I’m not a politically indignant person. I have strong views that I usually refuse to state out loud. But yesterday’s Times (ok, i know reading the Times disqualifies me from participating in a decent conversation, but…) had this line, something to the effect of, communalism has never been as accepted in society as is is right now.
And you know what? I agree. I’m the typical BJP voter. You can figure out the demographic profile from that. I’m a staunch anti-reservation (more scholarships, less reservation, I say) anti-comrade (you want something, earn it) anti-bandh, no nonsense (ok, some of us still have hope) person.
I have friends ranging from bengali intellectual to mallu catholic to lots of relatives in their family are factionists to tam brams who wish to give back to society to served a stint in the RSS to staunch ramzaan roza to people like me who feel but don’t say.
But of all these vast and varied profiles I interact with, no one, i repeat, no one has neither said nor implied that a person should be taxed for the religion they practice. Good God! This is not Aurangzeb’s rule for heavens sake.
But look around! It’s such a divided world. We are so quick to either rationalize (oh, that attack was so provoked) or condemn (they are all like that, so incredibly insecure…) that we have lost what living together is really about.
I guess we’re really becoming ‘tolerant’. It’s a sad sad world…
