Power Dictates, 'Creates' Truth
Almost on his first day in office, Donald Trump took America out of the World Health Organisation and the Paris Climate Agreement. He considers all international bodies like the UN wasteful clubs for empty chattering. He goes further. Canada and Mexico are just subordinate parts of the US, and Greenland is a source of rare earth minerals. BRICS will have to pay 100% tariffs, and India is described as "harming" the American economy with heavy tariffs. Whether these goals or statements are fair or foul, intended or unintended, productive or merely provocative, in public perception today, power has the last word in all matters. The great ideals that John Kennedy held up for the nation have vanished between dollar bills and DeepSeek secrets.

Meantime, Trump aides are growing breathless, the nation suspends all views for a while, and perceptive persons are reflecting on their response to these uninvited air raids. Chaos is the code today. People have limited choices. In a Majoritarian-Rightist state, options are few. 'Right Turn' is the only order audible. Polarisation is bound to grow. People are whispering, "Is Trump calling for a 'civil war' to Make America Great Again ... with his trimming of expenditure on welfare schemes for the vulnerable, like medicare, nutrition assistance, farmers' needs?" Well, Modiji was boasting that his present budget has deliberately guarded against expenses on 'Nehruvian socialistic schemes'!

Right Foot Forward
Be sure the Right is moving ahead. Angela Merkel is deeply distressed that her party is sliding rightwards, collaborating with the Far Right. But that is the collective mood in Europe and the rest of the world in our times. As your neighbours take their nationalism and Rightism to extremes and develop an exclusive outlook, so do you, in turn, draw many more in the same direction. No one thinks of long-term consequences.

Unexplainably, this happens in a world that has grown totally dependent on each other: e.g., Germany on Russian oil, America on Chinese consumer goods; India on Russian weapons, French fighter jets, Chinese medical ingredients, and oil from Iraq, Syria, and UAE; and all of us on everyone else's contribution. If the supply chain is disrupted, the world economy becomes chaotic. Recognition of our interdependence is the first step towards balanced thinking. We fervently pray for thoughts that call for moderation and sobriety.

Nationalism Constructed on Grievances, Negative Memories
The trouble today is that patriotism is no longer built on a nation's past achievements. It is constructed on manufactured grievances and propagated negative memories put together by self-interested political parties: migrants and their alleged crimes in the West, a century and a half of humiliation in China, and a "thousand years" of exploitation by aliens in India. The narrative of Islamic harshness on the Hindus and the destruction of temples has become a central theme. What is claimed by Hindutva advocates is not merely Ayodhya, not only Mathura and Kashi but the undoing of mosques in hundreds of places, especially in North India, which they allege have been built on temple sites. They insist that this is "Civilisational Justice."

Our civilisational wisdom says, "There is nothing to be gained by talking about what is past and beyond repair" (Dronacharya in Mahabharata). When they forget their inherited wisdom, they should be careful about what they demand. The same "Civilisational Justice" will expect that hundreds of Hindu temples built on Jain and Buddhist sites should be returned to the original owners. The Jagannath temple at Puri was built on a Buddhist holy place, which in turn was constructed on a tribal sacred site. The Kamakhya temple in Guwahati earlier had a tribal origin. Should not these places be returned to the Buddhists and tribal people concerned?

A Buddhist monastery has been unearthed in Vadnagar, Modiji's place. The Nagercoil temple was a Jain shrine as late as the 16th century. Buddhist Ellora became Vaishnavite. Lord Curzon was shocked to find Buddhist Bodh Gaya in Saiva hands. Kandiyur (Kerala), home to 9th century Siva, has a Buddha buried nearby. At Parvasseri, a Jain image became Vishnu. In Karnataka, as many as 2,000 Jain sites were destroyed or repurposed. A Siva saint is credited with having killed 32,000 Jains and another 8,000.

The small remnant of the Jains and Buddhists in India today would be too timid to press their rights lest they be wiped out in the present-day saffron-dominated climate. But consequences remain. A response may take centuries, but it does come unless forces for deeper reflection and reconciliation rise on both sides. That is the mission of every enlightened citizen.

Prejudices Are Fostered, Psychological Distances Are Delicately Cultivated
The tragedy today is that revived memories of historic injuries have hardened: prejudices multiply, and psychological distances grow in India, China, East Europe, and the Middle East. Those who feel their cultures and identities questioned or threatened to draw sharp borders and become aggressive. Multiple loyalties get mixed up together. For example, the tussle in the Middle East is about colonial memories combined with cultural distances and clashing geopolitical interests while using religious slogans, symbols, phrases, and pronouncements. In an 'asymmetrical war,' the weak feel justified to strike back in unexpected places and in unpredictable ways, e.g. bomb explosions and suicide bombs. Not rarely do we hear, 'We cannot forgive, we will not forget.'

Social observers have described the new middle classes in India as aggressive go-getters, mostly in reference to business achievements. They abandon their original rural culture, peasant pleasantness and mild-natured spirituality. But they make up for the rejection of their ethical codes with an unexplainable attachment to obscurantist symbols, rituals and fanatic forms of religiosity. Such anachronistic gestures assuage their conscience for betraying their inherited social norms for self-correction and mutual edification.

Having rejected the substance, they cling to the forms…not rarely the oddest. They are ready supporters of fundamentalist goals and ideals, though they really attach no religious significance to what they do… like temple-building, pilgrimages, pujas, Kumbh melas, and blind support to Sadhus and Seers. They contribute generously to VHP funds and provide volunteers to Bajrang Dal while sending their children to missionary schools and prestigious universities!!

