Muthalik banned from entering Goa for 60 days

Noam Chomsky is one of the leading peace workers in the world. In the wake of America’s attack on Vietnam, he brought out his classic formulation, ‘manufacturing consent’. The phrase explains the state manipulating public opinion to have the public approve of it policies—in this case, the attack of the American state on Vietnam, which was then struggling to free itself from French colonial rule.

In India, we are witness to manufactured hate against religious minorities. This hatred serves to enhance polarisation in society, which undermines India’s democracy and Constitution and promotes support for a Hindu nation. Hate is being manufactured through multiple mechanisms. For example, it manifests in violence against religious minorities. Some recent ghastly expressions of this manufactured hate was the massive communal violence witnessed in Mumbai (1992-93), Gujarat (2002), Kandhamal (2008) and Muzaffarnagar (2013). Its other manifestation was in the form of lynching of those accused of having killed a cow or consumed beef. A parallel phenomenon is the brutal flogging, often to death, of Dalits who deal with animal carcasses or leather.

Yet another form of this was seen when Shambhulal Regar, indoctrinated by the propaganda of Hindu nationalists, burned alive Afrazul Khan and shot the video of the heinous act. For his brutality, he was praised by many. Regar was incited into the act by the propaganda around love jihad. Lately, we have the same phenomenon of manufactured hate taking on even more dastardly proportions as youth related to Hindu nationalist organisations have been caught using pistols, while police authorities look on.

Anurag Thakur, a BJP minster in the central government recently incited a crowd in Delhi to complete his chant of what should happen to ‘traitors of the country...” with a “they should be shot”. Just two days later, a youth brought a pistol to the site of a protest at Jamia Millia Islamia university and shouted “take Azaadi!” and fired it. One bullet hit a student of Jamia. This happened on 30 January, the day Nathuram Godse had shot Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. A few days later, another youth fired near the site of protests against the CAA and NRC at Shaheen Bagh. Soon after, he said that in India, “only Hindus will rule”.

What is very obvious is that the shootings by those associated with Hindu nationalist organisations are the culmination of a long campaign of spreading hate against religious minorities in India in general and against Muslims in particular. The present phase is the outcome of a long and sustained hate campaign, the beginning of which lies in nationalism in the name of religion; Muslim nationalism and Hindu nationalism. This sectarian nationalism picked up the communal view of history and the communal historiography which the British introduced in order to pursue their ‘divide and rule’ policy.

In India what became part of “social common sense” was that Muslim kings had destroyed Hindu temples, that Islam was spread by force, and that it is a foreign religion, and so on. Campaigns, such as the one for a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Rama to be built at the site where the Babri masjid once stood, further deepened the idea of a Muslim as a “temple-destroyer”. Aurangzeb, Tipu Sultan and other Muslim kings were tarnished as the ones who spread Islam by force in the subcontinent. The tragic Partition, which was primarily due to British policies, and was well-supported by communal streams also, was entirely attributed to Muslims. The Kashmir conflict, which is the outcome of regional, ethnic and other historical issues, coupled with the American policy of supporting Pakistan’s ambitions of regional hegemony, (which also fostered the birth of Al-Qaeda), was also attributed to the Muslims.

With recurring incidents of communal violence, these falsehoods went on going deeper into the social thinking. Violence itself led to ghettoisation of Muslims and further broke inter-community social bonds. On the one hand, a ghettoised community is cut off from others and on the other hand the victims come to be presented as culprits. The percolation of this hate through word-of-mouth propaganda, media and re-writing of school curricula, had a strong impact on social attitudes towards the minorities.

In the last couple of decades, the process of manufacturing hate has been intensified by the social media platforms which are being cleverly used by the communal forces. Swati Chaturvedi’s book, I Am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP’s Digital Army, tells us how the BJP used social media to spread hate. Whatapp University became the source of understanding for large sections of society and hate for the ‘Other’, went up by leaps and bounds. To add on to this process, the phenomenon of fake news was shrewdly deployed to intensify divisiveness.

Currently, the Shaheen Bagh movement is a big uniting force for the country; but it is being demonised as a gathering of ‘anti-nationals’. Another BJP leader has said that these protesters will indulge in crimes like rape. This has intensified the prevalent hate.

While there is a general dominance of hate, the likes of Shambhulal Regar and the Jamia shooter do get taken in by the incitement and act out the violence that is constantly hinted at. The deeper issue involved is the prevalence of hate, misconceptions and biases, which have become the part of social thinking.

These misconceptions are undoing the amity between different religious communities which was built during the freedom movement. They are undoing the fraternity which emerged with the process of India as a nation in the making. The processes which brought these communities together broadly drew from Gandhi, Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar. It is these values which need to be rooted again in the society. The communal forces have resorted to false propaganda against the minorities, and that needs to be undone with sincerity.

Combating those foundational misconceptions which create hatred is a massive task which needs to be taken up by the social organisations and political parties which have faith in the Indian Constitution and values of freedom movement. It needs to be done right away as a priority issue in with a focus on cultivating Indian fraternity yet again.

Bengaluru,  Jun 19: Following the coronavirus outbreak, Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport has introduced ultraviolet treatment while scanning outbound baggage apart from other measures to enhance passenger and staff safety.

"Two custom-designed UV tunnels have been created to disinfect trolleys after every use. Two custom-designed UV tunnels have been created to disinfect trolleys after every use. These Tunnels are located at a cordoned-off area of the Terminal," according to a statement by the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL).

The airport plans to use an ultra-low volume (ULV) spray treatment for check-in bags: all outbound passenger baggage is sanitised before dispatch to the aircraft

Authorities also plan to minimise use of additional trays for footwear by introducing specially designed trays; the trays that are in use are UV treated and sanitised manually after every use.

Officials are currently in the process of implementing silver nano-coating for frequently used touchpoints for self disinfection like check-in counters, Immigration counters, ATRS trays, etc. Currently, sanitisation of high-traffic areas and frequently touched surfaces continues to be done every thirty minutes manually without disrupting the flow of passengers.

All high-traffic areas are sanitised once every three hours by using ULV machines - eight times in 24 hours.

Washrooms across the Airport premises are sanitised on a regular basis with dedicated manpower, irrespective of the frequency of use. 456 units of tabletop hand sanitiser and 107 units of sensor-based hand sanitisers have been placed across the Terminal.

120 biowaste bins located across the Airport campus enable passengers and staff to dispose of their masks, gloves and other PPE conveniently and safely. This bio-waste is managed by a dedicated team and handed over to a Pollution Control Board-approved vendor and taken away for incineration.

The Airport said that the passenger feedback for the contactless process has been positive. "The objective of the process is to minimise physical contact and enhance passenger throughput," it said.

These sanitisation measures come in light of the highly infectious COVID-19 pandemic which spreads through person-to-person contact. Small droplets from the nose or mouth can spread the virus when they land on objects and surfaces around the person.

Mangaluru, Jan 5: Against the backdrop of Mangalore violence of December 19, Additional Director General of Police of Karnataka Amar Kumar Pandey visited the city and held a meeting with senior police officers.

According to senior police officials here on Sunday, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi District Muslim Central Committee had planned to hold a protest against CAA at Nehru Maidan while the SKSSF had called for anti-CAA protest at State Bank area.

Though both the protests had been called off, there was an apprehension of a repeat incident of December 19 violence and hence the ADGP visited the city at the behest of state government and monitored the situation here for the entire day on Saturday.

The ADGP was unhappy that despite initial inputs and the imposition of Section 144 in the city, the situation on that day escalated to a level where police had to resort to firing only in this city.