If RSS is ISIS… https://theprint.in/national-interest/if-rss-is-isis/544360/ https://theprint.in/national-interest/if-rss-is-isis/544360/
Why India needs a new mainstream liberalism, and not the durbari Left, to counter the nutty new Right.
the Nehruvian idea of Indian liberalism .(was lost in the) . two decades between 1969 and 1989 that we lost our non-alignment, whatever economic freedoms we still had in the mixed economy, endured the Emergency, saw rampant insurgencies, routine dismissal of elected state governments using Article 356, bans on books and movies, the Shah Bano judgement reversal, unlocking of Ayodhya, shilanyas (foundation stone laying of the Ram Temple), and the launch of an election campaign (Rajiv, 1989) from Ayodhya (Faizabad), with a promise to usher in Ram Rajya.
The short point is, India’s liberal left was mostly complicit with the establishment during these two decades.. Proximity to power enabled them to dominate campuses and curricula and squash any alternative points of view. A genuine, healthy and intelligent thought on the Indian right was never allowed to develop. The result now is the rise of a nutty Indian right, its ideas and prejudices sanctified by cow-worship and fuelled by gobar gas, its understanding of history determined by folklore and science to any “Vedic” fiction...
Under the UPA, these activists enjoyed even greater power because the prime minister here did not control the government and power resided in 10 Janpath, whose durbaris they were happy to become. They opposed every reformist step the UPA took, from airport privatisation to increased FDI limits, WTO, patents, higher education reform, even Aadhar. They cheered all Sonia Gandhi/NAC populism, widening the chasm between the party and the government and playing havoc in that space.
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