Not the last word

 Finding a balance is the most important thing in continuing a conversation. No open letter can be the last word on anything. You are leaving behind a world that is diverse and real, and for that we thank you. However, as a rebuttal or to carry forward this conversation, I have an open letter to write to you. I want to ask you who is your letter addressed to? I am presuming it is to the intolerant, who you find these days in the left side of the political spectrum. My theory is any intolerant being cannot make claim to even an iota of the space on the left.

And then if you look around you, yes it might be tough to find even a handful who are the space you claim to represent. But that is just the lonely truth of our times. The left or even the seeming of left was categorically discouraged, maligned, crushed, shot at sight, removed, so that this fascinating juggernaut of neoliberalism can have a smooth path to roll along.

In that scenario, how do you expect to find allies? Instead of trying to come down from your ivory towers to understand what happened to the people on the left, you accuse us of being intolerant — you the vanguards of all that is liberal. You truly are the vanguards, and I understand that you are feeling frustrated right now. But, aren’t we all? And as more learned and wiser members of our tribe, why did your open letter shut all doors of understanding at our faces, I wonder.

We had a similar moment, not too long ago, in this country too. It started with the MeToo movement, and the old-school, most venerable gender activists of our time came to a conflict with the new feminists. It did not end well, let me assure you, but as it happens with all families, conflicts are not talked/thrashed out and things go on, as families are just tied to each other.

That is the worst part about families. Nobody ever burns the bridges, unless he/she is ready to be all alone in this wide, wide world. As if being alone were the worst thing that could happen to a person. We attach much importance to being self-made, to individualistic pursuits, and yet, being alone scares us the most. So that there is the inherent paradox that the generation of today was born and raised in. And hence, it would be necessary to unlearn some of the things that you have learnt in your time to understand what is happening with the people right now. For the younger people it should be easier to unlearn things, but sadly it is not, because they do not want to. Well, why would you want to? When you are having the best of both worlds? You can sit pretty, while you call out privilege, without maybe even moving more than one finger, all the while completely oblivious to the position of privilege you are talking from. And you have a ready audience  that  you believe is a loyal one too.

Having said that, the BLM protests all across the US, had absolutely nothing to do with the matters you raise in your letter. So why choose a time, when links are drawn to the movement, which has given the whole world some hope at a time, when it was all but fading away?

This too, I must say India had a tryst with, before the coronavirus hit. There was nothing to counter the force of the protests that were growing all across the country against one more discriminatory acts in the series of such by the present ruling dispensation of the country. Finally, it was not about if not them, who. It was only a question of are YOU going to listen to us or not? The answer was loud and clear – not only are they not going to listen to us, but any attempt at opening our mouths, so much as to breathe, might be curtailed in a if-need-be bloody manner.

So the battle-lines are clearly drawn in India. We know we are up against criminal bullies. And from India, I want to give you a heads-up: Organise against the real bullies, if you did indeed mean all that you have been saying all this while.