If Nehru had a grave he'd be turning in it today to see some of the Indian luminaries offering such full-throated endorsements of Thackeray. It's one thing to praise him in personal terms and for entirely personal reasons and quite another to endorse his politics or celebrate his influence on public life. So Lata Mangeshkar claims that Bombay is the great city it is because of what he did for it. This statement is appalling on so many levels that it staggers the mind. One can have a great name in life because of one's gifts and talents but one can equally consign it to the ashes when one speaks in certain ways..

It is deeply sad to see 'ugliness' legitimized this way.. surely fear and/or diplomacy do not force one to go quite as far as this? But it is depressing because it once again typifies how fascist politics can become entirely normalized.. people from Tamil Nadu to Bihar and UP let alone the Muslims of Bombay were not harassed and did not die only because they were at short end of Sena politics.. they also suffered in horrendous ways because there were far too many with great names who were willing to endorse these actions. Not directly of course. I am hardly suggesting Lata Mangeshkar or anyone else wished for these things to happen. But even if not political complicity there is a political and moral irresponsibility to certain statements and actions that is part of the problem. And Lata Mangeshkar is simply the latest symptom of a much larger and deeper malaise.

Yes politicians have a great deal of extra-legal power in India. It's not like the West where anyone can say anything. In India even people in positions of influence can be made to suffer in lots of extra-legal ways. Quite naturally the same people then wish to protect themselves and especially their families. This very human impulse can certainly be understood. But this might at the most lend itself to a position of silence, not full-blown endorsement! The first is regrettable, the second indefensible. And what one always forgets (or chooses not to remember) is that one can perhaps preserve oneself this way but it is done at the cost of making others unsafe. This might sound harsh but when the fascist embarks on his journey he knows that he has lots of leading lights who will at least not oppose him..

Someone who shall go unnamed here said something very profound after 2002 (let the date suffice..):

'Nyay mar gaya, log zinda hain'

As it happens you have to subtract a certain number of bodies and lives from the first part of this sentence to get to the second..

Justice never dies without company...

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