Pritam's Blog
CAA Protests - A Case Of India’s Questionable Conscience
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
– Martin Niemöller (1892–1984), German Lutheran Pastor
These nation-wide protests against the CAA is mind-blowing. It seems like we have saved ourselves from failing as a nation. We have ultimately realized what the chaddis are doing to the country in general and a certain community in particular. But for some reason, I cannot stop thinking about a another unrelated incident that happened with a friend last year.
This friend of mine had just cleared NEET UG with a remarably good rank. But as it happens with people belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC) category, many of her friends were hell-bent on discrediting her accomplishment. I remember one of them in particular. This girl happens to be someone I have known to some extent - one of those progressive, opinionated, rational, politically aware person with a strong sense of right and wrong - or at least, that’s what I though she was from her posts and other activities on Facebook.
So, this girl had also appeared for the exam and cleared it with a decent score. But she’s is General candidate. And so, after the results were released and until the counselling process, she never missed an opportunity to point it to my friend that since she wasn’t someone from the Reserved Categories, there’s no way she would get a seat, thereby, revealing the part of her that has mastered the art of virtue signalling.
It was kind of shocking when I came to know of this particular side of her.
I realized one thing that day - people who offer blanket support from a distance are the most dangerous kind and shouldn’t be trusted. The moment the distance starts decreasing and they feel their experiences are going to change, they feel threatened and show theirv true colours. Likewise, unusually silent people, who have always been blind to the attrocities of this government, shouldn’t be trusted just because they are raising their voice now.
While all these protests all over the country should be applauded and supported, a part of me feels it is unfortunate that it had to be the CAA to serve as a wake-up call for a lot of us who have mostly remained calm and apolitical all these times… Because random incidents of mob lynching here and there do not really mean anything?
When innumerable incidents, like the killing of the likes of Gauri Lankesh or draping the body of Dadri lynching accused with the tricolour, glorification of terrorists like Godse and Pragya Thakur, the call for “Gang Rape” of Muslim women, the murder of Rohith Vemula, or the disappearance of Najeeb Ahmed, organized attacks on students, teachers, and the intellegentsia, the blinding of Kashmiris with pellet guns, and many such incidents couldn’t open the eyes of these people, I find it kind of hard to believe that this passage of this bill has led the ‘consiciences’ of the otherwise spineless mass wake them in fright.
Yes, the CAA, just like the Nuremberg Laws in Nazi Germany, has the potential to lead to a genocide. And that we are united against it is something worth preserving. This Act not just normalizes but also legitimizes these apparaently random, but actually organized acts of discrimination and violence against a particular community. But the skeptic in me doubts if all these protests have anything to do with one’s conscience.
Of course, I am not generalizing. There are a lot of people in this country who have been ceaselessly protesting against these goons and rioters right from the beginning, irrespective of whether or not they are affected by them… Nor do I intend to engage myself in whataboutery. This post doesn’t, in any way, discredit the stance taken by the otherwise spineless and apolitical mass. A bad person taking the right stand doesn’t make the stand questionable in any way. What is questionable is their motive and intention, the real reason why they have a problem with the CAA.
I am sure these people would have kept mum if their personal experiences were not challenged, if the CAA didn’t have the potential to cause them any inconvenience. But that’s for another day. Until then, I support the fight against the CAA, unconditionally. I just don’t trust everyone who is against it.