Sanatani spy and empty symbolism

Apparently a YouTuber from Haryana, who was all over the place projecting her nationalism and true sanatani status, is accused of being a spy for Pakistan. This would be funny if it were not sad. This is, after all, a country, where being Hindu is a guarantee of your patriotism and being Muslim is not, no matter what your contribution to the nation.

If patriotism is a club and the barrier to entry is a mere few words and symbols instead of actual action, what values does patriotism have?

When the BJP says the Congress is corrupt and then inducts members of the Congress – the actual people committing the corruption – into itself, what is it saying about corruption? What according to it, is corruption?

It’s certainly not something people engage in. It’s clearly not something they want to hold people accountable for.

So what do they mean by it?

If they think someone is corrupt until they are in the Congress and that they stop being corrupt the moment they leave, then they clearly mean that corruption is a property of the Congress party. Right?

So if you thought corruption is something people do, your definition of it goes out the window. People aren’t corrupt anymore. Parties and organisations are. Actions don’t make people corrupt. Belonging does.

Ring a bell?

It’s not a new paradigm. It’s actually quite old – as old as the first tribal conflicts, where guilt was communal. Entire tribes were bad, entire religions were evil. Doing bad stopped being something individuals could be held accountable for. It was about the group. Even if an individual got caught doing something bad, the guilt belonged to their family, their clan, their nation.

We see manifestations of this tribalism all over the place even today, and not just when it comes to assigning blame. Communal identity can act like a defence too. When someone demands accountability from an individual politician for example, they are often told they are anti-Hindu or anti-national.

Those looking to find safety often hide behind communal identity markers.

But the problem with this is that communal identity is often a poorly-built shelter with many holes. Anyone can enter it with minimum effort. All it requires is putting on the symbols and markers of the tribe in question. Sometimes that tribe is a political party. Sometimes it is a nation.