https://thewire.in/society/the-republic-of-apathy
The fact that our sustained apathy for corruption has enabled the dehumanising violation of women points to one of the most distressing realities of Indian life – the widespread and persistent lack of concern for the minoritised.
“As they say in India,” the economist Pranab Bardhan wrote in an influential paper on corruption, “in the US corruption is in the process of ‘making’ laws, in India it’s mostly in ‘breaking’ laws.” American – and generally Western – models of corruption require narratives of legitimisation that are often stamped with legislative authority.
In India, on the other hand, the ubiquity of corruption keeps its moral cost low – “everybody’s doing it so why not?” The long history of the public tolerance of corruption paves the ground for the political protection, indeed, the further enactment of corruption. Just break the law with impunity. The only legitimising narrative required here is that it is done all the time and no one really cares.
In this country, the spectre of corruption meets the zombie of apathy. This leads to something far more horrifying than corruption, but something that remains more safely hidden – its nourishment and celebration by its direct and indirect beneficiaries. This includes people in power and dominance as well as ordinary people, sometimes disenfranchised ones as well.
08/09/2024
The headline says: Rajasthan teacher arrested for deleting Ganesh Chaturthi greetings on WhatsApp. The last line says : The villagers filed a complaint and the police registered an FIR and arrested Ansari on charges of disturbing peace in the locality.
What had indeed "disturbed the peace"? The deletion of a post or the protest!
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/rajasthan-kota-school-teacher-arrested-ganesh-chaturthi-greetings-whatsapp-deleted-2596076-2024-09-08 According to the police, the committee of the Government Higher Secondary School in Latoori has a WhatsApp group, which also includes residents of the village. One of the residents of the village had posted a message in the group on Saturday, greeting people on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. However, the school's principal, Shafi Mohammad Ansari, deleted the message.
the villagers staged a protest demanding Ansari's removal and arrest. Police rushed to the spot and assured them of action. The villagers filed a complaint against the principal.Based on their complaint, the police registered an FIR and arrested Ansari on charges of disturbing peace in the locality
RG & US speech controversy Sukla Sen post:
<what Rahul Gandhi said in the US about Sikhs, their turban and kada. https://youtu.be/V0twrFSsr_Q >
It's more than obvious that he talked of Sikhs (first) only to illustrate and in the process of elaborating his views on the dangerous supremacist character of the RSS ideology and politics. How it threatens, actually and potentially, the self-respect and identities of all minorities -- religious and linguistic, in particular. In the very same breath, he also talked of "Tamil", "Marathi", "Bengali" etc etc. He made it starkly explicit by assertively claiming that the fight is about the rights of minorities -- all minorities. Nowhere -- repeat nowhere -- he said that Sikhs in India are not allowed to wear turbans and kadas.
That's a gross distortion. Much the same way Narendra Modi claimed (ref.: <https://youtu.be/XUp9luKnvFo> and <https://https://youtu.be/XUp9luKnvFo?si=c-H_EfLGanBysjoV-rXws4>, during the last poll campaign, that the Congress had imported X-ray machine(s) to find out hidden jewelleries in Hindu houses in order to confiscate and gift to Muslims by weaponising the word "X-ray" used by Rahul Gandhi, as a metaphor, to describe the purpose and function of the caste census demanded by him (ref.: < https://m.economictimes.com/news/elections/lok-sabha/india/congress-will-do-x-ray-of-country-through-caste-census-says-rahul-gandhi/articleshow/110054368.cms >)!
Yet, this video clip (< https://youtu.be/6RIgj0vpD10 >) put out by a major media outlet unabashedly claims in no uncertain terms that "Rahul Gandhi says Sikhs not allowed to wear turbans in India" in order to reinforce and amplify what the BJP leaders are mouthing: < https://www.ndtv.com/video/dangerous-narrative-minister-slams-rahul-gandhi-s-comment-on-sikhs-835827 >.
Just one example.