“What is left for a virus to kill in a morally corrupt nation?” she muttered on Twitter in March 2020. At the time, the pandemic was only beginning. The terrible news from China could no longer be suppressed. The devastation in Europe was unfolding. There was no denying this any more. We have heard about the world wars. We have watched sci-fi movies about the end of the world. Now something terrible was about to happen to humanity during our lifetimes. For real.
America was already in the grip of the virus. India trembled. Soon it would be our turn.
What did you think about at that time? Perhaps you thought about your family and your livelihood. If you have faith, you might have turned to god. You might have reflected on our place in the universe. Or the meaning of life, family, community, nation and all of humanity. Were we going to be wiped out?
But not everyone felt this kind of anguish that makes us think about our existence. Rather they spoke as if uttering a curse on India. What is there for the virus to kill in a morally corrupt nation, they asked.
In their eyes, India had committed a sin by voting out their patrons. By doing so, the nation had become “morally corrupt.” And for this sin, India must pay. India must burn.
As our neighbor Sri Lanka collapses, as their prime minister flees and protesters take over the presidential palace, our liberals watch hungrily. Why is India not facing such a situation? You can feel it in their tweets. They crave the total destruction of India. The “morally corrupt nation” must pay.
This is a relatively new sense, something that has been around only since 2019. Why 2019? Because until then, they were willing to believe that 2014 was an exception. That the Congress would soon come back to power. Their privileges would be restored. In 2019, they were willing to burn India down to bring the Congress back to power. Now they realize that it is no longer really possible. Now they just want India to burn.
So each morning they wake up and wish for something bad to happen to India. War, pandemic, terrorist attack, assassination, anything. Whenever they can, they try to stop something somewhere in India. It could simply be a metro line in Mumbai. It must be stopped. Nothing is too small that it can be ignored. Is there a way to reopen Khalistani wounds and make India bleed again? They will go for it. Nothing is too big that they will worry about touching it. Anything to make the “morally corrupt” nation pay.
Did a mob storm the Red Fort in Delhi and plant their own flag? Yeah, that was a great day for them. A way to show the morally corrupt nation its place. Is there another foreign newspaper that called India “fascist” today? They live for these moments such as these. It does not heal their wounds, but it gives them short sighs of relief.
Is the President of the United States visiting India? What if there were huge columns of smoke rising from the Indian capital that day? Would it make India cower with shame before the whole world? Yes, it would. The thought of that makes them happy.
And when the pandemic came, it gladdened their hearts like never before. Like ghouls, they danced around our crematoriums. They flew drones to get a better look at our burning flesh, to strip it off one last bit of dignity that they could seize and sell to the West for money.
The vaccines made them angry. No, India couldn’t possibly manufacture and administer so many vaccines, they said. Every time India set a new vaccination record, they screamed like their hearts had been torn out. How many dead, they asked endlessly? It can’t be just 4 lakh. That is not nearly enough to satisfy their thirst for revenge on the “morally corrupt” nation. They wanted to hear 4 million, if possible 4 crore or even 40 crore.
They knew the vaccines would catch up sooner or later. But first they wanted India to stand with hat in hand, begging the West for vaccines. Go to China and beg, some of them said. Their desire to see India humiliated was insatiable.
But India held. We did not go under. And it drives them crazy. They cheer each other up with promises that the final destruction of India is not far away now. Each morning you can find them on social media, coiled like serpents around some random talking point, and hissing. Hunger index, happiness index, press freedom index, anything to assure them that it is all over for India. It is called confirmation bias. Then there are the reports from “think tanks.” A report from a European country that calls India “authoritarian” can sustain a liberal for an entire week.
They pester visiting foreign diplomats with questions: tell us something India did wrong. Tell us why you hate India. Give us something we can put in a headline. But no matter what they get, whether big or small, from America or from Turkey, they are always burning on the inside.
When they have a half an opportunity to humiliate India, they pounce on it with unholy relish. Did India have to say no to wheat exports after making an earlier pronouncement about feeding the world? Such U-turns are not uncommon in an uncertain world, ravaged by war and pandemic, where America is scrambling to get food for their babies. But still, India having to blush just a little on this issue made them squeal madly with delight.
Is there war in Ukraine? Look, India is neutral. That means they must be standing with the aggressor. India is fascist, and “morally corrupt.” We told you so, they say to their friends around the world.
But because the real India refuses to go under, the reality frustrates and unnerves them. That is where the wild fantasies come in. Political instability in Britain? Prime Minister ousted by his own ministers? Modi will meet the same fate one day, they say. Or he won’t, because India is under fascist rule. Did protesters in Sri Lanka take over the presidential palace and burn down the prime minister’s house? Modi will meet the same fate one day. Or he wont, because India is “morally corrupt.”
Like conspiracy theories, the wild fantasies can live on very little, or nothing at all. Did Biden just dodge a hug from Modi in that frame? That should be enough to sustain the ecosystem for a day. Oh no, Biden just walked up to PM Modi from behind, sought him out and exchanged greetings. Never mind. Did you see that capture where PM Modi seems to be bending before some Sultan? Told you the Arabs are going to deny oil to India, and finally crush our country. Yeah, the same Sultan who came to confer his country’s highest civilian honor on our prime minister.
There is a difference between hating the prime minister and wishing for evil on the country. If you want to understand this difference, check with BJP supporters when their favorite party was in opposition for decades. Go find out how many of them raised slogans of “Hows the Jaish” after a terrorist attack on our soldiers. Indeed, in all the decades of India being under ruinous Nehruvian socialist rule, it is the BJP supporters who often foolishly spoke of a coming dawn that would make India a superpower. The BJP supporters always dreamed of great things for India, not ruin.
There are many states in India where BJP is in the opposition. But you won’t see a BJP supporter standing with a Maoist, or a jihadi terrorist, just to spite the government. Not now, not before, not ever. Eight years have passed since Modi came to power. Not everything has gone right, nor could it have. But despite war and pandemic, India has made it to the position of 5th largest economy in 2022. With a little bit of luck, we will go past even Germany by 2024. A bit of luck I said, which every liberal in this country wishes we never have.
Liberalism in this country is not dead. Because, after two back to back defeats, liberalism in India has become the ideology of the “un-dead.” Its followers prowl the streets and the airwaves, looking for shreds of human misery to feast on. Whatever they eat, whether it is too much or too little, only makes them more hungry. The fire in their heart never dies down. It burns brighter each day that this “morally corrupt” nation is still alive.
