What changed last week is that the present ruling party declared war on the very Constitution upon which the existence of this nation had been validated. The cruel, contentious, savage manner in which human rights violations were facilitated by the Indian Government (and continue to be) to subjugate a whole population by the alleged rationale of 'it's own good' must be condemned, irrespective of whether or not you support the abrogation of Article 370. The fact that the murderers of Pehlu Khan have been acquitted by the court despite plausible evidence to convict them must also be condemned. If you live by the sword, you will die by the sword; a Catholic belief that shares an ethos with the Hindu notion of karma. If you genuinely believe that you will continue to share the privilege of being in the mobilising majority without ever becoming the victim of the mob mentality it will inevitably perpetuate, you are deluding yourself. For power doesn't discriminate between degrees of vulnerability for too long. Power feeds on the constant discovery of classes to oppress.

I read a powerful tweet today from someone under the handle @anthoknees, "Just to be clear: if someone supports a political candidate who seeks your extermination, they also support your extermination. It doesn't matter how they treat you interpersonally. They want you dead structurally."

Poll

Who will win the Punjab Elections?

BJP 32.79%

AAP 42.62%

INC 24.59%

Submit

View All In Poll

It really brought home the already intensifying feeling nestling within me that a government whose political, religious, and personal rhetoric is unabashedly infused with undertones of rape culture cannot be entrusted with the welfare of anyone, not even its fiercest supporters, for their claim to power will always rest on the forced suppression of any form of dissent, and on lines being crossed so forthrightly, that everyone will end up with blood on their hands, and every supporter will be complicit in the shedding of that blood.

This is why it is important to embrace this challenge through the lens of feminism and not through the tired idiom of party politics. This is not about which political party is more genuinely invested in a viable future for the least common denominator within this collective entity that we describe as nation. None of the current contenders have the moral heft to effect any real change. This is about the larger picture. It's what Ser Davos says in an episode in the seventh season of Game of Thrones. "If we don't put aside our enmities and band together, we will die. And then it doesn't matter whose skeleton sits on the Iron Throne." By not dissenting, we commit ourselves to the accelerated destruction of our habitat, our land.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed for his supporters on the Discovery Channel's show, "Man vs Wild" to allegedly raise environmental consciousness. Well, here, then, are the facts, presented to us not by him but by Rajyasree Sen. "In Maharashtra, 53,000 mangrove trees will be cut for the bullet train project. In Uttarakhand, the Centre has launched a R12,000-crore project to improve road connectivity to four Hindu pilgrimage sites which will have significant ecological costs. Modi had launched the construction of the Char Dham Mahamarg in 2016 as a tribute to those who died in the 2013 Kedarnath disaster. In Chattisgarh, more than 841.5 hectares of forest land will be destroyed for Adani to create coal mines. The list is long and far from illustrious."

Those so intent on fulfilling the dream of Hindu rashtra need to ask themselves how it will be achieved if when all threats have been exterminated—minorities, feminists, tribals, non-vegetarians, intellectuals—you are simply washed away in a devastating flood because you didn't care to consider or nurture the land you were so intent on conquering?

Deliberating on the life and times of Everywoman, Rosalyn D'Mello is a reputable art critic and the author of A Handbook For My Lover. She tweets @RosaParx Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates