In My Own Voice: Truth and Beauty

Pragya Singh Thakur has received a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket for the Lok Sabha elections from Bhopal. It may be noted, that Pragya Thakur, who likes to call herself a sadhvi -- although sadhvis (women who renounce all material posesssions) don’t aspire to power, nor do yogis -- is out on bail and is an accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, and has been investigated in several other similar cases of terror. 

Since her nomination, Thakur has said that Hemant Karkare, the police officer who was felled by terrorists on 26 /11 in Mumbai, died because of ‘my curse’. She has also claimed proudly that she was part of the group that demolished the Babri Masjid, a planned crime that left a scar on the psyche of the nation.

The father of one of the boys killed in the Malegaon blast has gone to court stating he has been deeply hurt and appealing that Thakur be debarred from the election as the trial is still in progress. He has also sought that Thakur’s bail be withdrawn since she it was granted on health grounds whereas she is seen actively campaigning in the elections.

The Election Commission must ensure that anyone charged with serious crimes, across party lines, are debarred from seeking public office. This is essential for the sanctity of Parliament and to preserve the spirit of democracy and the Indian Constitution.

Whatever be the outcome of this election, I must confess that in my entire life, I have not seen so much hate flaunted in the face of the people with an I-will-do-as-I-wish-to attitude, with impunity.

In1998, I interviewed freedom fighter, Subhadra Joshi. She recalled contesting against Atal Bihari Vajapyee in the 1962 Lok Sabha election. She said he had said in a speech, “Some Subhadra Joshi has come. Nobody knows her, nobody knows anything about her and nobody knows anything about her parents. She does not have any relation with Hindu culture. She neither puts sindoor (a symbol of marriage) nor wears bangles”. The workers came and urged me to wear bangles and a bindi.  I retorted: “I have come for an election and not to participate in a drama. In my election rally, I said: “No one knows a soldier or his caste when he goes to fight for his country. Does a soldier wear bangles or bindi? … When Lakshman was asked what jewellery Sita was wearing, he said he did not know as he only looked at her feet, then how does this keeper of Hindu culture know whether I put sindoor or not?’

Joshi recalled that people really clapped when she said this, and she went on to defeat Vajpayee by a strong margin in Balrampur constituency. She was elected three times to Parliament.

These are indeed different times. What is at stake is the very soul of India because despite the trauma of demonetisation, the brutal takeover of institutions by packing them with servile and Hindutva espousing men,  what is being done is to ask the 130-million strong first-time voter to give their vote ‘in the name of the Pulwama (terrorist) victims and those who struck at Balakot (armed forces).’

While campaigning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: “Our media keeps reminding us that Pakistan too has a nuclear bomb. Is our nuclear bomb kept for Diwali?” to loud cheers. This is a remark that will be used to turn brainwashed boys into jihadis in terror camps across the border and will reverberate with deep concern across the world.

India is a nuclear power and has to be seen as a responsible power, not as a nation that can terrorise the fate of millions. Long after this election is over, the scars etched on the nation’s psyche will remain, just as the trauma of Partition is still being played out.

Some students of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University have had the Delhi police charge them with sedition. They have been accused of being a ‘tukde tukde gang’, but who is really fragmenting India? Who is dividing the psyche of the nation on the basis of religion?  

Instead of real issues -- people are crying out in pain over unemployment which is at a 45-year high, farmers’ distress, destruction of small livelihoods and absolutely no social security -- we are instead fed rabble-rousing speeches on Hindutva. If building the tallest statue in the world and a temple could alleviate the pain of the people it would be appropriate, but unfortunately the very soul of India is at stake in this election.

Remember the words of poet Firaq Gorakhpuri:

‘Sar zamin-e-Hind par aqwam-e-aalam ke Firaq,

Kafile aate rahe aur Hindustan banta gaya’

[roughly translated - On the soil of Hindustan, O Firaq,

Caravans from all over the world kept coming, and Hindustan kept being made’].

India, that is Bharatvarsh, is always in the process of being made. It is a rich mosaic of the most diverse society in the world. It was not created as a theocratic state with one religion, but one where we could pray, eat and dress in whatever way we wished to and convert, too, or be an atheist as the Charvakas in ancient India were, and many continue to be. It is amazing, this coexistence of such a diverse people with no animosity. What we are witnessing is the dismantling of this idea of India.

Pragya Thakur says: “I am the living example of the pain inflicted on women”, and Madhu Kishwar, founder-editor of Manushi – a journal on women and society -- has said: “I am willing to campaign for Pragya as she is a wronged woman”. However, this saffron-robed woman is no representative of women -- women have seen a dramatic decline in the workforce and do not have their domestic labour counted in the gross domestic product. Thakur has not suffered all this. As a woman, I do not want the Pragya Thakurs of this world to speak for us.

No one is quoting poetry at the chest-thumping, phallic, nuclear-weapon flaunting – mine is bigger than yours – rallies, but right now it might be appropriate to hear the voice of Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore:

‘Where the mind is without fear

And the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depths of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arm towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom,

My father, let my country awake.’

The words of Tagore are being discarded just as the fabric of society is being torn to shreds. I remember the correspondence between Tagore and Gandhi over beauty and truth, where Tagore wrote that beauty is to be cherished for its own sake and Gandhi responded that truth is so beautiful, for it encompasses beauty in its being.

The truth about this election is that it is ugly and its ugliness will reverberate long after it is over.

The writer is an award-winning author and film-director. The views are personal.