All countries face political polarization — at least the ones where governments allow the manifestation of different schools of thought. It is inherent in the nature of human beings to be either on this side or on that. And so it has been in India for a long time.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having diametrically opposite views within the nation. In fact, it is a sign of a healthy democracy. But what India has been witnessing over the past decade or so is by no means just differences of opinion or mere political polarization. The entire character of the nation has changed. Its ethos, the values it stood for, and the ideals it was respected for throughout the world have, to put it bluntly, corroded.
What has emerged is a cacophony of hysterical adulation of a political party, extreme jingoism, unreasoned worship of heads of the state, fanatical ‘nationalism’ and abhorrence of any viewpoint that is even mildly in disagreement with the ideology of the powers that be. In this highly charged atmosphere, there is simply no room for a centrist thought process.
The political polarization sweeping India is not a simple case of right-wingers fighting for space with leftists/left-leaning liberals. Those days are long gone. What we are witnessing is a full-blown case of national hysteria, religious fanaticism and xenophobia. Just about anything can set the jingo crowds off: The lyrics of a song, a scene in a movie, the name of a movie, a stand-up comedian, a play, a book, or a game.
There are times when it gets so bizarre that it seems surreal. The latest provocation is the colour of the dress worn by two film stars in a song sequence of a Hindi movie! That’s all it takes to offend religious sentiments nowadays — the colour of the clothes in a film.
The fires of this madness are fanned regularly by what passes for the “media” in the country. Night after night, hysterical news anchors lash out at minorities, filmmakers (except the ones who are on their side of the political divide), opposition parties, farmers, writers, intellectuals, and anybody they believe might have even the slightest difference of opinion from theirs. Add to this the noxious social media posts peddling half-truths and outright lies, and you end up with a nation that deliberately chooses to wear blinkers.
Where does this leave the moderates, the centrists, and those who want to use reason and logic? They increasingly find themselves pushed to the margins of society and the polity, with no platform left to voice their opinions. Should they dare to stand up and be counted, there is every possibility of them being harassed by pliant institutions that have long given up their independence. In today’s India, we do not tolerate anything that can remotely be construed as criticism. Differences of opinion are bulldozed away.
How long will this state of affairs continue? This is what is now worrying the moderates and centrists. For now, centrism is dead — it has become the sacrificial lamb in the game of political polarities.
