While some are using the Coronavirus outbreak to set an example of communal harmony by calling off protests, shutting down places of worship and the minorities working together with the majority population to ensure public safety and health, there are some like Prashant Tripathi, who are busy pushing the racist and caste-supremacist Hindutva agenda to their followers on social media.
Said to be an endodontist, Tripathi is also a motivational speaker and actor who appears on crime-based shows on primetime TV. He plays a cop on a show called Savdhaan India and on March 18, 2020, while India was in the trenches, battling the coronavirus, he was posting a video on how the principles of Hindutva, especially the practice of joining hands in ‘namaste’ is saving the world from the Covid-19 pandemic.
As the Covid-19 was found to spread through body contact – the shaking of hands, touching face, nose and mouth; world over people started greeting each other either by joining their hands or using other funnier methods like touching elbow to elbow or foot to foot, to avoid spreading the virus.
However, since that has happened, right-wing Hindutva believers have gone all out to say that it was only now that the world was accepting India’s Hindutva practices while prior to this, they scoffed at all such gestures. Dressed as a cop, addressing someone as “they” in his video he said, “When we used to do Namaste, they used to laugh; when we used to do yoga, they used to laugh; when we used to worship animals as Gods, they used to laugh; when we used to take care of our parents, they used to laugh; when we used to enter home and wash our hands and feet before eating, they used to laugh; when we used to consume a vegetarian diet, they used to laugh; when we used to burn the dead from our communities, they used to laugh; but it is shocking now that no one is laughing at us. All the 260 countries are all quiet now and are doing ‘namaste’ now. This ‘namaste’ shows the strength of the nation. We are Hindutva, trust Hindutva. Hindutva is a lifestyle based on science. We are Hindutva and on that basis we will on its basis.”
He ended his monologue with a couplet where he said, “Corona corona toh chala jaayega, chinta mat kijiye, vishwas rakhiye, is desh ka khoya hua Gaurav vaapas aayega (Corona will go away, don’t worry, keep faith, this country’s lost honour will be restored).”
His video titled – “Hindutva is a way of life, not a religion, today the world is following us”, garnered 1 million views in a day. However, Tripathi seems to be a little misinformed. In his video he said that there are 260 countries, when in fact there are only 195 countries in the world. Also, by talking about vegetarianism or cremating corpses by burning them as the only good practices, he is indirectly claiming that it is only the Hindus in India who follow such rituals which are meant to be good for society.
By claiming that it is only the Hindutva followers who take care of their parents or who practice hygiene, he is denigrating the values and upbringing of people from other communities, basically the minorities.
Tripathi and his followers must understand that Hindutva isn’t a lifestyle, but an extreme form of Hindu nationalism peddled to claim cultural hegemony of Hindus over other religions in India and make India a Hindu Rashtra.
Article 51A of the Constitution of India states that everyone in the country must develop a scientific temper. It is with science that the coronavirus pandemic is being handled. Practices in the Hindu religion may be effective, but to claim monopoly of goodness and efficiency, like Tripathi does in his video, is juvenile and a mockery of the shocking amounts of lives lost and people from different castes, creeds and religions affected by the pandemic all over the world.
Related:
Covid-19: What happens to prisoners, now?
Aaj Tak’s communal agenda surfaces as it targets Shaheen Bagh, mosques over Covid-19