Roop Rekha Verma on our abnormality

It was undoubtedly impolite of me to ask Roop Rekha Verma the 80yearold former acting vicechancellor of Lucknow University what she thought of our society serenading her for as ordinary a gesture as filing a petition in the Bilkis Bano case She was similarly celebrated in 2022 for a quotidian act of standing surety for journalist Siddique Kappan at the time he was granted bail in an alleged terror case In scenarios such as Kappanrsquos sureties have to be provided Whatrsquos the big deal I asked with trepidationAll the adulation of Verma has not turned her delusional for she charmingly and sagaciously said ldquoIn a normal society sensitive to the misery of others sensitive to securing justice for them my acts would have been considered small gestures But our society is increasingly growing abnormalrdquoThe feisty fighter of unpopular causes took to listing the symptoms of our abnormality as methodically as she would have to her class of philosophy students The consequence of the lack of sensitivity is the rising tide of violence in our society Verma recalled the newspaper story of a girl splashed with acid knocking on the doors in a neighbourhood for help but finding them slammed on hermdashand onlookers making videos of her This has also been the case with just about every incident of mob lynchingldquoThese types of violence would have in the past snatched our sleep for daysrdquo she said It is not so any longer for the process of othering marginalised social groups has normalised violence Those othered are looked upon as enemies whose brutalisation is justified as revenge People are perpetually in the mode of battling perceived foes without even thinking whether they are indeed inimical to societyA telltale symptom of our abnormality is the participation of women in mass violence ldquoWomen were earlier considered as peacemakersrdquo she said ldquoa restraining influence on menrdquo spoiling to spill bloodShe remembered reading about women in Surat tossing burning tyres on Muslims fleeing the riots that broke out following the Babri Masjid demolition In the 2002 Gujarat riots they were on the frontline looting shops and houses In Manipur today women egg men on to rape women Verma pointed out her voice laced with disbeliefIt is also a symptom of abnormality that the culture of impunity has become pervasive Earlier too political patronage enabled criminals to go scotfree But the State now tacitly encourages hate crimes holding out the promise to their perpetrators a rise in social status a career in politicsThe most telling of the symptoms of our abnormality is the growing tendency of people to conflate the State with the nation ldquoCriticise a policy you are branded as a traitor Ask for better healthcare you are deemed treacherous Speak for the marginalised you become the nationrsquos enemyrdquo Verma said in a voice rippling with dismayShe took me down memory lane to those years when the police seldom denied activists such as her permission to organise protest marches and dharnas They never feared a blowback from the State Dissent was not only considered a fundamental right it was also thought of as a duty of citizens People were unafraid to speak their mind as they were sure the State would not book them for imagined crimesVerma recalled the day during her oneyear tenure as the acting vicechancellor when she was invited to unveil the busts of Bhagat Singh Rajguru and Sukhdev the three revolutionaries whom the British hanged In her speech on the occasion she spoke of the hypocrisies of the changing India of the ldquokillers of Gandhirdquo adulating him and hanging his photos in their offices A student outfitmdashno prizes for guessing the namemdashransacked her office ldquoBut the support of the public for me was incrediblerdquo Verma saidAnd now Even functions organised for social harmony goad the State into disrupting them Come on I said So Verma narrated to me the happenings of threefour years ago The date January 13 commemorated for being the first day of the last fast Mahatma Gandhi took to stop the postPartition riots Barely had 20 of themmdashsome in their sixties and seventiesmdashsat down at Gandhi Park in Lucknowrsquos bustling Hazratganj area the police arrived The men were pushed around and dispersed Verma was compelled to sit in a threewheeler and packed off homeNow applications for organising protests seldom elicit a police response she said Or they are told Section 144 is in operation prohibiting the assembly of four or more people Or they are granted permission when the site of protest is relatively invisible to the publicAn abnormal society feigning normalcyShe still protests but feels watched with the police taking down the names of protesters and taking their photographs They could come for her couldnrsquot they or jail her or freeze her bank account Such apprehensions are swept away as her conscience reproaches her for her silence ldquoI speak therefore I amrdquo wrote poet Pablo Neruda who before his death was raided in Pinochetrsquos abnormal Chile Ah the fear and charm of being yourselfThe writer is a senior journalistSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper