A few years ago, a friend of mine who was scouting for an apartment to live in the US had shown me a couple of ads where the last line of the ad was "Trump voters/supporters may please excuse". At that time, I found this amusing and I was kind of comforted and relieved about the fact that no matter how polarized things got in our country, it would never lead to or at least never lead me to mindlessly cut contact or discriminate against or judge people based on them holding different political beliefs than I do and vice versa.
My political belief is pretty clear. I believe that embracing diversity strengthens a country. Case in point the United States of America which is a land of immigrants from all across the world has been the most prosperous and powerful country in the world since decades. I am proud of India that we at least in principle through our constitution have made a conscious decision to not treat minorities the way our neighboring countries treat their minorities. We as Indians from all walks life have celebrated and paid respect to our diversity by for example revering prominent Hindu cricketers or Muslim entertainers or Parsi businessmen or Christian educational institutions.
A rude, sobering wake up call the last 6 years was to realize that far far more people than I thought not only do not subscribe to but for whatever reasons (one of the biggest being minority appeasement politics) actually resent this line of thinking. But the truth is that it is almost impossible to hate up close. Which means that when we actually know a fellow co worker or family member or friend or batch mate etc. on a personal level we appreciate, a lot of times like them as human beings and respect that they are a product of their experiences and socio-economic up bringing and we most of the times have the maturity to not hold their political beliefs against them. Which is what makes social media so insidious. The impersonal contact facilitated by social media and gutter politics is a fertile ground for spreading hatred. So is the solution withdrawing from social media and not get into futile arguments where nobody is going to change their mind?
In fact a lot of my well wishers have implored me to shut up about politics (in a nice way) on social media. To be honest it is good for the peace of mind. But what when it gets too much? What is happening in our country has gone way beyond arguing the merits and demerits of a law that has been passed and the protest that have followed it. We are so polarized that we as a society can't even come to an agreement that it is absolutely intolerable for a mob armed with knives, acid and rods to grievously injure students while moving freely and with impunity on campus or for the police to fire tear gas shells inside the library of another prestigious educational institution. So the government expects us to believe that it will protect persecuted minorities from neighboring countries while it can't safeguard its own students? Accountability in a democracy means that the people have the right to demand answers to uncomfortable questions from the government no matter how powerful the mandate. At some point, silence becomes complicity. At a time where the economy is in doldrums, NE & Kashmir are burning , campuses are in mayhem, our international reputation in is the dust, it is astounding to me that the govts priority appears to further enhancing the climate of division and intimidation. The only conclusion in this complicated situation that I can come to is that as adults, we have to find a fine balance between making our voice be heard and not spreading polarization and division and most foolish of all, not jeopardize relationships. There is this talk about 'new age' skills that our generation needs to incorporate in order to survive in this modern world. I would definitely put the ability to separate people's politics from the person that they are and their relationship with us on top of the list.
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