Silence of a Billion

I don’t know if feedback is the breakfast of champions, it certainly is the breakfast of writers. Writing is a dialogue with the readers. When I wrote two articles on India’s new controversial legislation (CAA/NRC), I expected the readers to join the debate. Other than the anticipated abuse from known and unknown readers, following are some of the emails I got. These are not excerpts, but complete responses.

·         I have stopped taking sides on these issues, so can’t comment whether I agree or disagree.

·         Was trying to know as much about the issue as possible. An article from you is much valuable.

·         Thanks for your articles. Belated happy birthday to you.

·         I am completely un-political (sic). I don’t vote in any election, on principle.

·         For me, have to know enough about something to have an opinion. And nowadays, as a global phenomenon, it’s very hard to find someone you trust who can present an unbiased view on things like this.

·         Your study and analysis about the topic are terrific. I am unable to react as my knowledge is not up to date.

·         Thanks for your last two articles. How do I pronounce the Russian word you mentioned in your article?

Wow! What a range of innovative ways to voice their silence. And these respondents are my friends, some of them PhDs and MBAs.

You don’t really need years of study to answer questions such as: (a) Do you approve of the construction of detention centers across India to exclusively imprison Muslims? Yes/No. (b) Do you approve of imprisoning Muslim babies because their great-grandfathers were illegal immigrants? Yes/No. (Mind you, the government manual mandates each detention centre to have a crèche facility. Have you ever heard of crèches in prisons?).

Answering these questions requires not a PhD degree but only conscience. It also requires fearlessness that allows you to express your opinion. Above responses suggest to me that those readers, all of them Indian citizens, are terrified of expressing their opinion in black and white. They prefer to stay silent rather than end up on the wrong side of the debate.

Dictatorship

I have developed a formula for dictatorship.

Dictatorship= those who knowingly support minus those who knowingly oppose plus those who are knowingly silent.

Dictators always project silence as support. In a corporate board meeting, or even in a family gathering, the loud mouths usually end up making decisions. The silent members later fume or protest, privately, for having to abide by the decisions thrust on them. But it’s too late.

Not using free speech is like engaging in a battle but refusing to use your ammunition.

Applying the formula:

Dictatorship= Supporters (20%) + Silent (50%) – Opponents (30%) = +40%. Though opponents (30%) may outnumber the supporters (20%), the silent crowd (50%) becomes the decision-making force. They crush the opposition with their silence.

The threat to be imprisoned may prevent people from protesting or expressing their honest opinion. But the moment they are afraid, they have already entered a prison.

Imprisonment of minds

Conventionally speaking, imprisonment is putting someone behind bars. But imprisonment can be of minds, not just bodies.

Each and every citizen of North Korea, except Kim Jong-un, is in prison. Most North Koreans sleep in their own houses and are not chained. But their minds are in prison. They have absolutely no freedom of expressing their thoughts, and an eternal fear of saying something wrong. Every day, school children and factory workers must sing a hymn “We will follow you only” dedicated to Kim Jong-un, in front of cameras wherever possible. North Korean YouTube (called Uriminzokkiri) allows condemnation of South Korea and the USA, nothing else. North Korea’s caste system Songbun classifies citizens into loyal, wavering and hostile. This is based on ancestry as well as behavior.

North Korea is an extreme example. In most nations, even democratic ones, people often speak on party lines (Republicans must support guns and oppose abortion), family loyalties (my parents vote for Congress, so I do as well), religion (we are Hindus, so I support awarding citizenship to Hindu illegal immigrants), employer loyalty (I pay bribes on my company’s behalf, because our business will not grow otherwise) etc.

If you can’t think independently, or express your thoughts fearlessly, at least some part of your mind is in prison.

Trump can’t be a dictator

Donald Trump is racist, xenophobic, a liar, a bully and a narcissist thug. And he is in control of the nastiest nuclear weapons. Other than Lincoln, he is the tallest president in America’s history. His handshake is made of iron. And yet he can never become a dictator. Why?

America’s constitution? More than two centuries old, it talks about separation of powers, offers safeguards for individual liberties. However, parts of that constitution are as rigid as the Koran is for Muslims. Despite perennial rampage killing incidents, the purchase and use of guns is easy. The Second amendment which allows such man-made tragedies is dated 1791.

America’s Supreme Court? Not really. For a democratic nation, the USA Supreme Court is biased. The president nominates the Supreme Court judges, and several verdicts are given on party lines. Trump managed to appoint Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh thereby ensuring a conservative majority in the Supreme Court. In the USA, Supreme Court judges are in office until they fall dead. Making the SC conservative has been one of Trump’s greatest contributions to his party.

