Pogrom or Pandemic

Do hand sanitisers wash off blood?

We’re living in sick times and in times of sickness. There are diagnosable symptoms, there is the coughing, the fevers, the vomiting. You can get tablets in the pharmacy for them. Then there are the undiagnosable, inexplicable symptoms. The numbness in your mind, the ache in your heart, the dread in your stomach. You cannot get tablets in the pharmacy for them, you cannot even report them to the authorities 

The doctors ask the standard questions; the “whom did you meet?”, the “where did you breathe?”, the “how did you walk the street?”

I met the ghosts, made of smoke from the burning flesh, a city across.

There is the disease we don’t talk about it. It spreads from those who poison your hearts and then rot your brains. Gladly, gladly you celebrate it.

We must absolutely avoid the infected areas. 

But the broad-shouldered gun-wielders wouldn’t let you in without a lawyer anyway. You can’t see the charred and the stained from here, and the drains clogged with corpses. You’d be all too happy to stay safe, rightfully so, and complain about the Metro stations they closed. 

What fitting revenge for causing inconvenience to the general public.

We must greatly practice social distancing. 

After all it was a riot, both parties are equally responsible, it’s a balanced loss everywhere; absolutely, absolutely. But their houses, they’re ash; their lives, a burnt flash. And them? Look at the hatred in their eyes; how dare they cry victim, how dare they! You’d be all too happy to distance yourself from such divisiveness,the jihadists and the saffronites.

What fitting revenge for the immoral 500-a-day women sitting in streets.

We must quarantine the infected. 

The most important element of a pandemic/pogrom, keep them together for containing the spread/easy access. Generations of ghettos and streets, narrow enough only for a bottle of kerosene or hot coals. Maintaining public order is the need of this dark hour, lest they go back and bury their burnt and the official death toll rises. You’d be all too happy to close the newspaper and not burden your heart. 

What fitting revenge to those godforsaken, anti-national traitors.

We must wear masks for extra safety. 

Keeps the germs and the police and the pollution away, it does. It’s running out everywhere, they could just wrap a cloth around their nose and hope the facial recognition system the taxpayers paid for just doesn’t work, unfortunately; and the CCTVs are blurred or blown up, unfortunately; and the law enforcement officials are bribed left and right, unfortunately; but curse the demonic concerned citizens who did digging of their own and released phone numbers and pictures, like that is going to change anything. You would be all too happy to just shed a tear and keep silence.

What fitting revenge to those degenerates demanding rights to exist.

Alas controlling a pandemic is too expensive for rulers here, so let’s wait it out. Let’s hope they die out at overwhelmed hospitals, there’s no shortage of burial land anywhere (5 acres).

Perhaps stand sanitisers do wash off blood, given their sudden popularity in the sudden times.

Reach out to someone, cry. Help someone you can, breathe. Go out to someone, learn. Be a human while you can, and while you want to.

Protest Etiquette in the Indian Democracy

Five easy steps to become the perfect protestor

Know the Cause

Okay first of all, why would you be against anything Modiji does, huh? Anyway he knows better and kuch soch samajh kar hi kara hoga so you might as well support him by coming out on the streets. God knows what crazy thoughts these terrorist students might put in the innocent citizens’ minds. Either stay at home and watch some quality news on WhatsApp or RepublicTV or go and wave saffron flags on the road. All these infiltrators will change the face of India forever otherwise. What brutality? What secularism? What democracy? Modiji is no bigot okay he does not discriminate only, and what else do these Pakistanis deserve? Modiji has said na that a Bill that seeks to divide people on the basis of religion is not about religion at all so why don’t you trust him even though half his supporters wants a Hindu Rashtra.

Now understand the real problem this Bill address: refugees. We didn’t want refugees when the Rohingya Muslims were in the midst of a genocide just last year (but we invested in the government that was doing the genocide) because we were overpopulated and under resourced but now our 5 trillion dollar economy can support all these non-Muslim immigrants from these evil Muslim countries. And oh, ignore the Sri Lankan Tamils (some of whom happen to be Hindu also) crying about their genocide, or living under a regime with the state religion as Theravada Buddhism. Please okay, Modiji knows best.

As for NRC, whose realisation Modiji and Amitji are divided upon, of course you trust a government that hides data on hate crime, unemployment, farmer’s suicides, electoral bond donors, and its ministers’ education when it asks you to show fifty year old documents to prove your identity.

Educate Yourself

You have to read the shady article your bhakt uncle sent on the WhatsApp group, first. All these activist people are just anti national terror sympathisers, why just go and read the deleted Facebook post from 2007 they made. Don’t trust all these Congress-funded NDTV, Indian Express, The Hindu etc who are sending ground reports. They are all anti nationals and are very popular in Pakistan you wonder why. Only trust Modia that reports exactly what Modiji wants it to.

As for the protestors, all these idiot researchers, specialised students, and PhD professors, with more degrees than the Cabinet combined, people who have spent their entire life studying policies and politics are all anti nationals with vested interest. Of course they are only protesting because they read one twitter post. That Ramachandra Guha is an idiot only, what kind of historian protests violent history from repeating itself or defends the founding principles of our country? Just another stupid anti national. The United Nations and all these NGOs saying they concerned about the suppression of freedom of expression in India are all pro-Pakistan and very biased. Even Oxford university and all these foreign schools releasing statements of support are doing so that foreign students who manage to not get harassed stop coming to India. Its all a conspiracy, you know.

Support the Police

The police knows best okay. They are supposed to maintain law and order and they are doing exactly that, albeit they are using brutal and extrajudicial methods to establish the will of he dominant class. Has a police officer ever troubled you? A little bribe and they go away, no? Such amicable people they are, abusing their institutionalised use of force.

And all these Jamia, Rajiv Chowk, Mandi House protestors deserve what they got, they must have done something only. Why does the police never lathicharge Jantar Mantar or India Gate where all the rich, upper caste, privileged masses go to candle march, huh? And the police support the democratic protests also, see how nice they are to the pro-government, pro-NRC-CAA bhakts peacefully yelling “goli maaron saalon ko”. The police are just agents of the government, doing what the suppressive regime tells them to. It’s not like they want to actively suppress the voice of dissenters and detain innocents on suspicion or fire at protesters and accidentally kill themor beat up minors from Muslim neighbourhoods or whatever they do. It is their duty only na.

Do not Be Violent

If you are an anti government anti national peacefully protesting and raising slogans on azaadi why do you have to fear BJP, RSS,ABVP wagerah wagerah goons who will throw stones or get crisis actors to subvert the crowds, excusing the police to fire? Because protestors can be identified by their dress no, so local BJP workers in Murshidabad will wear skullcaps and do what they can to incite mischief. Good for them. If your anti national university gets broken into by police yelling Jai Shree Ram, and if cops leave a trail of blood in your library and shoot at students and end up arresting random outsiders that is also your fault.

History shows that asking nicely will get you everything from voting rights to emancipation from slavery to occupation in Kashmir; hence violence has no place in a protest. And protests (or dissent, for that matter) have no place in our democratic country, okay.

At the Protest

Guys, it’s very easy to protest safely, rightfully and peacefully. Just wear Modi masks and wave RSS flags and throw some “Pakistan Muradabad” while you’re at it. It’s chill bro.

~sana’a