It doesn’t require a rocket science to understand the anarchy around us. Rationalists are being killed, threatened and are forced to take refuge. The list is getting longer and longer with each passing day. People who are the watchdogs of the society such as Nikhil Wagle, Ravish Kumar, Anand Patwardhan, Rajdeep Sardesai, KS Bhagavan, MM Kalburgi, and many more are being targeted. Death of MM Kalburgi is still fresh in our memory.
Ravish Kumar wrote in his blog, ”What kind of rotten society it is has left me alone and is accepting the hooliganism?”
He is correct in pointing at the degrding social system and absolute waywardness around us.
It will be wrong to consider these threats as petty incidents. In fact, these incidents are silencing the truthful voices in our times. We are heading towards a dark ages. And it is our collective silence which is responsible for all this. Ravish is bullied on twitter and on Facebook. Nikhil Wagle receives death threat. Kalburgi is dead. Anand Patwardhan is not allowed to screen his films. And to beat it- all this is not making us uncomfortable.
This silence will result in acceptance of a totalitarian state. We- the collective us- have always loved to hate totalitarian communist state in China, the Taliban in Pakistan-Afghanistan region, dictators in the middle-east region, the totalitarian regime in North Korea- the first noticeable character of these totalitarian system is that the rationalists are silenced first. India is well known for free thinkers we have produced over the ages. The anarchist approach and growing intolerance are pushing us towards backwardness.
Journalists, film makers, writers are not supposed to be praising a particular person every time. Their job is to critically see the world- and enable others to see the not-so-obvious truth of our times. This not-so-obvious truth threatens those who benefit from the ignorance of the masses. It is these rationalists which are beacon of knowledge in any era. Saving them is saving our intellect. Simple, right?
The silence of our generation is the most horrific thing that can happen to us. Your silence will result in silence of those who can speak. In coming days I will have to be silent, even when I want to speak my heart out.
Speak up. There is no better time to speak. This is the time.
This article was first published on LokMarg on September 22, 2015
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