OPED: Extremism by any other name….

Published by Global Affairs / Nov 2017

A few years ago a gathering of Pakistani intellectuals tried to sound the alarm over India’s creeping radicalization and obvious leanings towards militant mindsets. Barkha Dutt – a prominent Indian journalist who was present as a guest speaker pooh-poohed the fears – proudly pointing to a vibrant civil society able to stave off the coming storm. Her Pakistani hosts were unconvinced. Having witnessed first-hand the rise and fall of extremism – they recognized the symptoms and could testify to its pervasive hold on an otherwise liberal society and the challenges of clearing leftover toxic waste.

Pakistan’s concern was not tinged with condescension - it was well meaning. Despite its many imperfections – it had already begun mapping a way out and wondered if the region could survive the fallout of harboring an extremist outlook in the neighborhood.
Hindutva – Hindu nationalism, an ideology that apparently seeks to remake Indian society and instill a supremacist culture recently claimed the life of another Indian journalist and put the state of press freedom and banner of enlightenment in question - again. It’s the umpteenth time their media has come under the gun.

Gauri Lankesh, a fearless activist, journalist, staunch critic of Hindutva, described as anti-establishment, someone who spoke truth to power was posthumously awarded with Anna Politkovskaya, Periyar Award and honored with a state funeral.

She was killed by persons unknown. Her murder remains unsolved.

It’s a familiar premise and Modi’s India is in grave danger of getting asphyxiated by its radical core – where its hardliner instincts are now desperately trying to go mainstream. They appear to have learnt nothing from their nemesis - Pakistan’s near miss with fanaticism – the difficulties in pulling back from the brink and the long road to recovery.

Shrinking spaces and fanatical mullahs is something once associated with a particular South Asian nation that keeps its nuclear arsenal in the basement. India still expects to peddle its eastern neighbor’s human rights record in global forums to perhaps distract from its many transgressions. Meanwhile its own mask of benevolence is slipping and its militant arm may be every bit as lethal compromising the nation’s moral compass and eroding its values.

Given the Republic’s shrill proclamations of freedom and equal rights – the tragic death highlights the dark side of its society as the new epicenter of intolerance and a haven for radical thought. It is where academics, intellectuals have already come under fire, journalists targeted and frequently threatened with the same fate as Gauri Lankesh, minorities lynched for looking at a cow funny amid recurring cases of communal violence. Authorities have also clamped down on imaginary dissent prompted by fake news.

Troubling indicators of a society in freefall have already appeared. Now caught in the act of silencing the conscience of a nation by crushing dissent and muzzling the press –– India will remove the final wall of resistance meant to safeguard freedoms and hasten its downward descent into madness. Its shining India narrative can only hold off the inevitable for so long since these seemingly isolated incidents appear to seek state patronage. The failure to dispense justice has been cited as the reason for emboldened vigilantism. RSS, which is the ruling party’s mentor and once ostracized for its links to a high profile assassination – its shadow looming over the landscape may be in some way associated with the state of deterioration.

While India ranks among the deadliest countries for journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) where the media is gagged, citizens threatened with sedition charges, reporters harassed – its neighbor’s reputation is on the mend.

Pakistan appears to have pulled itself back from the brink and is in the process of laying the groundwork for a more open, tolerant and vibrant society. There is resistance and traditional barriers – it is hardly perfect. But cautious optimism may be permitted in the wake of reform drives that hope to implement a zero tolerance approach against extremism and targeted operations that aim to clear, hold and rebuild war ravaged cities.

Pakistani state no longer tops the deadliest nation category – but once as a frontline state, its media men / women have been in the crosshairs of suicide bombers, militant organizations and victims of target assassinations. According to a CPJ report (2016) – for the first time in 15 years no journalist was targeted in Pakistan because of his / her work.

While both nations are trying to deal with the disturbing trend of character assassinations in the cyber-world, and a rag tag army of vicious trolls, Pakistan’s relatively liberal landscape where critical discourses can be found underway any day of the week sandwiched between sensationalism and spurts of propaganda make it a slightly better candidate to be used as an illustration of press freedom.

The media, liberated at the time of Musharraf is often accused of acting like a runaway train sans boundaries. Government owned networks, openly debate the folly of state policies and voice their displeasure of cows – sacred or otherwise. It may still be struggling to define the bounds of freedom and come to terms with its past, but it is necessary to draw the contrast because of the perception gap regarding the two warring nations.

And while Pakistan is reviled for its past policies and chastised for a bleak human rights violation record, its neighbor deigns to trample over freedoms without fear of consequences or danger of being publicly censured.

But India’s ranking has already fallen by 3 points reportedly – it now stands at 136 / 180 . ‘Reporters without Borders’ declared it as the third un-safest place. One day its lucrative business environment and largest democracy sales pitch will not be enough to brush aside its inhumane agenda.

The region has already learnt to fear any manifestation of extremism – to acknowledge terror as a virus, once unleashed impossible to contain. That the tentacles of Indian Republic’s neo-fascist agenda have now spread to other continents and rightwing organizations implicated in murders have branches in Australia raise eyebrows.

Of the two nuclear armed nations – one is hopefully on its way to redemption, the other teetering on a slippery slope having awakened the latent strains of extremism as part of its terrifying new business model. Though it’s a domestic matter – but would the same scrutiny placed on Pakistan’s proscribed organizations now be given to India’s blatantly extremist unions that subscribe to an ideology openly referred to as ‘Hindutva terrorism’ by their own citizens. Would their civil society once hailed as a shield be enough to shake it out of its complacency or disperse the shadows. And can anything really halt the rising tide of fundamentalism when it is sanctioned by the state machinery – and that has yet to be red flagged by champions of democracy and arbiters of international justice.