A lot has been happening in India since the past two orthree months. Sena Supremo Bal Thackeray died; Kasab was finally sentenced todeath though secretly; liquor baron Ponty Chaddha was killed in a freakshooting incident; the LGBT community took out a queer pride procession wherethey celebrated their being and amid all this Arvind Kejriwal launched his newpolitical party aimed at fighting corruption aptly called the ‘Aam AadmiParty’.
In India, too, like any other society, we habitually createthe ‘other’ “ the one who is not one of us. Then, just like any other society,we demonise this ‘other’ and make it the cause of every wrong. Statisticallyspeaking, Thackeray killed more people than Kasab did but who was hated more?Twitter or Facebook posts against who caused no police intervention?
Kasab was the other; he came from a foreign land and killedpeople to fulfil his own agenda. Thackeray was our own and even if he did moreharm than Kasab he was given state honours on his funeral. He was part of thefamily.
This ‘othering’ syndrome is manifested not just in suchgrand moments such as terrorist’s execution or a political leader’s death butin small moments in everyday life in India. People from North East are teased inmainland India for not looking and behaving like them. A north Indian thinksthat all South Indians are ‘Madrasis’ and ‘very dark in colour’ while for aSouth Indian a north Indian cannot think beyond his looks.
And this is why I think Kejriwal has got it all wrong; byblaming the government for all that is wrong he makes it ‘the other’. It’s ‘us’versus ‘them’ and the government becomes the sole entity responsible foreverything that is putting the country behind. For a young democracy this canbe fatal because in blaming the government for all that is wrong, you alsoserve a strong dose of disillusionment to the citizens. The everyday unearthingof scams and sensational media coverage of the same can be just the excuses ayoung urban Indian needs to not go and cast his vote at the time of election.When “everybody is corrupt” becomes the refrain and when there is no beliefleft in the government process, I doubt whether even the ‘Aam Aadmi Party’would be able to make any impact.
