What is unfolding in Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka, India, is distressing and deeply worrying. The purveyors of communal hate are gaining the upper hand, moving beyond sowing the seeds of division to a more aggressive and systematic program of intimidation. No one, it seems, is excepted. In the latest instance, school-going children have been co-opted to enact scenes of intolerance towards hijab-wearing girls. In a show of brazen defiance in some towns, saffron flags have come up on flagpoles that usually bear the national flag.

Communal harmony is being upended by strident assertion of the majoritarian writ, and the polarisation agenda is proceeding apace. I sense that it is a fire that if not put out cannot be contained and will singe all – not just those who fan it or come in its way. Winds don’t always just blow as we wish, and the inferno will consume the silent and the bystander too.

I sometimes wonder about an education that doesn’t broaden our minds and horizons, to be more inclusive and concerned about issues beyond ‘I, me, my’.  The more we argue ‘both sides’ without declaring the ground we stand on and a commitment to civility, the more we hasten the slide towards our irrelevance and a worsening of our context.

Business leaders, what is your stance? What is your commitment, beyond fetching your shareholders a handsome return and fat bonuses for your people? This country cannot move forward without your active and continued investment. Does your vision for this country include respect and dignity of all people, rule of law and the imperative to work through differences through dialogue and lawful means? We haven’t heard your voice loud enough to make it matter. I hope you will think long and hard before you authorise the next tranche of anonymous electoral bonds.

Industry bodies, you have significant leverage. What are you doing to impress upon the powers that be that the organised bullying, threats, harassment and looming violence that vitiates the (business) climate must be arrested? If you don’t speak up, one will sadly have to conclude that you are a silent accomplice in the apparatus of hate-mongering.

The ever-growing tribe of D&I (diversity and inclusion) specialists, individually and collectively – do you see a role for yourself in the civic space – stepping beyond the confines of your organisation / client system?

All ye who have heralded the times of empathy and compassionate leadership, speak up. It can’t be your case that we need it more within the organisation and in work hours, and we can do without it in other times and spaces.

Policymaking is a risk-laden political act. That is what distinguishes it from platitudes. The time to speak up is now. Very publicly.

See: The Fire at Our Doorstep (Part 2)

Image by Itaiblank, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.