Engaging Indian right-wing whataboutery

Hindutva’s normalizers have turned whataboutery into a fine art.

PlainTalkin
Jul 10, 2017 · 6 min read

Whataboutery attempts to change the subject and defend the indefensible. How they do it is… by drawing false equivalences that send arguments off at a tangent.


This column deals with the incessant whataboutery that the right-wing-apologists regurgitate. Like cows.

Updated 10th July 2017

What about increase in crimes against Dalits in the UPA years?

This is a textbook red herring argument and so a perfect example to begin with. Here’s the basic mechanism behind these ploys:

Find an inconvenient truth, and without ascertaining its actual reason, link its occurrence solely to the ruling party of the time. Then, draw a false parallel between the current hate-crime and the previous inconvenient truth, in an effort to dilute the current issue and make the perpetrator’s magnitude of guilt appear lesser.

Returning to the issue of crimes against Dalits… as I’ve written above in this article, due to a variety of factors, a fraction of actual crimes are recorded in India. Recent advances in police reform and electronic means of registering FIRs in metros have seen crime rates double. Besides, crimes against Dalits have been happening ever since the caste system. It’s just that earlier most didn’t have the courage to report them, and when they did, the police would refuse to register it. Whereas now, after decades of empowerment, they finally do get recorded; and possibly acted upon.

But, what about the fairy-tale “Church Attacks”?? Foolish Sickulars!

What about the gov’t turning Christmas day into some bloody “Good Governance Day” in 2014? What does “Good Governance Day” even mean? I mean who tries to do such a thing — take away a universal holiday and make it a working day? Can you imagine the levels of deviousness? No wonder people were convinced that the BJP-wallahs were out to get the Christians!

Okay, what I just did there was a bit of whataboutery. Give them a taste of their own medicine, hah! But on a serious note, the BJP really did try that stunt. And then after the blowback, quietly toned it down in 2015, 16.

However, six coincidences of arson, in the midst of the ghar-wapsi craze one might add, did lead to misreporting. But that takes nothing away from the fact that, at that point, Christians across India were being targeted by whole bunch of deplorables. And BJP-RSS functionaries were backing them up with outrageous statements. Here are some links from that period:

  • List of 38 petty hate-crimes on Christians during Nov-Dec 2014.
  • Church made ‘temple’ after 72 Valmikis reconvert to Hinduism. 28.08.14
  • Chhattisgarh: 40 Hindu radicals attack a Christian community. 27.10.14
  • Niranjan Jyoti, junior BJP minister, asks if the country should be governed by “the children of Ram” or “the children of bastards” at a rally. 03.12.14
  • Rajeshwar Singh of RSS-affiliate DJS, requests ‘ghar wapasi’ funds. Claims ‘reconversion’ of 40K Muslims & Christians in UP. 12.12.14
  • Christian enclave fears violence as Hindus press for conversions. 18.12.14
  • Good Governance Day sends wrong message on Xmas. 26.12.14
  • Threat of ‘mass conversions’: Uneasy Xmas for India’s Christians. 27.12.14
  • Church attacked in Haryana, cross replaced by Hanuman idol. 16.03.15
  • Madhya Pradesh: Church, two schools attacked in Jabalpur. 22.03.15
  • Bajrang Dal had warned priest of Hisar church before attack. 17.03.15

Coming back to the events of 2015–17. The 28+ victims of cow-terrorism are actually dead because of militant Hindutva’s obsession with gau-raksha. And this time round there is no scope for tantrums crying out misreporting.

What about RSS cadres being killed in Kerala & Karnataka??

Politics fundamentally is the quest for socio-economic power. And in all power-struggles the likelihood of violence is heightened. For example, throughout the 70’s and 80’s, thousands perished every year from political violence in Bengal alone. And there can be no denying that a majority of these deaths were caused by the CPM and it’s cadres.

In tribalist societies, vendetta is often acted upon impulsively, which is exactly the case in many districts of southern coastal Karnataka and northern Kerala and specifically Kannur. A FactChecker.in study found that in BJP-RSS vs CPM clashes, roughly equal number of deaths were registered on both sides. This brand of ‘eye for an eye’ political violence simply cannot be equated with targeted killings of random truck drivers and sundry “beef-eaters”.

What about Mohammad Ayub Pandith??

First, pointing out isolated organic instances of Muslims lynching Muslims or other communities does not in any way absolve the Hindutva brigade and the BJP of their sins of commission or omission. And if the media doesn’t cover it with the same fervour as Hindutva-homicides, its because a cancer demands greater attention than let’s say, a bad case of acne.

Second, the Kashmir valley is no ordinary place. It is a war-zone. At any given point there are over 50 lakh soldiers encamped there. Since independence it has gradually become one of the most brutalized lands this side of the Middle-east. Furthermore, in the last three decades any semblance of normality has been shredded apart by Pakistan-backed militants one side and the draconian AFSPA on the other. To compare incidents in that conflict-ravaged region with instances of random violence in mainstream India, is to compare Kashmiri Apples with Nagpur Oranges.

Okay, but what about Farook huh??! Art of selectivity, is it??

Farook was killed by his childhood friends as the result of a series of arguments that had been building up since their road-trip to Goa. While this act is pretty reprehensible in itself, it qualifies as a “personal enmity” case and does not point to a larger sinister conspiracy. Such as Hindutva for e.g.

Also, if there are radicalized Muslim outfits present in India, who’s stopping this gov’t from going after them. Just don’t go after innocent truck drivers and cattle-owners. Also, please don’t learn from the Congress and their long history of imprisoning innocent Muslims with life sentences.

What about 50% that didn’t happen in BJP states??

Irrelevant which state it happened in. The RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal and their hundreds of allied groups are all, in essence, non-state actors but still have the complete backing of the ruling establishment and a presence in each and every nook and corner of India.

It’s all a liberal conspiracy. A copycat effect!

It’s a bit of a stretch to imply that the entire lot of national English newspapers from The Hindu, Indian Express, Times of India, are guided by some blinding hatred for Modi and the BJP. That they have been cherry-picking the news they publish. Also, you’re most welcome to publish your own vernacular-sourced data-set.

But why do you insist on defaming India??

Why do we insist on highlighting these incidents and pursuing justice? It is because it is the inherent nature of a democracy to seek equal justice. To demand fair play when there is wrongdoing. To censure those who seek to impair the values of liberty, fraternity and equality.

That, is the character of a vibrant democracy.

Criticism, when valid, reinforces the anatomy of a nation. It doesn’t defame or demean it. For example, the primary objective of journalists’ calling India Lynchistan is to shame and to spur the government into acting. And that’s exactly what happened after the #NotInMyName protests.

But what about Muslim countries?? They have more lynchings!!

Undoubtedly Pakistan & Bangladesh have a greater number of lynchings on a per capita basis. But that is because citizens of those countries have already been brutalized by decades of extremist policies emanating from a flawed need to align the state with the teachings of a radicalized religion.

They’ve been Lynchistans for decades now. Their miserable politicians and army-chiefs have colluded with a self-serving clergy, manipulated the masses using religious propaganda and created a quasi-theocracy, just to hold on to political power.

Starting to sound a bit familiar? Well, this dysfunctional state of affairs is precisely what India is moving towards. Hence the palpable fear amongst ordinary people that our once-spirited country — formed on modern principles of equality and justice for all — is slowly resembling a medieval Hindu-Pakistan.

PlainTalkin

Written by

This blog offers ideas, perspectives & factual analyses of pressing matters — with the general idea of bringing about a fairer, happier society for all possible

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade