I am writing this at 35,000 feet, flying right above the capital of capitalism, Washington DC, after listening to Kanhaiya’s speech. I am on my way back home after advising clients on a cost takeout initiative that may impact the livelihood of several employees in a rural town.

My advice to my client in corporate America is pretty much the anti-thesis of Kanhaiya’s core political ideology of communism. Furthermore, I even have issues of a personal kind with communism and their dogmatic ideology and methods - I was at the receiving end of the communist methods and was put in jail on fabricated charges by a communist government in the past. 

WHY am I them cheering for Kanhaiya?

BTW, I am not alone in cheering for him and the JNU students. A friend of mine (a former card holding Communist who quit the CPM) and has been living his life in another part of the world as advisor to a foreign government, deliberately staying away from the riff raff of Indian politics lost it with the JNU incident. He is now on fire all over social media ripping apart certain “remote NRI nationalists”.

 My wife’s friends who were Modi fans are up in arms after JNU. An RSS friend of mine who migrated recently to the US who is blown away by the hospitality of  Christian Americans (a story by itself, which I shall write about some day) reluctantly accepts the issues with the governments “perception management”…

So what is it about the JNU incident that makes people from various walks of life from across several parts of the globe cheer for Kanhaiya? I realized that it is not for communism that we are cheering for, but by standing up for Kanahaiya, we are lending our voices to speak out along with him against a “regime” that is becoming authoritarian by the day, with absolute disregard for institutions and people.

The JNU incident has served as a tipping point, in a series of abuses on human rights starting with attacks churches in Delhi, to lynching Muslims to deaths of rationalists to generally anyone who seem to have a point of view that is different from an aggressive pseudo nationalism that is being foisted on the plural social fabric of India.

The deliberate doctoring of video tapes, the use of government machinery, party thugs and media trials by vested media, became over bearing for a country which takes pride in pluralism and the freedom to dissent. This is the people of India saying - Enough is Enough.

India has not been kind to oppressors of this freedom. Indira Gandhi who many say was a great leader is has left a legacy that reminds us of the dark moments for India – i.e the Emergency period. 

This government needs to learn from the lessons of Egypt where unemployed youth took to the streets as their opportunities for a decent life slipped away from them. This government need to realize that the youth voted for jobs more than anything.  

This government needs to understand that lynching is not (hopefully) a job description and career path for the youth of India. This government needs get the fanatic fans and goons (including lawyers) to stop intimidating the common man in the name of fake “nationalism certificates”.

Basically this government needs to cut the crap and deliver on the most important election promise- JOBS!!!

P.S: For those who go on the instant anti national rant, please ask yourself if your job situation got any better in the last two years.

 

For more sane perspectives: http://www.netamaker.com/zing.php