The reason Trump can’t become a dictator is not America’s constitution or its Supreme Court. It is the fearlessness of America’s people. You can see it in media; CNN is on a relentless anti-Trump campaign since before Trump became president. On my FB wall, I see my American friends and relatives trashing Trump tirelessly. Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, Trevor Noah, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, Bill Maher, and dozens of other comedians have got a new lease of professional life. They are not shy to use all kinds of obscenities when addressing their president.

Losing comedy is Russia’s tragedy

Vladimir Putin, in physical comparison to Trump, is a midget. If he was not what he is, you wouldn’t notice him on Moscow’s metro escalator. How did the world’s largest nation get trapped in the fist of this short man? Twenty one years so far with no end in sight?

Putin came into power in 1999, promising law and order, an end to corruption. Little did the Russians suspect that dictatorship is worse than lawlessness and corruption. Because under dictatorship, police and courts become subservient to the dictator. And corruption always becomes worse. The looters are stronger than before.

Boris Yeltsin’s regime in the 1990s was chaotic and traditionally corrupt. But Russia experienced democracy for the first time. Russian people were outspoken. You could be afraid of the Mafia but not of Yeltsin or his government. Kukli(puppets) was a weekly TV show of political satire. All of Russia, including the politicians who were ridiculed, loved the show. This weekly comedy came very close to American openness.

And then Putin happened. In 2002, Kukli ended. Since then, there is no political satire on Russian TV.  In clubs and cafes, comedians need to be very careful. Two weeks ago, Alexander Dolgopolov, a 25-year old standup comedian fled Russia after making jokes about Putin and Christianity. In America, his anti-Putin lines may have gone unnoticed: Our population has split into two camps. On one hand there are those who support Putin, on the other, there are those who can read, write and are logical. He had also joked about Christ and Virgin Mary. A former communist atheist, Putin has introduced strict anti-blasphemy laws.

In Yeltsin’s time, Russians proudly carried the sword of free speech and used it. In Putin’s time, they hide it in a sheath of silence. And now with disuse over two decades, they don’t know how to use it, even if they wish to. They have mastered the art of self-censorship. For Putin’s one-man rule, the silence of the Russian people is as responsible as Putin himself. “Puppets” closing marked the end of the Russian democracy.

India’s stand-up comedians

The good news for India is that the majority of the CAA-NRC-prison supporters, Islamophobes, radicalized zealots are not young. They are closer to crematoriums than to their maternity hospitals.

In the gym I regularly visit, most members and trainers are in their twenties and thirties. They don’t give a damn about Ram temple, cow worship, patriotism as defined by someone else, illegal immigrants or India’s partition (that happened before their parents were born). Not only that, they virally spread the clips of the stand-up comedians who ridicule the ridiculous. I am attaching a sample of performances. Kunal Kamra, known for the recent flight ban controversy, actually comes to my gym, when he is not performing. His JNU, BJP andMuslims, Abijit Ganguly’s CAA-NRC, Modiji and Amit Shah, Varun Grover’s Modiji, BJP and cows are top-class acts. Even if you support Ram-mandir or want to be silent about building prisons for Muslim babies, you may want to watch these clips. They are great fun. More importantly, they show fearlessness and sense of ridicule are still present in India. My gym friends circulating these clips make me believe that none of CAA-NRC-Detention camps are ever going to happen.

Public opinion

CAA legislation passing in both chambers is not the end of the process. Any new legislation still needs to pass the Supreme Court and public opinion.

Supreme Court judges don’t have the choice of remaining silent. They are obliged to form an opinion and to express it.

In any serious debate, I always consider myself to be a Supreme Court judge. That allows me to keep a clear mind and judge a particular issue objectively. Muslims protesting against CAA-NRC is natural; they are the victims of the legislation. Non-Muslims are also capable of forming an objective judgment. Not only do Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi have a right to protest, Deepika Padukone has it, too. When people in thousands, in millions, abandon their silence, and voice opinions, it becomes Public Opinion.

If you support Islamophobia, xenophobia or legislated discrimination, it is fine if you wish to remain silent. Because your silence is deemed as support anyway. But if you are against such initiatives, and remain silent, then you are pushed into the support camp. Politics is different from art, music, Netflix, sport. You are free not to watch Netflix or not to have any opinion on art or music. But nobody can be apolitical. Because your taxpaying, house-buying, marrying, banking, driving, drinking and even whether you should be free or in prison is decided by politics.

George Orwell, 75 years ago, wrote:

The relative freedom which we enjoy depends on public opinion. The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends on the general temper in the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it. If public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them. (“Freedom of the park” in Tribune: 7 December 1945)

*****

How incredibly relevant is Orwell’s quote even after 75 years.

Ravi