A Comedy Circus Called Indian Democracy

By Sushil Kutty

Justice GT Nanavati, retired Supreme Court judge, died December 18, a couple of days before Rahul Gandhi said he hadn’t ever heard of “lynching before 2014”! With that Rahul comment, the ground shifted underfoot of those media who the Wayanad Congress MP called the “government’s Dalal—godi media”. Republic TV and Times Now Navbharat responded like they had been whacked in the butt for committing sacrilege.

Others who are counted among “godi media” just about froze to keep their cool under fire. None of them liked to be called “Dalal Media” as opposed to “Pidi Media”. ‘Pidi’ happens to be the name of a pet ‘K9’ linked to Rahul Gandhi. Current Assam Chief Minister Hemanta Biswa Sarma, who is familiar with ‘Pidi’—and Rahul’s ‘K9’—had said “No” to Rahul Gandhi’s cookies served with high tea.

That was when Hemanta Biswa Sarma was still in the Congress party. Recently, a mob of rioters was “attacked” by security men in Assam and one of the rioters was “lynched” after being shot in the chest, with a photojournalist jumping up and down on the fallen rioter’s breast bones. The photojournalist was arrested for “lynching”.

This happened mid-2021. Therefore, it can be rightly argued that Rahul Gandhi must have heard of lynching after 2014. Akhlaq of the “beef in the fridge” was also lynched after 2014. A young boy Younus pulled out of a train was lynched after 2014. Plus a spate of other Muslim sounding names also “lynched” after 2014. Rahul Gandhi was telling only that which he had heard and heresy is not crime in this part of the globe.

Also, Oxford, Cambridge, Webster-Merriam… How many of us take dictionaries seriously? Time was when they were tagged and left dog-eared. Nowadays, most folks Google, and all of us know Rahul Gandhi has people to Google for him. Rahul Gandhi is not like the rest of us. He is beyond chores that call for stenographer’s skills.

The word “lynching” is there on Google, but not in the context of a year before 2014. The 1984 anti-Sikh riots should be left forgotten than kept in mind, that is best for the nation, unlike the 2002 Gujarat riots. No two minorities are the same. Besides, the global media did not harangue 1984, but took Narendra Modi to the cleaners for 2002—there were even local calls to “lynch” him.

That said, the “Godi Media” is punching way above its weight by calling out Rahul Gandhi for ignoring the Kapurthala lynching. Anybody or any entity that cannot see the difference between Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi should rightly and properly be “lynched”. The two do not hang in the same closet, guillotine that thought.

Strictly speaking, Rahul Gandhi doesn’t share the same DNA that Narendra Modi and Mohan Bhagwat share. Rahul Gandhi is of a different coloured pigment. The problem is people do not like Rahul Gandhi’s dogged determination. If he says he hadn’t heard of “lynching before 2014”, it should be taken as gospel—no need for anyone to erupt in boils.

After all, the BJP and the “Godi Media” should have taken note of Justice GT Nanavati’s twin verdicts. Justice Nanavati was already the one-man Nanavati Commission investigating the 1984 anti-Sikh riots when he was given the job to inquire 2002. How many in the BJP—vilifying Rahul Gandhi for being the son of the “father of mob lynching”—know that the Nanavati Commission had given a “clean chit” to Rajiv Gandhi vis a vis 1984?

Ditto for the 2002 Gujarat riots and Modi—who, too, got a “clean chit” from “his Nanavati Commission.” And they say Justice Nanavati was not the sort to lose his shirt or buckle under pressure. Now, he is gone for good and, if he ruled wrong, he will have already got his comeuppance in hell or heaven though it is said nobody leaves this earth before paying for his sins!

December 20 evening, the media frenzy over “lynching” brought the worst in all political parties. It is at such times that people wonder whether the system called “democracy” is worth dying for, notwithstanding the ruling that it gets among hi-fi folks who are never tired of singing democracy’s praise.

The electoral democracy that we foist sucks. And if there was the fatwa before of “Sar Tan Se jhuda”, now there is “justice on the spot”. Politics in the name of religious lynching is the pits—perhaps the most dangerous. Come to think of it, how many of us had ever heard of “beyadbi (sacrilege) before 2021″? And then to be told by a comedian in the garb of a politician that those committing “beyadbi” should be lynched in the public square. Truly, democracy in India is a Comedy Circus! (IPA Service)