Good ideas take time to spread but bad ones transmit like the novel coronavirus. Black Lives Matter is one such idea whose dissemination in our country is under control, mainly because there are a strong nationalist government and an equally strong nationalist movement in India. Make no mistake about it: there are enough activists and intellectuals in the country who are itching for chaos, who are willing to justify any outrage carried out in the name of social justice.
This is Swaminathan Aiyar (The Times Of India, June 14): “If indeed Indians wish to protest against the most egregious of historical and current outrages, that should be ‘Dalit Lives Matter’.” Apparently, it didn’t occur to Aiyar that the movement he wishes to begin would be, if it begins, violent, for the template, BLM, is such. For BLM is really egregious.
Protests against Floyd’s killing were largely peaceful to begin with; but these were later infiltrated and hijacked by the racist BLM and a shadowy terrorist organization Antifa. Such bodies made rabble out of peaceful protesters and mobs out of crowds; they instigated and indulged in violence against anybody they didn’t like; that especially included police men and women.
Hundreds of BLM victims have been injured, many of them seriously; a 30-year-old Los Angeles cop has been put on ventilator for life. And it’s not just white folks who have got hurt. A retired black cop in St. Louis, David Dorn, a former police captain, was also murdered by a looter while guarding a pawn shop. National monuments have been vandalized, the national flag burnt, churches and synagogues attacked, and shops looted.
And you know what? Many mainstream politicians are appeasing the rioters (Just like Indian politicians placated the Mandal lobby a few years ago). New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he stood with the Minnesota protesters: “Nobody is sanctioning the arson, and the thuggery and the burglaries, but the protesters and the anger and the fear and the frustration? Yes. Yes. And the demand is for justice.”
At a press conference, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said New York Police Department has been restrained. To the protesters, he said, “If you are angry with the government, if you are angry with the elected leaders, direct that anger to all of us, because if we haven’t done enough, we are the ones who should be held responsible. But the police officer in front of you is a working man or woman just trying to do their job.”
Rarely a guilt-ridden liberal politician has been so craven. But that is how it is; except conservative leaders and thinkers, everybody is placating BLM-type extremists and social justice warriors, endorsing their views—the views that have emanated from the irrational postmodern theories that New Left professors teach in Western universities. So, democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said that the Floyd’s killing has “ripped open anew this ugly underbelly of our society.”
The mainstream media too has been supportive of BLM. CNN saw a precedent in Boston tea party (May 30). While showing violence and arson, the report said cavalierly, Don’t think that “this has not happened before.” This is how this country started, he enlightened the audience.
A day earlier, against the backdrop of chaos, an MSNBC anchor said, “This is mostly a protest. It is not, it is not generally speaking… eh unruly. The fires have been started.” Violence and arson are not unruly.
Whatever BLM thugs may do, they are forgiven. Liberal politicians, intellectuals, media, and celebrities can’t see violence by BLM and Antifa activists. They—Aiyar is an example—just love fashionable clichés and dangerous ideas; the love is so intense that they even disregard facts, even if they have to blindfold themselves. They are the veritable descendants of Gandhari.
Thankfully, there is a strong nationalist movement in our country, a potent antidote to BLM-like mischief..
