A ‘Sadhvi’ and Her Followers
Sadhvi (it feels sacrilegious even calling her by this title) Niranjan Jyoti has just spent the day hiding from the media after her abusive speech in the Delhi election campaign. She apparently offered voters a choice between ‘Ramzaadas’ or the sons of Ram, or the BJP, and ‘Haraamzaadas’ or illegitimate offspring, referring to AAP and the Congress. While the Left, TMC, BSP, SP, JD(U) and other parties get their act together to offer the defenders of the Sadhvi (Sambit Patra on TV channels and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in parliament) some stiff resistance, its time to ask ourselves – have we reached the culmination of the ‘gaali in the morning, gaali in the evening, gaali at suppertime’ culture of the Sangh parivar? Or is there more to come?
Rahul Pandey and I are friends by virtue of being co-wounded in similar circumstances. We have both been stung by members of the same family from Chowk, Faizabad. While I was abandoned after three years of marriage by my second husband, which resulted in our divorce, Rahul faced the same fate with my ex-husband’s niece. Rahul has grown up in Ayodhya and Faizabad, while I lived there for only three years, but we have enough common ground to encourage each other through various small and big crises. Which is why I can relate so completely to his recent series on Facebook – a series of Q&A sessions with ‘bhakts’ or those who proclaim themselves as Hindu nationalists in every neighbourhood in U.P today.
I am reproducing some portions of this series in English, with Rahul’s permission, to reveal the impossibility of any kind of reasonable discourse with many champions of the brand of politics that has the upper hand today.
Q: Why are you spreading hate and mistrust in society?
A: I saw your wife strolling with a panwalla in Chowk yesterday.
Q: Why don’t you co-exist peacefully with other religions?
A: Your son masturbates in the bathroom in school.
Q: Why are you so violent towards a particular religion?
A: We know the kinds of dirty things you do with your wife at night.
Q: Why do you look for reasons to riot?
A: Your mother sleeps with the neighbor.
And so on. Rahul has written this series on topics like Sanskrit, patriotism, love jehad, cricket, and many others, based on actual conversations with his childhood friends from Chowk, Faizabad, who, in their way are representative of many thousands in the Hindi-speaking states. Here are some more snippets:
Q: Do you know who Bhagat Singh was?
A: Yes, Bhagat Singh was a true patriot.
Q: Do you know anything about his childhood?
A: Yes, he was brave right from childhood. He had taken ‘deeksha’ right then…
…Q: Bhagat Singh had written about atheism. What do you think about that?
A: This is a conspiracy by those &%$#@* leftists. We will shove **** up their **** to make them forget it.
Q: Why had Bhagat Singh thrown a bomb, any idea?
A: There were too many Mullahs in Parliament, that’s why, to reduce their numbers.
The profanity points to the patent fact that the person replying has nothing with which to bolster his opinions – no facts, no reason, nothing. Which is why trying to apply any reasonable yardsticks to conversations with trolls on the internet is impossible. Whenever one attempts to try and communicate with any honesty, one is left baffled by the completely arbitrary and irrelevant references thrown at one. Here’s some more:
Q: Do you worship cows?
A: What is there to ask in this, whoever is a true Hindustani will always worship cows.
Q: Why do you worship cows?
A: Because the Hindu religion tells us to worship cows. There is a whole Ved written on this.
Q: How do you worship cows, meaning what is the manner of worship?
A: We put a tilak on the cow, garland it, fold our hands.
Q: Do you do this with all cows?
A: Are you mad? There are 70 cows roaming the city…ask some intelligent questions. Looks like your brains too ran away the day your wife did…
Q: Do you use cow’s milk every day?
A: Whatever the dairy guys give us, we will use. We are not going to keep a cow separately, just for milk.
Q: What do you do for the protection of cows?
A: We go to the Mullah neighbourhoods and agitate. They are the ones who butcher our cows.
Q: The biggest abattoir in Rampur belongs to a Brahmin, where the most amount of cows are slaughtered. What is your view on this?
A: This is all lies spread by those $%#@& bastards of Stalin. A Brahmin can never be guilty of killing a cow.
Q: What do you do with old cows?
A: We stuff them up your **** you &@#$% Why are you asking such a &*%$#@ question?
Q: In the Vedas and ancient scriptures, there are accounts of Brahmins eating cow meat. Do you have anything to say on that?
A: Which Veda is this written in, show us. We will take it and wrap it and stuff it up your ****.
Q: Do you take everything and stuff it up someone’s ****?
A: ——————-
Another excerpt – this time its on the subject of abuse itself:
Q: Why do you use gaalis?
A: Why does your **** hurt? Don’t you abuse too?
Q: Its said that those who abuse are not educated. Are you not educated?
A: I’ve paid a full two lakh rupees for my degree. the money wasn’t ill-gotten (haraam).
Q: But does money buy an education?
A: Sa*** do you doubt my degree? We know you learnt your journalism with your girl-friend’s money.
Q: Does the abuse flow out of your mouth by itself, or do you abuse deliberately?
A: When I see Ha**** mullas, the abuse comes naturally. Even if it doesn’t, I deliberately abuse them.
Q: But abuse is not considered good in society…
A: When did I say that your wife is a whore?
Q: What does it feel like to you, after you have abused?
A: Like how it feels to you after you have farted.
Rahul continues his series on Facebook, where you can follow him to get the flavour of the original language used. As for me, this is enough proof of the impossibility of dialogue with the ‘Sadhvi’ and her followers.
