This author, like many of his generation, prefers to first pick up the Indian Express or The Hindu in the morning, even though he is often bemused by some of their stories and opinion pieces. But today was a shocker indeed. One story in The Indian Express had a peculiar headline: "2002 Gujarat riots and the 1984 Sikh riots are different: Kanhaiya Kumar". The story went on to provide more interesting pearls of wisdom from the Great New Savior Kanhaiya. Apparently, Kanhaiya was addressing yet another "Azaadi" meeting in JNU and told the audience: "There is difference between emergency and fascism. During emergency, goons of only one party were engaged into goondaism, in this (fascism) entire state machinery is resorting to goondaism. There is difference between riots of 2002 and 1984 Sikh riots.There is a fundamental difference between a mob killing a common man and massacring people through state machinery".
With this single foolhardy and brazen statement, the poster boy of free speech has shed all pretensions. He has become just another strident voice in a cacophony of voices that seem to think that decrying Narendra Modi as a 21st century monster and comparing him with Hitler at the drop of a hat makes them "truly liberal". Now, it is quite natural for Indian politicians, activists, intellectuals and other assorted do gooders to target Modi. He is indeed the most powerful Prime Minister India has seen in recent history. People froth at the mouth at the very mention of Modi just as they used for Indira Gandhi. Powerful and polarizing leaders do attract both adoration and unremitting hostility.
But the likes of Kanhaiya Kumar are destroying the very foundations of genuine liberal discourse by making these outrageous statements and comparisons. It is important to hold Modi and the BJP government of Gujarat along with the then NDA government responsible for the Gujarat riots. Even though Modi has been "cleared" in a legal sense, the moral taint will never fade away. But to trivialize the hideousness of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots is to jump from liberalism to political opportunism and cynicism of the worst kind. Even more shocking is how a Ph.D. scholar at a prestigious university like JNU is making such absurdly illogical and historically false claims to buttress his argument. The Emergency was indeed an era of fascism where political opponents were indiscriminately imprisoned and even the Supreme Court became a helpless and hapless witness. Only the ideologically blind and hate filled would compare the Emergency with contemporary political and social convulsions. Any one, even diehard Modi opponents, with even an iota of dignity and conscience would agree that the 1984 riots had all the hallmarks of "state sponsored" pogrom.
This author was no fan of Kanhaiya Kumar. The kind of economic ideology that Kanhaiya has been spouting ever since he became a celebrity and poster boy of free speech is precisely the kind of economic ideology that kept hundreds of millions of Indians in abject poverty. But the author admired the manner in which Kanhaiya seemed to successfully channelize popular sentiments against the present NDA regime. After all, a democracy does need critics, however harsh and unfair they may appear. But by absolving the Congress of all wrong doing, Kanhaiya has lost even that respect. Rahul Gandhi badly needs better speech writers. Maybe Poll strategist and latest Rahul advisor Prashant Kishor can draft Kanhaiya to write some speeches for Rahul. For all practical purposes, Kanhaiya has declared that he is a Congressman masquerading as a Leftist Liberal.
Besides, Luytens Delhi now urgently needs to "discover" another poster boy of free speech. Given the ham handed and stupid manner in which the NDA regime handled Kanhaiya, another "martyr" might just be round the corner.
