I was in India from 5th to 25th 0f January and flew out at 1:35 AM on Air India on January 26th, 2014 the Republic Day- the day on the Banks of Ravi in Lahore Mahatma issued the slogan of Purna Swaraj from the British in India, the same date on which the new constitution of the new republic of India came into effect in 1950. As I landed in Vancouver and checked the international news Rahul Gandhi was discussing the 1984 riots and 2002 Godhra riots in Gujarat. In 1984 hundreds of Sikhs were massacred. There have been serious allegations of Congress' complicity in the riots of 1984. The Godhra riots saw hundreds of Muslims being butchered. There have been serious allegations of complicity and of looking the other way against Narendra Modi's BJP government of the day. In the most recent interview to Times Now TV Gandhi distinguished 84 butchery from that of 2002 by suggesting the government did act and more swiftly than in 2002. He failed to categorically accept on behalf of Congress the moral, ethical and political responsibility for 1984 just as Modi continues to evade moral, ethical and political responsibility for Godhra.
Indian polity has sunk so low that the top politicians can't find it in themselves to condemn outright and unequivocally the hate, communalism and butchery. In the hyper partisan and corrupt environs of Indian politics the politicians never cease to pander, equivocate and vacillate. Their conduct and partisan utterances give one the impression of one riot being more 'paltable' than the other. Now that I am retired from active politics I watch Indian TV every now and then. I have rarely watched any partisan commentators and party spokespersons unreservedly condemn any and all butchery. The debates quickly degenerate into digging up the 'old' riots and butchery under the governments of one stripe or the other to explain away or criticise the present as it so repeatedly happened in the case of the recent MuzaffarNagar riots and butchery.
Watching and reading Indian politics one gets the distinct impression that there is no national consensus among Indian politicians on communalism, hate and the butchery associated with it. It is almost as if 'my riot is more palatable and less condemnable than yours'. Shame on the leaders of the country that have failed in the last 67 years of independence in building a national consensus against all violence in the name of caste, creed, religion and regionalism. Mahatma Gandhi would have fasted unto death to shame the pandering politicians and the marauding and ravaging rioters. India still needs him and many more like him. Where is he when his country needs him?
