Lords of untruth

Kashmir leaders who have been wasting six months in jail are the victims of Indian authorities’ unjustifiable actions. As there had been no reason behind their detention, Prime Minister had a recourse in Parliament to untruth, which should be taken seriously.  The move underpinned the fact that the government had no respect for democracy and its essential aspect, Opposition.  This is evident from actions following the abrogation of special rights to Kashmir.  Lately in an hour-long speech in parliament justifying CAA and Kashmir action, PM relied on fake news ill-behoving to his position.  He quoted former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdulla as saying, “Removing Article 370 will cause earthquakes separating Kashmir from India”.  This statement, as per verification of facts, proved to be a fake news, created six years ago by a website whose name itself is Fakenews that creates fake news for fun. Just imagine the situation of other things considering the speech and statement of the democratic head. It will put both the nation and its people to shame when the rulers do not do justice to the nation’s cultural dignity. Prime Minister stated in the parliament the falsehood referred to here. The other day in the Rajya Sabha, there was an incident of Chairman Venkaiah Naidu removing from records Prime Minister’s one turn of phrase.  The chairman also removed one word from Gulam Nabi Asad’ speech who spoke following the Prime Minister’s.  It is rare to have words not in tandem with the status of the house removed; it is rarest, perhaps, to have Prime Minister’s words removed so.

To err is human. In the thick of emotions, humans tend to speak untruth and inappropriate words. However, responsible leaders would take the first opportunity at hand to correct them.  Based on experiences so far, leaders including Narendra Modi are subpar in their standards in this regard. While the government is facing elections or a crisis, leaders tend to make untruthful statements. Earlier in the event of a false statement by any minister in Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha, there would be ruckus and the leader had to correct it.  It seems lawmakers are now quite blasé about this habit.  Criticism and ridiculing are now the job of social media alone. Even after media widely discussed the contradictory statements by ministers on CAA in parliament, there has been no correction from authorities via democratic podiums.  Nobody demands it either.  Just as the works for population registry are in progress, which many in high position pointed as a step towards citizenship register, Prime Minister said nothing of the sort had been thought.  Also, he stated there was no detention centers in the nation. This statement came when the government had already submitted data regarding the inmates dead and alive in them.  These untruths and contradictions have not been corrected or explained yet.

The Centre repeats the big lie that the CAA is not based on religion.  The government sticks to the untruth even as those including the UN Human rights commission point at religious discrimination. Finally, the government has directed Assam to release from detention centers (whose existence the Prime Minister denied), inmates other than Muslims.  This one directive has laid bare the government’s many big lies. Still, the government is not ready to correct or tell the truths.  Honesty is the basis for trust in a government.  The nation, whose father had turned the search for truth as his ideology, is now experimenting with untruths, it has to be asked. What is left after honesty and trust is lost!  This fad for untruth would not only endanger the nation’s dignity but its very existence too. When leaders are not honest, both the society and governance would be in shambles.  The situation would then not create winners, only losers.