The Hindu's Hindutva Delusion

(Note: I'd recommend first reading my previous post "Rivers of blood" in case you already haven't)

Travis Bickle is a ticking time bomb. He is a fictional character and for all purposes walks around like every other normal person. You would find it hard to find something unpleasant or unusual about him. Yet, somewhere in the recesses of his mind he wants to lash out at society, kill a presidential candidate and slaughter all the pimps and scumbags in his city. He even inspired John Hinckley’s real life attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. Let’s blame Martin Scorsese?

Mark David Chapman walked around with ‘Catcher in the Rhye’ by J.D. Salinger. He was quite obsessed with that book which talked about phoneys in society. The book has 26 chapters. Chapman wasn’t satisfied that there was no murder or proper justice in the end and that there should have been a chapter 27. He writes the 27^th chapter by shooting and killing John Lennon. Let’s blame J.D. Salinger?

That’s not all even CharlesManson found secret messages in the Beatles song “Helter Skelter” and was also inspired by the Bible for his killing spree. Let’s blame the Bible and the Beatles? Closer home, India’s greatest serial killer, Raman Raghav had every belief and governments to blame for his lunacy.

The latest to join the list of deranged men who found motivation in various writings is Anders Breivik. The Norwegian man who carried out blasts and shot and killed over 90 of his fellow citizens, many of them children. He’s written a manifesto and claims to have been inspired by many. Among his inspirations is India’s Hindutva. This is where the likes of Praveen Swami delight in veiled warnings about Hindutva and hold out prophecies of doom. Swami is the associate editor of The Hindu and this is what he wrote in his article:

“For India, there are several important lessons. Like's Europe's mainstream right-wing parties, the BJP has condemned the terrorism of the right — but not the thought system which drives it. Its refusal to engage in serious introspection, or even to unequivocally condemn Hindutva violence, has been nothing short of disgraceful. Liberal parties, including the Congress, have been equally evasive in their critique of both Hindutva and Islamist terrorism.

Besieged as India is by multiple fundamentalisms, in the throes of a social crisis that runs far deeper than in Europe, with institutions far weaker, it must reflect carefully on Mr. Brevik's story — or run real risks to its survival.”

In a follow-up article Praveen Swami quotes Breivik’s references to the UPA’s appeasement of muslims in India and the possible attempt to destroy Hindu culture itself. I have reproduced the ‘Rivers of blood’ speech of Enoch Powell in my previous post. It wouldn’t be untrue to state that many governments in Europe, particularly Britain, have followed an extremely mindless vote-bank policy that has swamped their societies with immigrants unwilling to integrate into their societies. In particular, there has been rising and widespread anger against muslim immigrants, especially those from the Indian subcontinent, who have campaigned against everything that these European democracies value. From special rights for their community to Islamic Sharia law they have demanded everything and even gotten quite a bit of it. Some have gone to the extent of campaigning for and demanding Islamic law in some of these countries. Britain would be a good example of such campaigns.

My attempt is not to hang Praveen Swami. He is otherwise a good writer and commentator. I just believe it is outrageous to even read or make sense of a deranged individual’s motives for such acts. He is “God’s lonely man” and in his sick mind will seek to find sources and inspiration that will confirm his convictions. But democracies across the world, particularly India, must realise once and for all that all their citizens need to come under the bracket of “equality”. Policies and practices which consistently seek to create divisions in society will inspire even more dangerous lunatics. This is not to suggest that there will be no such lunatics but governments need not seek to inspire them.

The leftist-media, Praveen Swami included, likes to talk about right and left wing and liberal and centrist. This is the mumbo-jumbo behind which truth is brushed aside and facts glossed over. It has to take an extreme lunatic to even vaguely term the Congress party “liberal”. How exactly is the Congress party liberal? I doubt Swami or any of the media commentators can explain that. Since independence (maybe from even before) the Congress has been nothing but an extension of the communists. I would even dare any of these media liberals to clearly define and explain what exactly the Congress ideology is. I guess it’s the same “liberalism” that wanted to cling to power and impose Emergency on this nation. Wanna know their response? To even criticism, some of it jerky reaction, Praveen Swami has created a separate category: “#idiotwatch”! Such is the contempt for people not as bright as he is. He had perhaps hoped that many of the so called left-liberals would jump on to that word and make it trend on Twitter. Didn’t happen!

In India we currently live under one of the most corrupt and dangerous governments we have ever had. Scams, improprieties, corruption, illegal invasion of privacy, spying on its own citizens and even corruption in the judiciary are all hallmarks of a totalitarian regime and an invitation to disaster. This need not be from the right or left wing alone. There may be many individual lunatics with no ideology but with sufficient belief in their cause to impose havoc and tragedy on innocent citizens. But for Praveen Swami and many others in the media to try and pin a major share of such lunacy on Hindutva is also another extremism that confronts India. I thought the privilege of that lunacy was reserved for the likes of Digvijay Singh and P. Chidambaram.

Breivik’s manifesto has references to various other sources of inspiration including Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, English DefenceLeague and even Geert Wilders. His actions run quite contrary to the sources of his inspiration. So Praveen Swami and others in the media would do well to save us their delusions.

Evil lunatics do not need outside inspiration. Evil IS their only inspiration.