Of WhatsApp bloodlust and Facebook patriotism following Uri

In a Utopian world, especially a day after Gandhi Jayanti, it can be safely said that violence is never a sustainable solution.

Alas, this world is far from Utopia and so yes, it does seem that continuous violence against innocent lives has to be met with very serious counter measures to not just check what has already happened but also prevent what could happen in the future. That, although not ideal, still makes sense.

What is hateful about this entire situation though is the politics that has been created around these occurrences. A guy who joined the army out of regional/family tradition and/or poverty, a guy who’s willing to risk his life for the financial security and some honour for his family, a guy who kills whoever he is told to kill as part of his day job, a guy who must be shit scared of what can happen at any moment; is reduced to a caricature of filmy patriotism by those who can’t understand what that suffering entails!

A guy who hates his country in private but stops just short of gunning people down on social media when they criticize the same country, suffers from bloodlust, the consequences of which he can’t fathom even in his worst nightmare!

A guy who actually lost a family member in a hateful bomb blast and is still trying to pick up the pieces and make ends meet, is reduced to a caricature of revenge and an eye for an eye.

WhatsApp, social media are flooded with the most hateful, the most manipulated and the most inciting content with strong hints of having political origins!

The entire credit for the military action that was taken is once again hijacked by one man, in fact hashtags are made to make him the hero.

Anyone who has a different point of view is called a traitor and is asked to leave, amazing how political we become only on matters of hate!

The same neighbour we are gunning for has been historically and deliberately associated with the largest minority of this country and they too are expected to live in fear + go out of their way to prove their jingoism for their own country, only because of the name they were born with.

Artists, who have had nothing at all to do with anything are treated with the same biased lens. Our own biggest artists have never ever done anything for their own country, forget protesting against the wrong. But all of a sudden, artists from across the border are expected to be political, to take a stand against their own country, in a country where some of its own artists were punished for taking a stand against what they felt was wrong with the country.

But most importantly, an entire nation, especially one that has been a victim of historical political upheaval and suppressed freedom of expression, partially out of its own doing and partially that of others, is hated and blamed for the acts of a few indoctrinated people, whom it can’t even protect itself from! Imagine if everyone in Pakistan thinks all Indians support Gaurakshaks and all Indians kill beef-eaters! Do we? So will hatred against all Indians ever be justified! I can’t remember a single time when I spoke to an Indian who visited Pakistan and they did not say how they were absolutely floored with the love and hospitality they received from ordinary rickshaw drivers and shopkeepers and pedestrians everywhere in Pakistan. The common man of Pakistan has had his voice drowned out by deliberately malignant extremists and impotent, now helpless politicans.

A lot of innocent people in India have painfully lost their lives because someone who was indoctrinated with hate and dehumanization for an entire people killed them in his bloodlust for an end that was force-fed to him. This has to be addressed with rationality, strategy and sustainability. But if we use the same methods, then what is the difference between us and them! Imagine if some of those WhatsApp forwards actually came true. Imagine what would happen if Pakistan is actually wiped off the face of this Earth! Besides the obvious repurcussions of having such chaos in a neighbouring country, imagine the pain and suffering that would be inflicted on human beings of all kinds! Are you actually that hateful of them?!

“Nafrat bohot soch samajhke karni chahiye, kyuke ek din hum bhi wohi ban jaate hai jis se hum nafrat kiya karte the”, said Shahrukh Khan in ‘Main Hoon Na’, think about it!