It’s a public rally. Organized to support the Kathua rape accused. The gathering is fervent. Carrying national flags. Listening keenly to the linchpin. And vocalizing what he is exhorting them to do—Hurling choicest invectives against Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. For the simple reason that she didn’t agree to the CBI inquiry into the Kathua incident.
The linchpin, brother of BJP MLA, is heard hurling Mufti, using derogatory language. The same is reciprocated and cheered by the crowd. There he is, centrally: a sick mind, a sort of venom—a brazen man, abusing in a lyrical sequence. The scene is awful and malicious. The setting is aimed and maneuvered.
The pattern of such slandering is understandable. It would be surprising if it were otherwise! Because the flagrant orchestrating of nasty politics is becoming a new normal in Kashmir. Suddenly the unthinkable here is turning vey plausible. But what shows up as a revealingly disturbing phenomenon is the nauseating level some minds can stoop to deride and debase their rivals.
Of course, there are entrenched ideological differences and deep clashes of interest that turn people into bitter adversaries. Some of all this may, most of the times, be either uncorroborated by specifics or may not plainly make sense in a normal state of mind. It’s hate, untamed and unbridled universally, that turns it horrendous and humungous. To the point of murkiest malevolence! There is a marked unwillingness to carry on hostilities with a little norm of civility. A cynically manipulated demonization and defamation of opponents nurtures the climate of atrocious affronting. The ugly intolerance high¬lights the collapse of political propriety, besides the revanchist illogicalities breeding in the name of some savage god of perverted paradigms or de¬monic devises. In fact, the whole world seems perpetuating them. In all aspects, from social to political dogmas. Tirelessly.
More so, the Kathua rally represents all this in a micro frame. A pure prototype, pontification for pontification’s sake, but a live, real relay of power exhibit and criminal offensive. Most importantly, a gross disregard towards womankind; first by pleading for the accused in the crime against a minor girl, and then demeaning a woman politician for her stand against the accused. What a travesty!
It also indicates the cogently emerging misogynist mindset in a society that is grappling with many critical social issues right now. Are we heading towards acceptance of sordid subcultures? If a state CM is openly abused, what about many other laywomen who might be facing the onslaught in different contexts covertly? Are women in Kashmir becoming an object of rowdy ridicule and pitiable persecution at the hands of wrong minds? Is male chauvinism obliquely getting endorsed by sad silence of majority over the use of obscene language against a lady who is a public figure? Are ideological differences and individual failings a reason to justify lewd insulting? Do abusers qualify to be the arbitrators? If yes, as it seems so, then there is no good cause for turning to any line of reasoning over sanity and substance in a society. Regretfully.
There is a need to relook into the ways we wage our all wars. Emanating from brains to battlefields. Calling names and heaping invectives renders them intriguingly flimsy. And then, all hostilities and discords don’t require a retort. Certain reactions need to be absorbed for better etiological understanding of antagonisms besieging us. So that our minds are not much changed as deepened in civility and compassion. For good and forever.
Bottomline: Hate is harrowing. Tirades are turbulent. Ranting is riotous. Vilification is no victory. Our profanity against our opponents doesn’t define our positions. Or either justify our aversion. More than the levels of fracas, we ought to foster fierce longings of learning from our disagreements and disputes.
Differences apart, whether it is Ms. Mufti or any other women, vituperating against them is unequivocally deplorable. Politics or no politics: the sense should not turn into nonsense.