Collaborators Multiply
They already have members among the Jats, Yadavs and Kurmis in the North; Kammas, Reddis, Vanniyars and Nadars in the South; Kumbis, Patels and Patidars in the West; and Marathas in central India. The neo-affluent fall hard on the Dalits and SCs over land and organise senas in self-interest: in Bihar, the Bhumihars have organised the Ranvir Sena, the Kurmis Bhumi Sena, the Yadavs Lorik Sena. Non-violence is expressed in violent language and hurtful attacks in the name of national interest, cultural defence, cow protection and moral policing ... behaving like British football hooligans, as Shashi Tharoor says. Did Rajnath Singh not preside at a weapon's worship service and appear at Mahakumbh with Gen. Dwivedi? Brahmos are proud earners of income for the country. Balakot strike against a weaker neighbour (Pakistan) is a display of courage while yielding space to a stronger neighbour (China), which is clever diplomacy!

Power worshippers now move closer to power demonstrators. Billionaires worth a trillion stand for Trump today. Did not Elon Musk give him a Nazi salute? Google says its maps will show the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America if America so instructs. After all, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, IBM, and pharmaceutical companies believe in 'creative destruction' as and when needed. Their wealth-creating power is built on their gigantic profits. But they forget that their innovation has cost less than they claim, paid mainly by the taxpayers. 

Money Moves Voters, Voters Decide What Democracy Is
The Election Commission presents the BJP as the wealthiest party in India with ?7,113 crore, Congress coming next with ?857.15 crore. Congress, too, seeks to be in the money game, promising voters free pilgrimages to Buddhist sites like Sarnath, Lumbini and Bodh Gaya. But how can it be like the Mahakumbh with 450 million footfalls of Hindu devotees? The BJP could afford to spend ?1,754.06 crore in advance for the 2023-24 elections. If 30 die in a stampede, what is it to them? Sanjay Nishad, UP minister, calls it a 'minor accident'… like 20 Indian soldiers dying on the Chinese border, 2000 members of the minority community dying in Gujarat communal clashes!

About the Gujarat tragedy, Modiji said he felt bad as if he saw a puppy being run over by the vehicle in which he was sitting! Alas, "O Judgement! Thou hast fled to brutish beasts; and men have lost their reason" (Julius Caesar: Shakespeare). Yes, the thinking power is seldom used. Soren Kierkegaard says, "People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." Historian Upinder Singh of Ashoka University, speaking in Guwahati, referred to the contradictions in the Indian civilisation: salvation for all, on the one hand, and inequality, on the other; worship of goddesses going hand in hand with misogyny; valourisation of desire combining with detachment; violence standing paradoxically side by side with non-violence; philosophical debates going on along with conflicts. Thus, she says, India's past cannot be idealised.

The Future Is Here
Sambit Patra, BJP spokesperson, says the Maha Kumbh has been the symbol of the Sanatana faith for 'millions of years.' This claim sounds like a Hindu devotee's insistence that the American army took part in the Mahabharata war. Scientists tell us that all humans outside Africa came out of that continent not earlier than about 70,000 years ago. But today, we must be prepared to listen to the most unscientific and illogical claims from Hindutva adherents. The "most advanced" universities in India are studying the hygienic benefits of cow urine and the enlightening value of astrology. No one seems embarrassed.

Mallikarjun Kharge did not intend to ridicule the religious tradition of Ganga dip when he asked whether it would remove poverty or alleviate hunger. What he wanted to say was that political concerns were about ordinary people's day-to-day concerns, leaving religious leaders to attend to religious concerns. He wondered why BJP leaders were competing for camera attention while having their holy dip in the Ganga. They were exposing their sturdy belief that the Ganga waters would wash away all their corruption. Amit Shah and Yogi were eager to be advertised for their devotion, not for their concern for the poor. Hindurashtra is here. Let us not be deceived. Our bleak future is here.

Manusmriti-based Constitution
Sure enough, a few Hindutva experts from Benares and other prestigious universities sent the New Constitution for Akhand Bharat to the Centre during Maha Kumbh. It is based not on Ambedkar's secular Constitution but on Ramayana, the teachings of Krishna, Chanakya and, unfailingly, the Manusmriti. Though undeclared, casteism forms its cornerstone! India will have a unicameral legislature called the Hindu Dharma Parliament. Only Hindus can be elected to it. It calls for military education for all citizens. Everyone from the age of 16 years will have the Right to vote. No tax will be levied on agriculture. Very strict punishments will be imposed on all anti-nationals. Anti-nationalism is not defined. Can it be criticising the Prime Minister or asking for his graduation certificate?

The drafters ask: if in the world there are 127 Christian countries, 57 Muslim countries, and 15 Buddhist nations, why can't there be a Hindutva nation? And sure enough, a Hindurashtra is fast emerging. And the future is here.

In concrete form, see what is happening in BJP-RSS-ruled states. Dalit women are raped, SC protesters are beaten to death. A Dalit in Rajasthan was beaten for touching a water pot, taken to Haryana, and released only on paying a heavy ransom by his family. Custodial deaths are rising in UP. According to ILO, 5.8 million children in India are child labourers. Their number is growing. Government school enrolment has fallen to 66.8% in rural areas. P Chidambaram says the 2025-26 budget presented by Nirmala Sitharaman pays no attention to the poor. He is sure that 50% of the needy live on about ?100 daily.

Be warned about what lies ahead. Previously, we could blame others; today, silent citizens must take responsibility. They are gatekeepers. The media must remain alert. "Media giveth, and media taketh away."