Violence as a tool

Q. Yes, Mr. X, who would you like to thank the most for your victory?

A: Of course, our brave cadres, who made it possible. Also to all the people who voted for me.

Q.: Analysts say, your victory comes at a cost of upset communal harmony and institutionalization of violence as a political tool. What do you think?

A: What do you mean by communal harmony? You answer first.

Q.: …. That is in its usual meaning.

A: What usual meaning does it have? The so called educated few tried to equate this with unhindered attack by intruders to our sacred values by forced conversion, despite marriages and defamation. If you mean this along with no retaliation from people a communal harmony, then we will eradicate it soon. Again what do you mean by institutionalization of violence? Throughout the history they have been using violence to forward their agenda and recently the intensity has increased. Can you cut diamond with aluminium knife? No, similarly counter violence will erupt one day or the other if people are made victim of indiscriminate violence for long.

Q.: In the past, the violence has been treated as, more or less, a law and order problem the security forces, especially the police have tried hard to have the violence. But this time they were not only spectators, but were found to be assisting the perpetrators of massacres on /…………… Do you justify this role of state agencies?

A: You know, there is no scarcity of people eager to fish in the murky waters. The allegations that the police took one side or the other one is hoax, though isolated incidents of imperfect dealing of situation could have been there. Why do you think all this violence occurred? This is because people could bear no more of exploitation and retaliated spontaneously. One day or the other it was bound to happen. You can’t imagine a peaceful society till the rogue elements remain within it.

Q.: Are you advocating for the use of violence against such elements, apparently the muslim minority in our case?

A: Not to anybody in particular. Anybody who intends to weaken the foundation of our sacred religion will face storm retaliation from people and that is it.

Q.: For the profoundness of the violence, it seems to be well planned to cause maximum fatalities and destruction of property. It is said that your party had a major role in mobilizing the unemployed youth in the act and innumerable instances of rapes, burning alive and mutilation are coming out. None of them appear to have been brought to book in the present context and your election campaign is said to have given crucial responsibilities to the same youths. How do you justify the heinous crimes of someone who claims to protect the religions values?

A: As in the every other unrest I can’t rule out few aberrations from the people. If you watch closely, the other side must have committed even more acts of rape and likewise….

Q.: What do you mean by the other side? You are now the elected leader of the state and still hesitate to acknowledge the minorities as people?

A: No, no. Don’t take it otherwise. So far as the fatalities and destruction are concerned, that was bound to happen once as people had withstood a lot and it had finally reached the boiling point.

Q.: Repeatedly you are referring to people as the main force driving the vitriolic campaign. But for us, journalist of ordinary intellect, people from both the sides appear to be the victim of a well orchestrated violence that they disliked the most. They were dragged to it and many of them lost everything in no time. How can you claim that it was the retaliation by people?

A: Simple answer- See the election result. Why would they vote for us if they were so unhappy with the state of affairs? One more thing, people can’t afford to be always combative. But when the moment comes, they never fail to be so.

Q.: Your victory is believed to be the result of wide spread horror and aggressive policy of your youth wing to polarize the society along the communal lines. Many intellectuals have equated this polarization as a lethal poisoning of a multicultural yet harmonious society…………..

A: All nonsense. It is these very intellectuals who intend to poison our noble way of living by justifying acts of the intruders. They will keep barking for their lives and nobody will listen to them.

Q.: Finally you seem to justify the violence unlike many leaders from your own party. Do you think the face of politics has changed for ever after this successful experiment with violence? What is your vision for future? Will you hesitate to take help of violence to get crowned again?

A: You seem to have been emotional again. But as a politician, we have to accept some odd realities, you can’t clap with one hand you can’t renounce the use of violence till the danger of offense against you remains. Once they abandon their propaganda politics to erode our values, there will be no need for retaliation and thus violence. By its very nature, counter violence can’t exist without violence and we intend to create a situation in future when peace will prevail after the root of violence is dealt with.

With this interview, we shall try to explore the significance of another term: Violence. This negative term has intricate relationship with the concepts of human rights and justice, and thus creates an equally contentious issue. A politician who can glibly justify violence as in the above interview has, of course, a peculiar comprehension of the term human right and justice. For this prototype of communal politics, both of these are the propaganda tools of so-called intellectuals who intentionally ignore the threat of the intruders that is ruining the religious values. Thus the indiscriminate violence, and gross HR violation leading to injustice as seen by the intellectuals forms for him the rational tool to achieve the goal of uplifting the sacred religion.

I argue that the mad lust for power and wealth in part of the politicians that characterizes the present day politics is the foundation of all these weird concepts. None of the religion in the world avoids condemning the inhuman acts of murder, rape, arson and vandalism. Even those who comprehend well the mottos of the religions deliberately mislead the young minds so that they can be exploited for their mean purpose. The reiteration of the violence to be the people’s retaliation by the politician forms the stereotype that is cultivated with persistent effort. There is practically nothing connecting the present day victims of the communal violence with any real or imaginary intruders who used violence to forward their agenda in the past.

The fact that a person who answers such sensitive questions with such on arrogance and absurdity in a self-congratulatory tone has won the elections shows how these tools of deception can be used to ascend to the power. The manipulation of the people’s sentiment should have been such that the very crimes that used to be despised vigorously earlier hid behind the shadow of the need to restore the glory of relegion. A rapists who would be beaten to death otherwise, was crowned to be the protector of the religion.

These propaganda cydes feed the ambition of immoral politicians by creating such imaginary threats to people’s long-cherished values, thus prompting them to think fool about their neighbours. The artificial urgency to safe guard those mocked values easily gives a sense of purposefulness to the young minds. At an age when emptions prevail over the rationale this pleats the seed of hatred against the imaginary enemies. Over time, this gives a plant whose fruits act like a poison to social harmony.