The Citizen Guide to 'Five Star Activists'

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is right. The judiciary should not be led by these “five star activists.” But since he did not define them, everyone is wondering who exactly falls into the five star category.

The Citizen thus has decided to help build the definition. And also advise the ‘activists’ then what kind of ‘stars’ to follow to make the grade and earn the government’s favour.

The criteria defining them is based on the likes and dislikes of the RSS, Bharatiya Janata Party and of course the hyper affiliate organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal and the lot. Given the fact that PM Modi is a RSS pracharak and a BJP leader it stands to reason that for him the ‘five star’ term means:

1. Activists who speak English as well as the other languages;
2. Activists who take up cases of communalism, gender violence, hate and intolerance;
3. Activists who believe in the ‘western notions’ of democracy, namely that freedoms and rights matter;
4. Activists who eat beef, or at least do not oppose it; and are against anyone making a fetish of food;
5. Activists who see nothing wrong in inter religious/inter caste marriages;
6. Activists who oppose traditional Indian programs like ‘ghar wapsi’;
7. Activists who seriously believe that minorities have rights;
8. Activists who push the judiciary to take action against perpetrators of communal violence;
9. Activists who give women ideas;
10. Activists who insist on science and reason over superstition and religion;

And obviously these activists take these notions to the judiciary, that then according to PM Modi and he knows better than most, gets influenced by the unreasonable environment these people create. And actually moves outside the law, that anyways the government is now trying to get rid off at the speed of “one a day”, to pass judgements that these five star activists want.

This should be stopped.

How? Simple. Follow the ground activists like Yogi Adityanath, Sadhvi Niranjana, Praveen Togadia and others as they lay the basic rules for the people at large, and are even rewarded for the same. And are not five star because they speak the local languages only, are not well versed with English the bane of all evils, and speak of the Indian ‘ethos’ that they insist is based on hate and intolerance of all those who are different. And of course, embrace violence as the way to deal with those coming in the way of the practitioners of ‘Indianness’ as and when required.

So what do these ‘five star’ activists have to do to become non five star, and thereby not influence the susceptible judges in the manner they do today:

1. Unlearn what they have learnt: English, western notions of democracy being based on freedom, equality, rights and pick up Golwalkar, Hedgewar--- the first work of the Publication Division of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry under the new government is a book on KB Hedgewar---and for good measure even Nathuram Godse;
2. Change their tone to speak like Praveen Togadia, pour vitriol with every word; its an art;
3. Get out of making common cause with the world and remember that India is unique, with her own kind of democracy, and concept of rights and freedoms where minorities and women have a place, but they should know what that place is;
4. Instead of challenging communal violence in the courts in their ‘five star’ fashion they should accept the will of the majority represented by those in government and of course the ‘parivar’;
5. Accept the ‘parivar’ as the last word on history, religion, women, minorities, India per se.

This will take a little time of course but at least the journey should begin. The government, and particularly PM Modi, knows what is good for India and instead of using this five star culture to influence judges on issues of law, these activists should recognise the trend, shed the five star culture, and move to embrace the Indianness that many a BJP leader has practiced and been rewarded for.

And remember English too is acceptable, provided it is the Subramanian Swamy kind.