Introduction And Imposition of a Fear Factor Is an Infallible Political Strategy
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
31 August
2023
Mohit
Yadav, a bus conductor hailing from Mainpuri and formerly employed by Uttar
Pradesh Roadways, tragically took his own life by leaping in front of a train
on Monday. This distressing act followed his dismissal, stemming from a viral
video that captured him halting a bus to allow two Muslim passengers to pray in
Bareilly.
Mohit
Yadav
-----
Alas, Mohit
Yadav's nice gesture of goodwill resulted in his dismissal! A non-Muslim
showing consideration and a sense of understanding and accommodation towards
Muslim passengers was actually an act of goodness that should have been praised
by all and sundry.
Had he been
a Muslim, this act could have invited criticism. Even in that case, a dressing-
down would have been enough. But he wasn't a Muslim. He was a conscientious
individual.
Otto von
Bismarck wrote that an autocratic State's first objective was to kill an
individual's conscience.
When a
State fails to kill an individual or collective conscience, it eliminates those
who're conscientious. Government is afraid of people who're sympathetic towards
a beleaguered community and driven by a palpable sense of conscience. It's the
government's despotic way to drive home the point that whoever shows even a
smidgen of concern and consideration towards Muslims, will be dismissed and not
just reprimanded. A clear and categorical message is being sent out that
helping Muslims will incur the State's ire.
In his
seminal essay, 'Steps To Being A Theocratic State,' Pakistan's former
Air Marshal Muhammad Asghar Khan wrote that, "A despotic government
eventually becomes either Nihilistic or Fanatic." In the case of Pakistan,
despotism paved the way for fanaticism. The same is happening in India.
The
despotic political dispensation is now a totalitarian and zealot political
force. Its exclusive religious agenda doesn't allow minorities to exercise
their fundamental rights. Those who dare speak on behalf of them (minorities
and oppressed ones) are quickly branded as traitors and fifth columnists like
that poor Mohit Yadav. All autocratic governments resort to the introduction
and imposition of a loud and clear fear factor. This is an infallible political
strategy. We're living in terribly iffy times when the voices of sanity and
conscience are being publicly squashed and muzzled.
----
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/introduction-imposition-fear-factor-political/d/130572
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