The Trending '-ism'

Some ten days before we were about to celebrate/observe the unified fight put up by a community for recognition of its mother tongue as a ‘national’ language (now Bangladesh), another showdown took place in a neighbouring nation where the thought of nation or nationalism was being tried to push down the throat of the people of that nation by the state of that very nation. I know there has been too many ‘nation’s in one sentence, but what do I do, this word is trending now and I got to use it, otherwise I’ll be an anti-national in the court of media!

I think it’s time that you discover that the biggest functional democracy in the world now has the biggest functional judiciary. By biggest I mean, Indian judiciary has introduced three new branches, so in total it has four codes of punishment, each with separate sets of clauses and sections.The first is the IPC, which is the age old, rusted, rotten, out of fashion organ of judiciary that is the Indian Penal Code (which nobody cares to abide by). The police, in uniform, are the primary functioning bodies according to this legal system.

The first of the three new codes is the IGC, the Indian Governmental (or Govern-mental) Code, which is the set of judicial principles, the party in power decides to act accordingly. The police is the party members and members of sister organizations.
The second is the IPC1, which is the Indian Pubic Code (‘1’ is for distinguishing IPC1 from IPC). This is the criminal code made by the public: by public I mean the lower and extended arms of the ruling party (the student wing, for example), which, along with the IGC police, seemingly constitute the greatest number of ‘public’, as the worthless minority stays shut when these hoodlums go crazy on the streets about an issue. Now the issues taken up are those they have created out of their beautiful, intelligent and conscious whims. Remember people according to this legal code, the public is the police and the judge.
The next and perhaps the most powerful is the IMC, which is the Indian Media Code. This criminal code, most of the time, merges with the IPC1, which is a treat to watch. This is the criminal code designed by the Indian media to punish the criminals inside the studio of the channel concerned. Kindly note folks, here there are no convicts, only criminals, as the convicts have been proved guilty in the minds of the conveners of the reality shows, disguised as trials or news debate. The amazing part here too is, the media persons act as police for the IGC and the IPC1 and for the IMC. So here too, like the IPC1, the media plays the dual role when it comes to the IMC, where it is both, the police and the punisher. I, by virtue of my luck (unsure fortunate or unfortunate), have come to know the only and the cardinal clause under IMC. It says that person is the criminal whom the media chooses to call and that person will not be allowed to say anything on his/her during the course of the one hour long trial and ultimately have to accept the punishment given without any further plea.
This amazing ramification of the judiciary of the biggest democracy will be discussed and elaborated with an example from the recent days.

Few students on a university campus organized an event to condemn the trial and execution of an alleged terrorist, as they were against capital punishment or the death penalty. They chanted one of the most popular, age-old slogans called the ‘azaadi’ slogan. They claim that they demanded ‘azaadi’, which translates into ‘Freedom’ in English, from feudalism, from capitalism, from Bramhinism, from Casteism, from BJP (the ruling party in India, which they think to be a religious fundamentalist party) and the likes. They also demanded azaadi for Kashmir, and Manipur, which are the Indian states where the government exercises sort of a dictatorship through its militaries and paramilitary forces. There were also some slogans asking for the destruction of India (“Bharat ki barbadi tak jang rahegi”, which is, “Till the destruction of India the war will go on”) and hailing Pakistan(Pakistan Zindaabad), a nation which India has been in a state of conflict since its birth. The last two slogans have controversy and lack of factual evidence surrounding it as to whether the organizers chanted by them or somebody else. This was more or less the incident which took place on the 9^th of February.
                                                          Now the trials start!!
                            (Mind you there is an ‘s’ after ‘trial’, you’ll find out why.)

First intervention was by the police of the IPC1, i.e., the public. The police/public of the ABVP came and started the trial by beating up those organizers and those who attended the event at the place itself and punished them by demanding the shutdown of the university itself.
What was the charge? Theft? No. Then? Anti-Nationalism.
Trial over? No, only this one, the rests are yet to come.
Then came the IMC. One of the high-rated electronic media agencies took three criminals to their studio. The judge and convener grilled them for just one long hour and came to the conclusion and I quote, “you (three and others of the event) are most dangerous to this country than Maoists, terrorists…”, and,” these students cannot be allowed to disgrace our campuses anymore. They are a motley combination of anti-national forces.”
Charge? Anti-Nationalism.
Then came the IGC, but took a nominal move. One of the most important ministers of the cabinet i.e., the Home Minister declared (without any trials) that those students have been backed by a deadly terrorist named Hafiz Saeed, which was from a tweet made by the terrorist (later proved that it was a false tweet, but how does it matter?). Charge? Anti-Nationalism.
At last came the police or the IPC. The police took the union president to the jail and charged him with sedition (well, a new term).
It’s becoming interesting!!
While the police took him to court the IGC police (here the lawyers adhering to the ruling party) beat him up and the people who have gathered for his support. The IPC1 along with the IGC police beat another group of students and teacher and threatened others who were supporting the boy arrested. The IMC police and judge grilled and punished many others who claimed to support the boy and others. Charge? Anti-Nationalism.
And the story continues till date.

The remedy to get rid of such anti-national elements, as decided by the three new legal systems, bound to be followed by the old one, is, hoisting of the national flag throughout the year on a 207 feet high mast at every central university.

You must be feeling it by now, the gushed nationalism or national-ism down in your throat?

At the beginning I said one nation (now), comprising of one community fought for its mother language and won the battle on 21^st February, sixty three years ago.

And here’s another nation, fighting for the very idea of nation after sixty eight years of independence.

And such ironies continue………..