that the cause why Narendra Modi is so beloved by his ‘bhakts’ is due to the fact they think that he has helped them to really feel ‘proud of being Indian’. When I initially began to see comments of this sort on my Twitter timeline, I dismissed them as the ranting of goofs. One of the fantastic achievements of the previous 70 years is that Indians have discovered to assume of themselves as Indian and take pride in this. In these early years of our journey as a modern day nation state this was not correct.
In the initially two decades of Independence political commentators routinely speculated about the breakup of India. Through the Eighties and Nineties there had been secessionist movements in Kashmir and Punjab and in states on our northeastern border. By the time Modi became prime minister there was only one severe secessionist threat left, and that was in the former state of Jammu & Kashmir. This is why the abrogation of Article 370, with close to unanimity in Parliament, had well-liked assistance. It had assistance in Ladakh and Jammu and possibly even in the Kashmir Valley exactly where ordinary folks have suffered as well lengthy due to the fact of these who have been fighting violently for ‘azadi’. Many ordinary Kashmiris stopped supporting secessionist groups when an Islamic state in the Valley became their target.
The point is that most Indians are proud of getting Indian. So exactly where have these Indians come from whose pride in getting Indian has only created immediately after Modi became prime minister? They have come from the aggressive Hindutva that is today referred to as ‘nationalism’. Its tenets are clear. Believers need to detest Muslims and Pakistan. They need to worship the Mother Cow and they need to despise anybody who dares to criticise Modi or his policies. This is what passes for nationalism today and this is why these who dare protest against a new law or policy are promptly labelled anti-national.
The dilemma with the farmers’ agitation is that this labelling did not work. The farmers promptly created clear that it was their sons and brothers who had been defending India’s borders. When the labelling method fell apart, it was as if the government of India lapsed into a period of confusion. It was for the duration of this period that the media was dragooned into supporting the government. Private news channels, some more servile than Doordarshan, continue to spread the word that the government has been versatile and the farmers obdurate. The chaos in Delhi on Republic Day they blame on the farmers, not on a failure of law enforcement. In the instant wake of January 26 came indicators of a crackdown on the Ghazipur border. Rakesh Tikait won that round. So rather of a crackdown what we see today is a method to barricade Delhi by fortifying its borders with trenches, razor wire and giant iron spikes that could rip the tires off tractors.
It is these barricades that have drawn international assistance for the farmers. Most folks come across it challenging to fully grasp why unarmed farmers really should be treated as if they had been enemy troops waiting to attack India. It is his mishandling of the farmers’ agitation that has broken Narendra Modi’s very carefully cultivated image as a globe statesman. And it is due to the fact of this that even the tweet of a pop star has so rattled the self-assurance of the mighty Government of India that it is now spreading insane conspiracy theories. Instead of attempting to shut down foreign voices it would be far better for the Prime Minister to concentrate his energies on attempting to win back the trust of our farmers.