Proving a point

Today’s paper (Times of India 15 Nov. 08) stated that the Army officer who was instrumental in detonating a bomb that killed 6 and injured 101 in Malegaon did it to prove a point. The point being that the Hindus now could also act like the Islamist jihadi’s and blow up a few people. Being the democracy we are, with the ethos of absorbing and learning from others this right wing Hindu colonel went and asked the jihadis for help in assembling and placing the bombs around town/mosques (mosques were not acceptable to the jihadists though). What greater example of democracy, collaboration, respect, attempting to provide equal opportunities can there be today than this - two opposing right wing militant groups come together to share experiences and learning’s to destroy the country.

Both sides have a common cause or a common grouse. They both feel that history has been unkind to them and they are now beholden to right these wrongs by creating a land where the other is absent or not apparently present. The Right Wing Hindus suck on the lemon of being constantly attacked by Muslims centuries ago, worse still the current governments are handing out freebies to Muslims even after they ruled for so long. The modern Right Wing Muslim has a more recent grouse - the Babri Masjid demolition and the Gujarat Pogrom.

So both have grouses and they both are trying to prove a point. What the Right Wing Hindus usually try to prove is that Muslims and others should acknowledge the munificence of the Hindus and therefore show humility and respect. The other point they are trying to prove is that the only way to get back to the golden period of India is to regress as a country. However now with the ‘Hindu Bomb’ what the Right Wing Hindu is trying to prove is that they have had enough of the jihadist bombings and government appeasement of Muslims, they can take matters (bombs) into their own hands and can kill and maim just as well as the jihadists.

The point that the jihadist is trying to make is that the government (hindus) have to pay for their crimes because the law is not dealing with the perpetrators of acts against Muslims.

Proving a point is a necessity for those who imagine they are disenfranchised, its something similar to a tantrum thrown by a child. There is this sudden righteous need to say something or do something that brings recognition, draw attention and thus provide meaning to their Right Wing-ness.

This need to prove things is nothing new to fundamentalists and right wingers, Hitler did it in his attempt to establish a thousand year Reich. So it was no surprise that when the BJP came to power the first time, the first thing they did was to detonate a nuclear device. This was done to prove to the world that India was nuclear capable. This was also BJP’s method of blowing the conch to announce their arrival. This of course led Pakistan to prove a point too. Now both countries have proved a point.

‘Proving a point’ is like Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), it breeds on distrust as it feeds on an unimportant past which results in an unknown and insecure future.