The Uncanny Silence

For the second time, on Monday, President Pranab Mukherjee raised concern on the growing intolerance in the country. The President’s statement comes in at a time when the country is going through a turbulent phase, with fringe elements initiating attacks and beef becoming an extremely sensitive matter. The level of intolerance is on an all-time high and the space for free speech and debate is being intruded by anti-secular beings.

Hours before the President issued his statement, the Shiv Sena had stormed the BCCI office in Mumbai, propelling the cancellation of the meeting scheduled between India and Pakistan cricket officials in the city, which later did happen. And, a Jammu-Kashmir MLA had come under an ink-attack in the national capital for his pro-beef stand. Just last week, the country witnessed a terrible lynching in Dadri and another incident of ink-attack, wherein Observe and Research Foundation’s Chairman, Mr Sudheendra Kulkarni’s face was blackened by Shiv Sena activists, who had objected to the book launch event of the former Pakistan foreign minister in the city organized by Kulkarni.

In the wake of these horrific incidents and absolute silence over them, President Mukherjee is trying to deeply caution the political heads of the country to speak up and take effective measures to reduce the hate and intolerance that seems to be elevating. Highlighting the urgent need to douse the fire instead of letting it be fueled, the President is trying to elevate the steam over the government to start acting on these troublesome matters before things slip out of control and a crisis situation becomes imminent.

Punitive measures, to prevent the fringe elements from disturbing the peace and harmony, need to be initiated across the states. Austerity needs to be maintained against such disturbing incidents and its perpetrators. Also, and importantly, it’s a high time for our Prime Minister to break his silence on the matter. His brief statement on the issue while campaigning in Bihar was, honestly, too subtle to be taken seriously. Prime Minister’s silence on the  escalating violence is extremely uncanny and it only indicates that he is either confused to act or isn’t willing to.

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