The Wire published an article on Thursday that could only be described as bizarre. In the article, Chinnaiah Jangam, assistant professor in the department of history, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada and author of the book ‘Dalits and the Making of Modern India’, tries rather desperately to connect the abrogation of Article 370 with the issue of reservations.
The article relies on speculation and half-truths to dent BJP’s popularity among Dalits. It regurgitates many liberal talking points from earlier and tortures facts even further to come up with even more twisted conclusions. The article, quite clearly, is the consequence of wild liberal fantasies.
Jangam says, “In his first term, Modi demonstrated that Muslims and Dalits were not safe under his watch as there was a spike in lynchings by cow vigilante groups across India. In maintaining a deadly silence, Modi enabled inaction from state institutions and emboldened the criminals to act with impunity.”
First things first, Narendra Modi did not maintain a ‘deadly silence’ over the alleged lynchings. He condemned them entirely. Secondly, there isn’t reliable data available to suggest that there was a ‘spike’ in lynchings. The author, perhaps, has taken the corrupt IndiaSpend data too seriously.
Rather ironically, Jangam says, “In the Hindu right’s perception, Muslims and Dalits fall into the same category as both the communities are connected to the cattle economy and also remain outside their imagination. It is not a surprise then that after Muslims, Dalits will be at the receiving end of Shah’s lethal strategies.”
Liberals are known to engage in projection but this takes projection to a whole new different level. It’s not the Hindu Right that pits Muslims and Dalits in the same category, it’s Liberals who do so. The entire article by Jangam is an effort to create the mythical ‘Dalit-Muslim unity‘ that liberals so crave.
After spending a disproportionate amount of time trying to forge a political alliance between Dalits and Muslims and failing miserably, liberals now claim that it’s not them who put Dalits and Muslims in the same category, it’s the Hindu Right. Contrary to liberals, the Hindu Right has always maintained that Dalits are Hindus as well and have always been part of the Hindu fold. It’s also maintained by the Hindu Right that Dalits have been suffering the brutalities of Radical Islam for far too long without receiving adequate attention. And yet, if Jangam is to be believed, it’s the Hindu Right that lumps them together.
Even more ironically, Jangam then uses his wildly false assumption to reach completely bizarre conclusions. There have been no policy decisions that have been taken to persecute the Muslim community. To claim otherwise is sheer lunacy. Then, to claim that Dalits will be the victims of ‘Shah’s lethal strategies’ next is an extravagant display of Jangam’s problematic relationship with observable reality.
The entire article is littered with outlandish allegations which are borne entirely of the figments of the author’s own fertile imaginations. He says at one point, “Shah is working to permanently destroy the sources of Dalit assertion.” On another occasion, Jangam says, “After the success of the Hindu right’s polarising politics and its demonisation of Muslims, the strategy now is to marginalise and demonise Dalits as they remain an important threat to its politics and ideology.”
The deranged rhetoric only escalates as the article moves forward. It says, “It will not be a surprise if Shah soon declares in parliament that reservations are redundant and must be scrapped. This is another way to demolish the Dalits legally.” He also declares emphatically, “As Amit Shah is determined to break the avenues for emancipation and pulverise Dalit politics using constitutional means, it is incumbent upon every Dalit to read and protect every page of the constitution.”
Jangam concludes his rather perverse rant with the bold declaration, “One day he (Shah) might even shred the Constitution if he believes it no longer serves his purpose of furthering divisive politics and the consolidation of the Hindu vote bank. Thus, every Dalit has an ethical responsibility to stand with the people of Jammu and Kashmir as the Hindu right threatens their very future in India.”
The article appears to be a compilation of every dumb liberal argument made to perpetuate the myth of Dalit-Muslim unity. All the blockbuster smashing hits in the liberal propaganda charts, they all find mention in this article. Jangam makes it appear as if India in 2019 is the real-life version of Mad Max Fury Road. The article doesn’t even attempt to appear credible. Worse, there doesn’t appear to be a way of seriously rebutting any of Jangam’s arguments. How does anyone logically rebut what comes across as someone’s idea of a bad joke?
In Jangam’s mind, Amit Shah appears to be a combination of the worst of Voldemort, Sauron and Adolf Hitler magnified a million times. The assistant professor doesn’t even bother to come across as a credible person. He says of Amit Shah, “Having been jailed on charges of murder, extortion and kidnapping, Shah’s elevation to the position of the home minister is truly ironical.”
He never quite mentions that Shah was found innocent of all charges and it has become evident over time that it was the most blatant case of political vendetta. The Congress party used the state machinery to persecute its political opponents and destroy their careers. And yet, liberals, who claim to have a monopoly over truth and intellect, will deny the obvious with a straight face.
There was a time when The Wire manufactured quality propaganda. But it appears as though the results of the 2019 General Elections have broken their hearts. They have lost their will, the fight in their eyes is gone. Such amateurish propaganda was spawned in the pits of their desperation and nourished by unrelenting nihilism. They tried so hard to prevent Narendra Modi’s reelection in 2019 and yet, here we are. Now, they have just given up and publishing propaganda articles that would be marked 3/10 in most reputed schools.
The article demonstrates that liberals have learned nothing from the remarkable electoral defeat they suffered and are doing what they have always done: Double down on their flawed rhetoric. Unfortunately, however, if they travel any further Left, they will fall off the edge of the cliff. And that is precisely what seems have to have happened to The Wire.
