What Anupam Kher says here about the abusive language used to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the past couple weeks is absolutely spot-on.
What he fails to mention is that this disrespectful language against the head of government is a direct outcome of the words used by BJP supporters like Mr Kher himself to describe not just opposition leaders, but also aam janata who have expressed dissatisfaction with the government in the past, or spoken about issues that don’t align with right wing ideology.
It’s cool to say “dissent is essential to a democracy” now that it’s clear we can’t just will it away, but similar - even well-meaning - dissent has been crushed as “anti national” in the past.
Many women and men have had to pay the price of such false equivalence and labelling, including prison time, social media trolling, etc, only because their opinions didn’t align with BJP supporters. Authors, educationists, economists, social reformers, opposition leaders, film stars - even journalists - have been at the receiving end of vile abuse and bullying on mainstream news channels and social media for over a decade now. These are people who’ve merely wanted to engage in dialogue. BE HEARD.
We can’t suddenly start airing our apprehensions about the state of democracy in a country when we have ourselves laid down the framework for a reality to exist where naysayers are vilified, and sycophancy is celebrated. This is how deep-rooted resentment sets in and that resentment takes the form of anger over time, which is what we’ve seen an outpouring of during last week’s historic protests.
So while Mr Kher is right about the standard of discourse, this is what Gen Z and Gen Alpha have seen play out before them in the most formative years of their lives, and this is what they’ve, unfortunately, inherited. If we want people to behave better, we must set better examples ourselves first.
Respectfully,
Jai Hind.
लोकतंत्र की सबसे बड़ी ताकत हमारी आवाज़ है। लेकिन उसकी सबसे बड़ी खूबसूरती हमारी भाषा है।असहमति ज़रूरी है। सवाल पूछना भी ज़रूरी है। सरकारों को जवाबदेह बनाना भी ज़रूरी है। लेकिन अगर हम अपनी भाषा की मर्यादा खो देंगे, तो हमारी बात की ताकत भी कम हो जाएगी।
यह वीडियो किसी व्यक्ति के पक्ष या विपक्ष में नहीं है। यह उस संस्कृति के पक्ष में है जहाँ विचारों का संघर्ष हो सकता है, लेकिन शब्दों का पतन नहीं।
मतभेद रखें… लेकिन मर्यादा भी रखें। क्योंकि एक सभ्य समाज की पहचान केवल उसके विचारों से नहीं, बल्कि उन्हें व्यक्त करने के तरीके से भी होती है। जय हिन्द! वंदे मातरम्! ❤️🇮🇳
#JaiHind