Knowing my luck, and knowing this government, that will likely not happen. I will instead be kept here, disenfranchised but told to stand through six stanzas of Vande Mataram.
The mother of democracy demands respect and adoration but it is a one-sided relationship. You have to prove you are her child, which is a strange position if we think of it.
The presumption of guilt has been baked into many laws in New India. It existed for the laws on terror and narcotics. In 2015, it was extended to the possession of beef. In 2018, it was extended to the ‘love jihad’ laws. Assam showed us the way to do it on citizenship, and here we are.
Wasn’t the BJP only some time ago talking of passing a law on compulsory voting? Wonder what happened to that and why the position went from ‘everyone must vote’ to ’nobody can vote unless they pass this purity test’. To expect consistency of principle from them is the same as to expect humanity or civility.
In an earlier time, I would be deeply upset by both this process and the thought of being deprived of the right to vote (I used to queue up at the booth at the crack of dawn). Now I am more relaxed about it, and frankly I don’t care.
I have great affection for the people who comprise this nation; I have little and perhaps none for the rest of what comprises it. The New York city mayor in his magical campaign last year spoke of meeting a constituent for whom all romance about home had vanished. “I used to love New York,” she said to him, “now it’s just where I live.” Precisely.
Views are personal. More of Aakar Patel’s writing here
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