India or Persepolis?

On Republic Day, the front page of Bangalore Times featured a few well known female faces from the Indian film industry who claimed to be the new face of India. They spoke about the liberation of women and how women are now playing a major role in India's march towards prosperity.

Quite ironic, since that was the day when women were attacked in Amnesia Pub, Mangalore, because they were allegedly violating Indian culture and "dancing obscenely".

This is not just one incident of moral policing that we've seen in the past few years. In the part of the country that I come from, two girls were stripped naked in public because they arrived at the railway station wearing jeans and t-shirts. One of them committed suicide. It is not strange for us to hear about attacks on Valentine's Day and couples getting harassed in parks and other public places for being seen together on this day that promotes an "alien" and "western" culture.

We are all talking about fighting terrorism. We are talking about identifying the enemy and destroying them. But what about the enemy within?

In a situation like this, I am reminded of Persepolis. I think India is slowly turning into another Persepolis where unworthy people are slowly grabbing power and forcing illogical rules of "morality" on the citizens. And because the citizens are not reacting, or reacting only in little pockets, they are slowly getting stronger.

Today they are calling pubs an alien culture. Tomorrow they'll come to malls and call them a western culture. Today they are calling Valentine's Day an alien holiday. Tomorrow they'll call Christmas the festival of the outsiders.

I feel helpless. India on the path of prosperity is a myth. There is no such thing as path of prosperity. Not for India at least. There is only corruption and power struggle. There are only incidents of violence and terrorism.

India is on the path of doom.