The New Normal

Anand Teltumbde, in his column“The New Normal in Modi’s ‘New India’” (EPW, 4 August 2018), has derided the metamorphosing sociopolitical milieu in our country. On the eve of
independence, our political forefathers had envisioned it as holding steadfast to the democratic edifice. We have traversed an arduous path since then, but seem to have lacked respect for those who valiantly parted with their lives at the altar of the freedom struggle. Many a proponent of egalitarianism would be ashamed at what has become of our great country, where the bonds of brotherhood once forged are running down.

The data presented by Teltumbde but testify to the fact that something must have effectuated after the Bharatiya Janata Party took over the reins in 2014 inasmuch as the majority of the incidents related to lynching have been swelling since then. Recently, a sting operation spearheaded by a renowned news agency (NDTV) germane to the Hapur lynching shockingly revealed some of the people as saying, “they (victims) killed cows, we killed them.” The perpetrators have also been proudly taking to social media to intimidate those who would dare raise their voices against them. But, to say that such proclivities for vigilantism have a genesis of their own, absent any buttressing by the ruling dispensation, would be tantamount to only looking at one side of the coin, and thus be a tendentious view.