The long dark tea time of the soul

We in India, the masses, the intellectuals and the politicians are yet to be outraged at the ongoing conference on holocaust denial in Teheran, Iran. There is absolutely no justification for India adopting a stoic silence at the latest attempt of revisionism, which says that the six million Jews killed between 1930 to 1945 was a mere accident. Not surprisingly the Iranian conference has united the despots from all over the world. Ironically enough, we have the ex leader of a white supremacist party Ku Klux Klan, talking about freedom of speech in an Islamic country ruled by mullahs. (For what they do in Iran to people who express their voices freely, read here)

Holocaust denial is not a new phenomenon, neither is it a subdued affair. Although illegal in many European countries, revisionism finds exciting supporters from all parts of the world. The deniers range from christian racist fundamentalists of USA to Japanese ultra-nationalists to ultra-left groups in France. During the past two decades the trend has spread in the middle east in a big way. And its not only the fringe groups, but mainstream politicians in the arab world have gone on to deny any incidence of mass murder of jews by the third reich. This is a highly dangerous trend. Just because the current regime of Israel goes about murdering innocent palestinian civilians, does not mean that people who sympathize with the victims denounce earlier accounts of mass persecution. The palestinians themselves have decried the conference.
Holocaust is a scientific fact. It has been one of the best recorded and most researched genocidal events in the entire history. Hitler was not the first, the last or the only ruler who carried extermination of a large section of the population because of their faith or belief. The nazis’ defeat in the world war II opened the eyes of the world of the horrors of the actions of their regime. Barely twenty years earlier a large number of Armenian citizens were mass-murdered by the ottoman turks during world war I. The ottomans lost the war, yet the armenian genocide was not recognized by a large section of the world. The current government of turkey has made it a crime to even acknowledge this historical account. Stalin in Russia probably killed more number of USSR citizens than Hitler. Stalin is revered in many leftist circles who try to debunk his regime’s excesses in the gulags. I believe that had the third reich not invaded USSR in operation barbarossa, Hitler and Stalin would have been the best of friends.

Denial of a genocide is the first step towards committing another. That’s why the current conference on holocaust deniers in Tehran is disturbing. Even more disturbing is the Indian government maintaining complete silence on this issue. India has its own brand of fans of Hitler. Not surprisingly, Hitler is regarded as a hero by right wing fundamentalists in India. In Modi’s Gujarat, the state where the government machinery carried out the genocide of its muslim population in 2002, school textbooks describe Hitler as a hero, as someone who brought pride to the Germans. Needless to say, that any details of holocaust is omitted and not even mentioned.

Hitler is the ultimate symbol for the fascists all around the world. The shadow of the dark lord hangs over all fascist politics. For them, secluding the minority population, instilling hatred against them, is a necessity to hang on to power. For them ethnic genocide is not a crime, it is a necessity. The present government of Iran has carried out a horrible exercise, a meeting of the sick minds. A gathering of the perverts. An insult to humanity. It is now upto the Iranians to punish this ugly regime.