Expand and Evolve Ourselves



Expand and Evolve Ourselves

By Varghese T. Thomas

16th January, 2021



We cannot move to alternate universe

Indian society has reached a stage where we have been cornered by the RSS, VHP, BJP, ABVP, Bajrang Dal and Durga Vahini etc., by silencing academics and print journalists, conquering TV news channels, controlling Judiciary, propagating violence against minorities, creating vengeance among people, controlling sexuality and love by passing new laws.

We must understand that the damage they makes is immense for this country. Now we are in slippery plain and we can expect a vertical fall into a marshy well in the near future.

We have to expand our civil society to keep this evil at bay. The evil at present, which is trying to encroach into our privacy is Hindutva majoritarianism and this has pushed us all backward to a century.

It has become a day-to-day nuisance that unless we guard our fence, these Hindutva evils will trespass. Actual role of the fence is to protect the people and now it is the role of the people to protect the fence as well as the property and the privacy of the people.

This protection is not going to last forever. Even if we have multi layered fencing today or guarded with a gun man, tomorrow all these will be smashed to intrude into our privacy to dictate Hindutva terms on us as forced compromise.

To safeguard ourselves, the voice against these evils must come from the civil society. The civil society has to rise to the occasion as everyday activism to push these evils back. We may think that everyday activism is so awkward in a public view. Reality is, unknowingly, we are all fighting with the society for one thing or something else regularly for the progressiveness of the people and that is how the society develops.

Presently we are fighting for the rights of our privacy. Do you know what’s that? Yes.... it’s WhatsApp. As per their new privacy policy, they’re just trying to push us aside to get into our private room. So what we had done is, we are pushing them aside to safeguard our space by choosing Signal or Telegram messenger app. So we know how to fight to safeguard our space, whether we belongs to white collar, blue collar or no collar. Here nobody bothered about the public opinion or awkwardness.

We brought WhatsApp to their kneels and forced them to unleash an advertising blitz costing tens of millions of rupees this week in at least 10 English and Hindi newspapers that says – “WhatsApp respects and protects your privacy”. Now they are running from post to pillar to convince us to stop the exodus towards Signal and Telegram apps. Even though we cannot trust WhatsApp at the moment, at least we made them understand our strength.

So if we fight, we will win.

Likewise, if we gain a collective strength by expanding civil society, we can at least stop spreading hatred feelings among the people manufactured by the BJP and RSS.

Anxieties are surrounding. Let’s stand united for India. This is the time to think and discuss about a credible alternative.

Damage made by Trump to America should not happen here in India by Modi and Shah. Stay hand-in-hand. We cannot move to alternate universe.

As I mentioned in one of my previous articles, “a cow always believe that she gaze in a free and liberal democratic field. Only when the rope tied in the neck get stretched to the limit, she recognise that the other end of the rope is held by an autocrat”.

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