Shielding radicals and terrorists by calling them activists, even though they incite violence, is what is truly anti-national
The term “anti-national” — like the terms “secularism” and “liberalism” – has been moulded, kneaded and beaten out of shape. It’s important to get its definition right.
First, it’s not anti-national to criticise the Narendra Modi government. Dissent is the lifeblood of democracy.
Second, it’s not anti-national to parody the government, its ministers (including the prime minister) and its policies. Evolved democracies treat parodies for what they are – parodies. They don’t merit extra attention.
Third, it’s not anti-national to wear a hijab. Personal freedoms are sacrosanct in a liberal democracy.
So what is being anti-national?
One, it is anti-national to shield Islamist terrorist groups like the Popular Front of India (PFI) by deliberately mischaracterising them as social organisations. They are not. Creating a false narrative around Islamist radicalisation endangers national security. Those who give cover to the PFI and other Islamist groups are anti-national.
Two, it is anti-national to stay silent in the face of political violence in West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir. Silence is complicity.
Three, it is anti-national to draw a false equivalence between jihadi groups like the PFI and social organisations like the RSS. False equivalence inflames communal tension.
The BJP errs when it describes critics of the Modi government as anti-national. It gives the real anti-nationals – compromised journalists, delinquent activists, Islamists, Naxals, terrorists and their hard-Left supporters – the pretext to dub all BJP protestations against anti-nationals as false and motivated.
That is a strategic error.
Turn now to the narrative. As the 2024 Lok Sabha election nears and key Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh loom, the Opposition is in panic. The presidential election exposed the disunity among the Opposition. The debacle in Maharashtra is another blow ahead of 2024.
As India’s former chief economic advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian wrote recently, the Indian judiciary, wittingly or unwittingly, provides a shield to those who fix false narratives. Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala through their recent observations have muddied the waters. The case for judicial accountability was never sharper than it is now.
Despite the war in Ukraine, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected Indian GDP growth at 7.4 per cent in 2022-23. With the United States, Britain and other Western countries on the precipice of recession and China’s GDP growth rate in April-June 2022 crawling at 0.4 per cent, India is by far the fastest growing major economy in the world.
And yet the narrative is torn out of shape with media commentators warning that the global economic crisis can cause a tsunami to wash over India.
The most damaging anti-nationals are those who weaponise communalism. An alleged fact-checker is notorious for one-sided fact-checking. The communal animosity this engenders is anti-national.
Fact-checkers and journalists have a right to be biased. That is not anti-national. Their reputation will suffer in the long run and it is nobody else’s business how they conduct their business.
But when fact-checkers and journalists pretend to be neutral and at the same time spew venom against a particular religion, the consequences can lead to violence. It happened in the case of Kanhaiya Lal, a tailor in Udaipur. It happened as well in the case of Praveen Nettaru, a BJP worker in Puttur, Karnataka.
Journalists, activists, politicians and Islamists who provided an ideological shield for these murders aren’t merely anti-national. They are accessories to murder.
The first principle of journalism is arm’s length: keep a distance from those you are reporting on. When a well-known TV anchor reportedly gave bail surety to a jailed fact-checker, that principle was violated. The TV anchor cannot be expected to be unbiased when reporting on the facts around the fact-checker’s case.
Criticise — but do not be complicit.
The malaise is not confined to journalists who fix a false narrative and then mould the facts to fit that false narrative. It afflicts activists, NGOs, lawyers and politicians who deal in half-truths and innuendo.
Why does India produce so many anti-nationals? One reason is the growing sense of panic among hard-Left and other Opposition politicians that they could be consigned to seven more years out of power if the BJP wins the next Lok Sabha election. Sources of illicit funds are drying up. Rich states like Maharashtra and Karnataka have slipped out of their hands. Rajasthan may go in 2023.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. The surge in political violence and slanted journalism is a direct consequence. By 2029, many family-run parties will be defunct. Also alarming to them is the changing trajectory in recent months of the BJP’s attitude to corruption investigations. The interrogation of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case reveals a hardening of the government’s position towards alleged corruption cases.
The Supreme Court’s recent order validating action under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) is a setback for those who run financial launderettes on an industrial scale.
The BJP is an odd mixture of aggression and timidity. It is pursuing corruption and terrorism cases more proactively than in the past. And yet it has not notified rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The move towards a uniform civil code (UCC) has been placed on the legislative back burner.
The media meanwhile is increasingly polarised. Several channels toe the Modi government line with displays of embarrassing sycophancy. A few channels are hostile to everything the government does, scavenging constantly in the political drain to pick up soiled detritus.
Newspapers and online new sites are largely anti-government — which is not the same as being anti-national. Criticism is good. Even pessimism is fine. Shielding radicals and terrorists by calling them activists, even though they incite violence, is what is truly anti-national.
The writer is editor, author and publisher. Views expressed here are personal.
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