Editorial with Sujit Nair | How Rumours & Political Agenda Ignited Riots In Nagpur? | Aurangzeb

[00:00:00] Namaskar! Welcome back to Editorial. My topic tonight is Nagpur Violence. What I want to talk to you about is how and why do I think that we are being infantilized? That's what I'm going to discuss today. Let's get right into the show.

[00:00:31] Now, a lot of you may be wondering what has Nagpur Violence got to do with infantilization? Let me try and explain this to you. First of all, let's talk about infantilization. Infantilization means treating an adult like a child. Treating an adult like a child, like a baby.

[00:01:03] So, infantilization can cause dehumanization, disrespect. So, if I am going to continuously infantilize another individual or a group or a society and if I manage to infantilize an individual, a group or society, I, that is the person who is infantilizing,

[00:01:28] loses respect and dehumanizes the other individual or society. Let me explain this further. Let us talk about Nagpur Violence.

[00:01:48] So, on 14th of February, there was a movie called Chava that got released. Chava was about the story of Chhattrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. Chhattrapati Sambhaji Maharaj was the son of Chhattrapati Shivaji Maharaj. It was a fairly well-made movie and the movie was very graphic.

[00:02:15] Now, according to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra says that the movie Chhattrapati Sambhaji Maharaj ignited people's anger against Aurangzeb. Now, as a lot of us know that Aurangzeb killed Chhattrapati Sambhaji Maharaj.

[00:02:34] And it is very natural for people to feel angry when they see somebody from their own community, from their own country, from their own state. When a person is seen being tortured, it is very natural for the other to get angry.

[00:02:57] So, a lot of people who saw the movie were angry, especially, you know, the last scene. Now, this anger was kind of surfing. It was there in Maharashtra. A lot of people were talking about it. A lot of people were discussing it. Now, let me talk to you about the third topic, which is Top of Mind Recall.

[00:03:29] Now, let me tell you what is Top of Mind Recall. Top of Mind Recall is when you come or you make efforts to come into the news. Why do you make efforts to come into the news? You make efforts to come into the news because you want to stay relevant.

[00:03:49] So, to stay relevant, you need Top of Mind Recall. I will connect all of this in a minute. So, there was a movie. The movie got released. The movie created or ignited a lot of passion amongst people.

[00:04:11] And a politician named Abu Asmi decided to create his Top of Mind Recall which otherwise wasn't really there. Because Abu Asmi was not in the news and neither is he such a big leader in Maharashtra.

[00:04:28] He wanted to surf this public passion, create Top of Mind and therefore he made a statement where he said that Aurangzeb extended India's border to Afghanistan and Burma. He also said that Aurangzeb was not a cruel administrator but built a lot of temple. He also said that Aurangzeb was not a topic which had no relevance in the assembly at that point in time.

[00:04:57] And I will come to that too. This leader who is not very relevant in Maharashtra politics to get his Top of Mind spoke about that particular topic and tried to whip up passion. Try to increase the Top of Mind Recall. Now let me tell you, in communication, if you are part of the crowd then you may not be heard.

[00:05:26] But if you are against the crowd then you will be immediately noticed. You see the passion was against Aurangzeb. The passion in Maharashtra was against Aurangzeb and came this leader who was irrelevant, who spoke for Aurangzeb so that his Top of Mind recall happens. Are we clear on this? Fair enough. Let's go to the next step.

[00:05:55] Now Top of Mind recall and surfing the passion is also very important when it comes to politics. So cultural organizations like political leaders also thought they would surf the passion. Cultural organizations like VHP and Bajrang Dal said that on 17th of March they will do a protest in Nagpur.

[00:06:25] For whom? For this man, this Mughal King, 17th century Mughal King whose tomb is in Kuladabad in Chetrapati Sambaji Nagar. For that man, who otherwise nobody would have even thought about was not relevant. Do you know Kuladabad in Chetrapati Sambaji Nagar? Do you know about it? Did you know that the tomb was in Kuladabad in Chetrapati Sambaji Nagar? Did you know that? No.

[00:06:56] But this particular cultural organization because they had to surf the emotions that the movie had created, the anti-Aurangazep emotion said that listen, we are going to protest. 17th Monday. So you had politicians like Abu Azmi and then after that of course there were politicians like Dranay and lot of other politicians who started surfing this emotion

[00:07:23] and now a cultural organization wanted to surf the emotion. So they decided to do a protest. On 17th night, there was this guy called Fahim Khan who started distributing videos. In fact, Fahim Khan edited circulated videos of the protest against Aurangzeb and due to which the riots spread.

[00:07:52] He also glorified the violent videos. This is what Cybercells deputy commissioner of police told ANI. So there is this cultural group who protested and another guy and another whatever influencer, leader, wannabe politician, Fahim Khan created videos that actually spread fake news.

