By Robert Clements
Loud, Garish Music..!
A very stringent anti-conversion law that will ensure zero religious conversions in Maharashtra will be enacted once the Mahayuti comes to power… Times of India, 11th Nov
Was driving down a silent road, when I heard the sound of loud music, and found another car drawing up close, with windows down and music-full blast. Suddenly the peace I was enjoying was broken by the cacophony of noise, and as the car drew abreast, I found people laughing, jeering, and scoffing those outside!
The sound from the other car was garish. It’s not that I disliked their songs, but the volume was meant to disrupt, meant to intrude, and cause disharmony and tension.
The car passed and slowly the sound grew less.
I looked at my music system. It was certainly the best. If I had wanted to, I could have out-drowned the noise from their car, but I had chosen to let them move on.
Today, as the rhetoric increases in the country, as ministers who should govern, instead, threaten and provoke so they can win a few more votes from the unsuspecting people, I feel we need to look at our powerful music systems and realise the energy and volume they carry, even though today, we choose to be silent.
That music system is the power of our Voting Finger, which with one sonic blast of sound, can put any other loud noise to rest. But that is not it’s way.
It’s method is to allow the ones who shout and mock, jeer and threaten, to continue doing what they are good at doing, and then in silence on voting day show it’s majesty and dominion.
Look at those who drove in the car with the loud noise. Why did they want their music so loud that their own eardrums could have been at the point of bursting?
Why couldn’t they have listened to their music with windows closed and still have enjoyed the volume without others outside finding their quietness disrupted?
Why?
Because, they wanted to provoke the silence outside.
Today, the ones who provoke make the loudest noise.
And what is the provocation we hear from our politicians today?
Offering protection against imaginary foes, who they tell the people will steal their religion from them. protection against menfolk from other communities who will steal their womenfolk from them.
The loud noise I heard in the quietness of the night was that of bullies, telling others outside how powerful they were, through the noise they made.
But was that noise required? Wasn’t there peace and quiet, calm and tranquillity outside?
And that is what the ‘voting finger’ needs to realise; that there is no enemy to fear, from whom you and I need protection.
Don’t get moved by the loud music, instead, ask relevant questions. Ask about cheaper food, affordable housing, money for clothes to cover yourselves and why this disturbing inflation.
The real power is ours, as long as we don’t give in to the garish music!
And as state governments in India pass laws on religious conversion, and political leaders create disharmony by talking about allurement and inducement in changing religions, in my imagination I saw a poor man who had converted from the religion of his forefathers to that of a so called foreign god, stood in front of a judge in a courtroom somewhere in India wearing a dhoti and a torn, worn out discarded shirt from someone else’s wardrobe.
The judge looked at him sternly and asked, “Did you change your religion out of your own free will?”
“Yes, your honour.”
“Was there any allurement or inducement that made you do so?”
“Yes, your honour!” said the poor man and the courtroom buzzed with excitement.
“What was the inducement offered?” asked the judge, peering at the poor villager and getting ready to close the case.
“The promise of an attractive spiritual life and of a God who listens to me!”
“Was there no other inducement?”
“No, your honour, I was not offered any money to change my God, as I was offered by all the candidates in the last elections to change my vote! And your honour?”
“Yes?” asked the judge.
“When political parties offer free TV’s, free electricity, cheap rice, free housing and money in the bank, free transport for women..”
“Yes, yes I know!” said the judge.
“Isn’t that allurement and inducement?”
“I am the one asking the questions!” said the judge.
“I am sorry your honour. And your honour?”
“I told you I am the one…”
“I am a poor man…”
“Yes, I know,” said the judge.
“Poor and uneducated!”
“I know that!”
“Starving and hungry!”
“What are you leading up to?” asked the impatient judge.
“Despite being all this, you have still given me the freedom to vote!”
“That is the right of every citizen of this country!” said the judge proudly, “and it is my duty to see that no one stops you from exercising this right!”
“Thank you your honour!,” said the poor man and there was a hush in the courtroom as he drew himself to his full height of five feet four inches and said, “If I, your honour, can be trusted with the right to vote a government out of power, then why your honour can’t I the same poor man be trusted to change my religion and my God when I want to, without having to give an explanation to you or any officer in this country? Let me test another god as much as I test a new government! If I am good enough to vote then your honour, I am good enough to choose my faith, aren’t I?” There was silence in the courtroom as the poor man sat down.
That is how we should respond to the loud garish music being played by political leaders and others in our nation..!
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