26 Oct, 2015
The fringe, violent elements of Indian society have now become mainstream – Hindustan Times
Across the country from Dadri to Faridabad, Moodbidri to Udhampur, there’s a deep sense of unease at events spiralling out of control. Writers feel it, sociologists believe it and the president is concerned enough to have to publicly address it repeatedly in the course of a month.
The BJP would have you believe that the anxiety is ‘manufactured’, that crimes in the states are a law and order problem for which it can’t be responsible, and that breaking the rules is even embedded in the genetic DNA of North Indians, to paraphrase minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju.
Perhaps we’ve come to expect no better from our political class. We are barely surprised when senior ministers insist that Muslims abstain from eating beef in India. We don’t question the silence from opposition parties, including the Congress, that refuse to state unequivocally that citizens have a fundamental right to life, and this must include the diet they choose.
But what do we say to the Ugly Indian, who lurks in the anonymity of lynch mobs on the streets and troll brigades on social media?
Read the rest: The fringe, violent elements of our society have now become mainstream | columns | Hindustan Times
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