Still nationalist at heart

A letter to Sagarika Ghose in reply to her fear of the death of the liberal democracy

Dear author of ‘bloody mary’

I will be very honest to the extent of being brutal here as I write this to you. I have very occasionally read your column before. If my memory serves me right I read it some months back because you had written a piece on another idiot of the Thackeray clan, Aditya Thackeray. And I appreciated it, just like many others might have.

I have not put any effort to decipher why I don’t like reading what you write. Perhaps I am not attracted by the subject matter on which you write but one thing that I am sure of is the fact that I like your way of writing, the use of poets and poems etc. But that's where the appreciation ends.

Your recent write-up “Still old at heart” is something that I decided to read because I thought that it was something that was fresh and different from your too repetitive ranting for a ‘liberal’ Indian. And guess what, you proved me wrong. But then if only I had started from the last paragraph I would have been spared being ‘enlightened’ by your delightful thoughts.

What for you is a ‘political right’?

For you and the others liberals, ‘political right' is a demon that was born during and after the Godhra incident and the subsequent Gujarat riot. Nothing else. For you it is an ideology that took shape during those horrendous days.

But are you being true? Not to yourself but to the readers that you expect to read you? Is political right just about Gujarat?

Is being a ‘political right’ confined to the RSS,BJP or the VHP? And does being a Rightist mean someone who will take to the street with swords on the slightest pretext? Someone who will burn the whole city down if a Hindu goddess is painted in nude? Is that what you feel?

Cannot someone be on the Right side of the political weigh without being violent? Are all the political entities that have rightist leaning extremist and fanatics? Why have you people turned being a rightist into a disease? I leave this to you to decide.

Another feature of the ‘liberals’ that you have been so promoting, maybe because you too consider yourself as one, is that they still go maudlin when it comes to the ‘Left”.

Tell me what has the Left achieved? What did it achieve in West Bengal and what did it do when it was a constituent of the UPA? They are the best example of a how to be a hypocrites. They have all the money in the world just like any other politicians yet they expect that the whole of India to believe that they are the what they appear, a simple grass root leader in sandals and kurtas.

I pity their charming intellect when they speak words of wisdom which is never transformed into actions.

You and the other feel that the educated Indian should embrace the Left because its working for those who have no voice? Do you think that we believe then when they say that its a Marxian war that they are still fighting? No we don’t believe that. Simple and period. And no amount of articles and words will change it.

You have rightly said that we scorn on ‘pseudo-seculars’. And may I also suggest that you can also use the term ‘libtarted’ which is a abbreviated form of ‘liberally-retarded’ when you are referring to these ‘pseudo-seculars’.

This section of the society believes that every other section of the mass that is not on their side should pay heed to whatever comes out of their sparkling mouth. But then again, We will not believe them.

Secularism is not about promoting one and demoting the other, please understand it. It’s about being impartial and being ‘right’, no pun intended.

The new age liberalist believes that its an occasion to celebrate when a god or goddess is painted in nude, it’s a moment to raise a ‘bloody mary’ when some demented writer calls Kashmir a non-integral part of India.

The neo-liberals have a double standard for every thing under the sun. According to you the Judiciary failed Binayak Sen but then according to me the same did not fail S A R Geelani or did it failed?

At one point of time the media found The Talwars guilty and now the same Talwars are an apostle of innocence. Hypocrisy is the key word here, something thats being said in a very subtle tone.

You feel that the judiciary should follow your commands and strictures. If you feel that Geelani is innocent then he should be set free and if Binayak is an angel then he should be treated like one. And if the judiciary fails to follow your words you lambaste them. And you criticize the whole country- Banana republic has become such a rage these days, thanks to you.

You conduct a survey and come out with an observation that the youths have degenerated because they are no more 'liberal'. A survey based on random participants who are living in normal times will not give you an accurate picture that whether they will converge on the streets if they feel that the time has come.

No survey could have predicted about the self-immolation of Rajeev Goswami and no could gauge the strength of the youth when they came out on the street against the reservation policy.

Nationalism is not just about being liberal and secular in the loose terms; it’s something that comes from inside and which is not dependent on someone outside. I hope I have spelled out what nationalism means for me.

Best wishes

Abhinandan Mishra