Spreading Venom

Not that I doubted their capability, but there still was hope that all was not lost, that sense will prevail. But alas it was all in vain. While the debate on whether India is going the Hindutva way and whether secularism has any relevance today is occupying the centrestage of social media. As if that was not decadent enough, the venom of communalism is strategically being injected into the veins of the country. The termites are eating it up all, by the time anyone we would realize what has happened, it might all be over.
It was by a sheer coincidence that I witnessed the Hindutva parade at Hospet on 4 January, on the eve of 50 years of VHP. It was definitely not a coincidence that the parade was organized on the day of Milad-un-nabi. If the parade could scare an athiest me, what would it do to minorities. With all the virulent sloganeering, display of power, what it does to the environment of the town is irreparable. No it is not just the Hindutva guys, there are competent individuals in the rest of the religions as well. As it happened in Hospet, the same day witnessed a muslim parade in the afternoon and the hindu parade in the evening. I haven't witnessed the muslim parade myself so it would be inappropriate to comment.
On enquiring what was happening, the lady who sells bananas answered "There is some festival, muslims paraded in the afternoon these people are parading now. It is some jayanti..."
The transwomen who participated in the parade for financial reasons explained more clearly, "It is some muslim festival so they are parading."
"Why are they parading for a muslim festival?"
"No no, there was a muslim parade in the afternoon. This is some jayanti....like Gandhi Jayanti is there na...something like that. So they are parading..."
The parade was truly a spectacle with chariots, hundreds of youth shouting slogans against Pakistan and the power of Hinduism. I wonder what Pakistan did to Hospet, but no for a Hindu nation to exist there needs to be a muslim other, which is the enemy. With so much participation for a town of that size, I shudder to think where we must have reached.



I'm proud to be a Hindu! What can be wrong with that, why do you look at me like that? That's what his expression seems to ask, that is also what a lot of people now ask out loud. It is the poverty of the age we live that there seems to be nothing wrong with it apparently. There the poster boy Krishna calls out for a war. But a war against who? A muslim, a dalit, a woman, a transman, a lesbian...could be anyone. Perpetual war is inevitable for the supremacy of Hindutva. 
It first seemed like an innocent poster wishing on a festival, but I might be wrong. 


There we go, the virulent Bramhin son of Bharatmata up in arms for his mother, against the invaders.
Fascism must have swept it all, I don't want to wake up to see the day I would drown in it.