[00:08:22] Fake news about green cloth with Quranic verses written burnt and all that which never actually happened according to the police. He started spreading such news. So you had a politician, you had a cultural group, a wannabe politician, all of them surfing in this one emotion which was created by a movie.

[00:08:49] All of them trying to stay relevant, all of them trying to create top of mind recall. These videos caused the riots according to the police. These videos caused the riots. And the riots hurt 33 policemen and officers. The riots hurt 5 citizens out of which I was told 1% was in the ICU.

[00:09:17] The riots ensured that people went and burned vehicles, public property, etc. Why? Because few politicians, few cultural organizations, few wannabe leaders wanted you to get angry and riot.

[00:09:40] And we as a society actually did what they wanted us to do so that we create their top of mind recall. Now are you getting it? So they infantilized us as a society.

[00:10:02] And we very easily, very easily took their bait and did what they wanted us to do. Like a baby. When that baby is hungry, the mother shows a doll to the baby and gives the doll to that baby. The baby takes the doll, plays for it.

[00:10:27] And the mother rushes and by the time she cooks the food, the baby forgets about the hunger and plays with the doll. This infantilization is exactly what happened. Our attentions were diverted from the real issue. Some people made their top of mind recall and we were busy writing.

[00:10:55] We were busy manifesting our emotions. Infantilization. You know, let me tell you something. You know what are the issues that Maharashtra is currently facing? Maharashtra's debt burden is set to soar to 9.32 lakh crores.

[00:11:24] 9.32 lakh crores. Our unemployment in the state was at 15% in 2022. That's the last data I have. That's unemployment. 9.32 lakh debt.

[00:11:40] You see, our per capita income is lesser than Tamil Nadu, it is lesser than Karnataka, it is lesser than Gujarat, it is lesser than Telangara and Maharashtra is supposed to be the most industrialized state. These are real issues. These are the questions that should have been asked in that assembly and that assembly was made into a circus by people like Abu Azmi.

[00:12:09] And of course, the other politicians, especially the ruling government ensured that the entire debate from 9.32 lakh crores of debt got diverted to Aurangzeb, 17th century Mughal king. Let me give you some more facts and figures.

[00:12:40] Do you know that from 2015 to 2019, over 12,600 farmers committed suicide? By 2023, around 7 farmers were dying every day. You know why? Because there was no water. You know why? Because their crops failed. You know why? Because they couldn't fend their family. This is a fact.

[00:13:06] If you have been watching my editorial, I am sure you would know a lot of these figures which I have spoken about before. Let me give you some more examples. You know 557 farmers committed suicide in the district of Amravati administrative division alone in Maharashtra in the year 2024.

[00:13:31] You know, after putting 10,000 crores of rupees, 10,000 crores for a project called Jalyuk Shivir Abhyan, which means drought free Maharashtra, Maharashtra is still not drought free. 10,000 crores put into the project. I will give you another figure. After 10 years and rupees 9630 crores, the scheme of drought proofing Maharashtra can provide water for just 15,000 crores.

[00:14:01] 487 people for a year. This is an article in down to earth, April 8th, 2024. After spending 9630 crores, we can provide water for 487 people. These were the questions that was expected to be debated, discussed in the assembly where Aurangzeb, the 17th century Mughal king was debated. Chaos.

[00:14:33] Infertilization. Infertilization. Infertilization. Infertilization. Real problem like that child was hunger. What were we given? Aurangzeb. We got diverted. We forgot about our hunger. We forgot about that 12,600 farmers that died. We forgot about the fact that there was a program which was supposed to ensure that farmers do not commit suicide anymore. To ensure that Maharashtra is drought free.

[00:15:04] That project. Nothing happened. Why? Because we are busy with Aurangzeb. My last point that I wanted to make. You see a lot of people say so what? Should we forget history? You see the point is like a lot of people from now, RSS and others say Aurangzeb is irrelevant.

[00:15:32] That does not mean that I am advocating that one should not be teaching history or one should take history lightly. Instead of talking about Aurangzeb, let us talk about Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Let us talk about Chattrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. Let us talk about Dr. Baba Sahib Ambedkar. Let us talk about Jyoti Bhav Phule.

[00:15:59] Because these are leaders who inspire our next generation. What are we going to get by discussing Aurangzeb? What is it going to fetch us? What will the society get out of all of this? Except for diverting our attention. And that's why I say that we as a society are being infantilized.

[00:16:28] And the more we get infantilized, the more we will start getting irrelevant. We will start being disrespected and we will start being dehumanized. These are the effects of being infantilized. And you just saw what happened in Nappur. A passion which was ignited was exploited and we let it happen.

[00:16:59] That's the point I wanted to make. Till I see you next time. That's tomorrow at 10. Namaskar.