Economic Times
17 Nov 2008
by Pothik Ghosh
We need to distinguish one from the other, even at the risk of appearing undesirably divisive. For, in the long run, more harm than good would be
done if this difference is obscured now for some tenuous gains on the Hindu-Muslim brotherhood front. The point of this comparison is not to legitimise the idea of ‘lesser evil’.
The point is to recognise the difference in political structures and processes constitutive of each of those strains of terror, if only to come up with a composite solution to the larger problem of civic violence of which both Islamism and Hindutva have become indivisible halves. There is absolutely no doubt that both the Islamists and the footsoldiers of Hindutva seek to close the liberal space through their terroristic campaigns, both covert and overt.
But what is more germane is that while the former seeks to subvert liberal democracy by challenging it from the vantage point of opposition and resistance, the latter strives towards the same goal by using the language of liberal statecraft and manipulating its institutions. It would, indeed, be a pity if dubious and equivocal concepts such as “nationalist alienation”, which the BJP has of late been offering by way of ideological apology for acts of ‘cultural nationalist’ violence, obscure the real condition of majoritarian fascism.
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