The urge to draw a parallel with National Socialist (Nazi) Germany while making an argument against any decision, regime or individual, has become so widespread in political discourse all over the world that the phenomenon has now earned its own special monikers. While some use the term reductio ad Hitlerum, author Michael Godwin put forward a prescient idea in 1990, which is now popularly known as Godwin’s law. In essence, if any online discussion were to continue for long enough, at least one person would invariably end up comparing somebody else to Hitler or to the Nazis. The beauty about this law is that the reason people keep falling into the trap of drawing such comparisons, and why such comparisons are patently false without exception, are both intuitive. After all, what better way to express one’s hatred for anything than comparing it to the worst thing that ever was? Except, of course, it instantly discredits your version of whatever it is that you hate.
In recent years, these labels have been flung around liberally by liberals all over the world. Perhaps it was always the case, but the 24×7 news cycle and social media have amplified it like never before. In a country like the United States, the effects of such campaigns against an individual like Donald Trump, are a good example of how they have polarized the electorate. While half the country actually believed that a morally-bankrupt dystopian doomsday scenario was upon them when he was elected, the other half saw through the narrative as something far removed from reality. In fact, it drove many fence-sitters towards him, for they realized that standing before them was a loudmouth, and not a psychopath who would commission concentration camps or start a world war. In India, the effects of such campaigns against Narendra Modi or the BJP have gone only one way- they have backfired. Ever since Narendra Modi arrived on the national political scene, he has been the sharpest communicator by a long shot. Therefore, instead of his utterances or his actions going down as politically incorrect or concerning, even the most unconventional of them have shifted India’s Overton window altogether. Those equating him and his party to Hitler or the Nazis have only relegated themselves to the fringes, ending up looking radical and discredited.
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Senior opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi have often hitched their wagon to this fringe. Electoral outcomes have routinely indicated that charges of authoritarianism, let alone charges of Nazism, have refused to stick to the Modi government. Last week though, in what looks like a concerted effort, a certain section of the media and the opposition attempted to score on the Nazi front once again, by pulling a fast one. By a sleight of hand, they attempted to show that the government was pursuing a project which had as its ideological underpinnings an idea that resembled a cornerstone of Nazi Germany, attempting to go beyond the rhetoric and establish that their disproved comparisons through the years actually held some merit. A report appeared in a leading newspaper, with the title suggesting that the government was studying the ‘racial purity’ of Indians. It was promptly picked up by leaders in the opposition and shared extensively, with comments alluding to how the idea had been central to Nazi Germany and how attempts to take it to a logical conclusion had resulted in disastrous consequences.
The funny part about the fiasco was that the contents of the article had nothing to do with the title. They explained that the work assigned by the Ministry of Culture to certain institutions was to understand how the mutation and mixing of genes had taken place over the last ten thousand years in the Indian population. According to the article, the study would determine the Indian role in how modern humans dispersed out of Africa, as well as the genetic diversity of various ethnic groups in the Indian population. Moreover, as scientists associated with the study took to social media to clarify, the research held huge potential to better understand both human health and history. A purely scientific study was conveniently summed up as an attempt to determine the racial purity of Indians, with the term being placed within single quotes in the article’s title.
What is funnier than the title of the article not tallying with its own contents, let alone the government’s objectives, is the complete ignorance with which the agenda was peddled. As many scientists pointed out, race is not a scientific concept. From a scientific perspective, therefore, purity in this domain is bunkum. All human beings are 99.97% genetically identical. The article and those who have attempted to score political points by using it, have displayed both their foolishness and malice at the same time.
Once again, an attempt to equate the BJP government with Hitler’s Germany has fallen flat. The difference this time though was that the charge went much beyond the stereotypical use of Godwin’s law, wherein it is only a label that is hurled. This time, the attempt was to go much deeper, and to actually establish that a distinctly similar idea was at play in order to perpetuate a similar ideology. In essence, Indian scientific research with the potential for various important breakthroughs was painted by certain sections of the media and the political class as Nazism at work in India. If the opposition believes it needs to go deeper into issues for it to have an impact on the ground instead of restricting its narrative to name-calling, the least it must do is to be on a surer footing. Trying to convince people that Nazis rule them by pretending that journalistic gibberish used as exhibits are soul-crushing issues that warrant immediate attention, erodes their credibility to a greater degree than merely addressing Modi as Hitler. The opposition has been on an introspection spree for eight years now, but if there is one factor that it must meditate upon, it is about what happened to the boy who cried wolf.
Ajit Datta is an author and political commentator. He has authored the book, ‘Himanta Biswa Sarma: From Boy Wonder to CM’. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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