Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh recently, at a gathering at Udaipur’s Bhupal Nobles’ University, sought to brand the ‘educated’ citizens of the country as the brains behind what he called “white-collar terrorism.” The Minister was most likely referring to the doctors involved in the Delhi bomb blast of November last year. Coming from one of the senior-most ministers of the government, this remark bespeaks a trend evident since 2014 to try and control higher education, restrict academic activities in seats of higher education and fetter free thinking.
Critical thinking, it appears, is held as a taboo in the current ideology of rulers in many countries, including India. The powers that be in Delhi who once coined the catch phrase “Urban Naxals” to vilify and persecute urban-centric public intellectuals who dared question government actions and decisions, seem to have come up with this new idea of division by which education and the educated shall be given a bad name before obliterating them to create a new society of uneducated. It will be enlightening to look back at the history of the past decade in India. Division has been the driving force. During elections, it has mostly been the Hindoo-Moslem divide that has been quite successfully flogged till now, reaping rich harvests. Then came the Rich-Poor divide during Demonetization when it was repeated over and over that it was exclusively the Rich who had black money to lose and so the Poor have no reasons to worry. Once elections got over it became the Upper and Lower Caste division that was played up.
During interim periods, it was Hindi and non Hindi divide, Indians and Khalistanis divide during farmers agitation, political supporters and Opposition became the Nationalist and Anti National divide, respectively. Dividing the country from a historical perspective, it is being claimed all that the citizens of this country built themselves with their own blood and sweat or saw previously were wrong and it is only after 2014 that everything has been good and correct. These and many other such divisions may seem inconsequential to some but the depth of such social fragmentations should never be underestimated. Generally, it is the educated who are always regarded as harbingers of change and modernity and crusaders against obscurantism and dogmatism of all kinds in most societies.
By educated, it is not the mere school and college passouts that should be counted. It is those who can think and question the Establishment that are sought to be cornered here. Mostly, it is the literate who are super selfish and have very little time or inclination to think of social or greater good. Their very existence has been successfully endangered by a failing economic system achieved through decisions like Demonetization.
Yet they are the initiators of the crowds that chant, yell and wave flags. The absolute uneducated, though larger in numbers, simply go by their gut-feelings or hunger. This new tirade may be pointing to the trouble makers, those who think and question so it could very well be an indication of the birth of a new divide. This pointing of finger at the “educated” by the Union Defence Minister could also be an effort to divert attention from his personal abject failure. He and the Union Home Minister are the persons who should be shouldering sole responsibility for a failure that made the Delhi Red Fort bomb blast on 10 November 2025 a possibility.
Also interesting to note that, veering away from the usual format, neither the Government nor the Defence Minister dared to blame Pakistan after that blast. And the blast could take place in the nation’s capital while Operation Sindoor, we are told, is still underway.