I have made genuine attempts to converse with people who have differing views – sometimes successfully. I was in touch with some SwarajyaMag journalists briefly and tried to understand their thought process. It started well but they later broke contact with me when I pointed out that they are highlighting one type of stories and ignoring counter-narrative stories.
Below are some views that I have accumulated over the years. They have evolved and will hopefully continue to evolve in future. Needless to say, everything here is my personal opinion.
- Regarding journalism – Most journalists (and even social media influencers) are in the business of opinion manufacturing (whether for right or left). This makes it difficult for people to separate propaganda from reality. However, the kind of liberties some right wing portals take with reporting is mind boggling. The left leaning outlets may sometimes focus on the wrong side of a story to build a particular perception, but they usually still end up reporting the facts of the story (maybe highlighting convenient facts) whereas the RW portals can randomly make up some facts to push a narrative. Also, the RW portals are never subtle when they push a narrative. They shove their PoV down the throat of the reader/ listener. —————————————————————————
- Regarding liberal democracy/ due process – A liberal democracy is in the best interest of civilians and it is not a default outcome of society. We should absolutely cherish it and work to protect it because any other system will result in loss of civilian liberties. If you think authoritarian regimes are in nation’s best interest, consider spending some time in Russia/ China/ Saudi. In no circumstance should we be okay with ignoring due processes to punish someone just because we hate that person. That’s a sure shot road to hell. —————————————————————————-
- Regarding party supporters – People are free to support whatever/ whoever they want. Becoming submissive to a leader/ party is sub-optimal though. In a democracy, the people are supreme and it should remain that way. People should always question their representatives. It’s good to keep a healthy skepticism (and not become a conspiracy theorist also). Accepting any statement because it is coming from your preferred leader/ party is not wise (and vice-versa for rejecting any statement). It is hard to do this and even I fail sometimes but we must try. ——————————————————————————-
- Regarding BJP party supporters – I do agree with BJP supporters on few things. Sometimes the liberal media is unfair to the BJP. Sometimes the BJP does receive unfair criticism. I will also say that not all BJP supporters hate minorities. Even those who dream of a Hindu rashtra are not necessarily hostile towards minorities. These (relatively) sane voices seem to be less vocal though. Most ordinary supporters (who I’ve met) support BJP for Hindu supremacy reasons and I absolutely abhor that. Some of these folks live in foreign countries also. They reap the fruits of liberal democracies in those countries. So it shouldn’t be hard for them to think how they would react to white supremacy politics in those countries. No country can prosper by making a chunk of people feel like second class citizens.
PS: Few BJP supporters also believe that opposing Modi = opposing the nation. That has not happened out of thin air. The BJP wanted this to happen and has somewhat succeeded in it. I’d say that the people who think this way are weak minded. ——————————————————————————-
- Regarding political discourse – This has definitely worsened since 2014. There is greater polarization and increase of below the belt attacks. I accept that this has happened from both sides. But I do hold the BJP responsible for this since not only they started it, but they went overboard with it without any good reason (Calling opponents pappu, Pakistani, Naxal, terrorist etc). Not just that, the political memes they used to target opponents were beyond tasteless and rational BJP supporters should have strongly objected to that in my opinion. My ex-acquaintances of SwarjyaMag gave a short speech on this saying for action there is reaction etc. I agree with that. However, where I disagree with them is which team did the action and which team did reaction.
PS: Also, it is completely okay to not have an opinion on everything. ———————————————————————————-
- Regarding Secularism – Although this is somewhat connected to above point but I mentioned this separately because I loathe how the BJP has bastardized this term for political gains. They could have said in their messaging that Congress secularism is fake and unproductive. We will show real secularism. They could have said that we believe in pluralism (and to be fair some BJP spokespersons have said that but that does not seem to be part of broader messaging). Instead, they turned secularism into an insult with terms like sickular etc. Even otherwise sane pro government journalists use the term to attack ideological opponents. Secularism means the separation of religious and political space. Secularism is an important bedrock of a healthy country. We were not completely secular before nor we will be completely secular in near future. However, the objective must always be to become more secular than before. Unless that happens, we will have misplaced priorities as a nation. ———————————————————————
- Regarding foreign policy – A lot of BJP supporters are in awe of foreign policy of this government. I don’t understand the basis of it. Foreign policy outcome is extremely complex to evaluate and it requires a good amount of research over a large enough period. How many allies we had earlier? How many allies do we have today? Do those allies serve our strategic interests? One or two articles here and there say nothing about foreign policy effectiveness. I am not saying that FP was necessarily ineffective. I’m saying it doesn’t seem wise to pass judgement on it based on few articles. I have no opinion on it other than the fact that a lot of people have seemingly rushed into making an opinion on this. ———————————————————————-
- Miscellaneous – I will acknowledge that there is a far-left in the country right now that is as unhelpful for prosperity as the far right. However as I said before, I believe this creation to be a reaction to BJP’s occasional flirting with far-right politics. Regarding CAA, I don’t have strong opinion right now. I can see some positives as well as some negatives of it. I don’t see the point of a nationwide NRC. In terms of cost-benefit, there are enormous costs to a nationwide NRC and minuscule gains at best and significant losses at worst. There are better things to spend energy and resources on. Social media wars and perception battles are okay but one should also stop and wonder what tangible benefits they have received from a government. Has your life improved from before and how?
My den 