‘Welcome To Fascist Nation-Building Project’

European nation-building project has always taken place on the basis of insider-outsider polarization. We, the national self, is always considered to be good, just, innocent, valiant etc. But they, the national other, is deemed to be bad, unjust, cunning, cowardly etc. This rhetoric is reflected in most of the national anthems, national leaders' public speeches and the national political transactions. In the case of India and Pakistan, the common victims of European colonization and modern European nation-building projects, this parochial 'Self vs. Other' understanding runs rampant. India and Pakistan cannot exist without 'the other.'

In India, a peculiar situation is developing, or rather it is being developed so systematically by the "better Indians." And that is branding some Indians as "less Indian" than the others. These "less Indians" tend to be mostly women, minorities, and those who have brain and backbone to ask the authorities uncomfortable questions.

Those of us who challenge the central government about the wisdom of buying the discredited and dangerous nuclear technology from Russia, the United States, France and scores of other countries at an exorbitant price are considered to be definitely "less Indians."

We ask if the highly and densely populated country like India can afford risky and radioactive nuclear technology.

We wonder if we have the resources and technology like Japan to confront a situation like Fukushima where the Japanese government is pumping money and dumping machinery to contain radioactivity.

We demand to know if the Indian government should protect the interests of the Indian citizens by sticking to our liability act and seeking supplier liability or prop up foreign economies by exempting them from our national laws and stipulating operator liability?

We ask if our central and state governments have learned any lessons from the Bhopal accident that took place some three decades ago?

We question the truthfulness, sincerity and credibility of the "Indian nationalism" that is being propounded by the Sonia Parivar and the Sangh Parivar, who try resolutely to re-colonize the country.

And we are condemned not only as "less Indians" but as "non-Indians"! Even worse, seditious. The governments have slapped 21 sedition cases on some 9,000 people who protested against the Russian-installed Koodankulam nuclear power project.

Those who compromise the national interests, betray the national values and plunder the national resources are being celebrated as leaders and ministers. But those of us who struggle to protect our nature, future and children are branded seditious.

Singing songs, reading books, eating beef, burning flags, shouting slogans, opposing radiation, asking why...are all seditious acts. These seditious elements are more dangerous and treacherous than 'the Other'. The "nation" must fear these 'Other' elements in the 'Self' and deal with them resolutely. They must be insulted, intimidated, imprisoned and if possible, eliminated. For these "unpatriotic" Indians are more dangerous than the national enemies.

The seditious 'Other' in the national 'Self' is a lot more dangerous than 'the Other' itself. Deal with it, with a capital 'D'. Welcome to Fascist nation-building project!

(SP Udayakumar is an anti-nuclear activist)

(The views expressed in the Freedom Series are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of 'Outlook' magazine or its journalists.)