Intolerance: From Minneapolis to Dadri, how political masters react determines how safe civilians feel

NEW YORK: Minneapolis? Nope, this midwestern city in the USA won’t work for Kiran Rao and Aamir Khan. Here, intolerance is the swift thwack of a gunshot when non-whites are out on the streets protesting peacefully. Here’s what’s different, though. When “intolerance” spikes, the country’s top official does not stay mum. He speaks out, he takes the conversation forward. Barack Obama’s finest speeches have been on race. It has not stopped violent crimes against people of color in America, but it has surely stopped celebs and the average Joe from thinking of moving out. Aamir Khan said his wife and he feel unsafe in India, he spoke about how elected government officials must create in civil society a sense of justice and fairness. The trolls are out hounding the Bollywood star, a million dollars for guessing who they are. The question “Is India intolerant” is very different from asking “Does the government allow intolerance to fester?”

Barely a month ago, a US airstrike gone horribly wrong bombed a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan. Within hours, President Barack Obama apologized for what is one of the worst cases of civilian casualties in the 14-year history of the U.S war effort.

Late Monday night, three white men shot five blacks who were protesting the 15 November police killing of Jamar Clark, a black man from the same city - Minneapolis.

“I’m still hurt,” said his sister, Sharice Burns. “I’m still suffering. We need justice sooner rather than later.”

Police treatment of black men has become a major issue in the U.S. in the aftermath of killings in Ferguson, Missouri, South Carolina and in New York City. The protests are linked to the Black Lives Matter movement which arose in response to a number of police killings of unarmed blacks in Ferguson, Missouri, New York and Baltimore.

The demons driving varying methods of intolerance range from top officials willing to play communal politics to misinformed jihad and race. Social media is churning out raw videos that are stomach churning evidence of what’s wrong.

The New York Times says “grainy images of questionable police behavior in the US have led to nationwide protests.”

Caste, it’s edge blunted by finer language and called by different names, is ubiqutous. “Segregation is not gone,” said Obama in his pathbreaking speech way back when he was not even President. After he took the White House, Obama has not stopped reacting , he has stayed consistent.

Minneapolis Police said Jamar Clark was shot after he struggled with officers. But people who said they saw the shooting said the 24-year-old was handcuffed.

In a string of recent political events, protestors standing up to shout that “black lives matter” have been causing ripples in the US presidential-primary race.

“Do black lives matter,” is a stock question at presidential campaign debates. Anyone who says “all lives matter" is summarily booed.

Anti-Muslim backlash in US

Acts of vandalism against mosques, anti-Muslim threats and fear have reached an unprecedented level in America since the Paris attacks, fueled by right-wing intolerance in the presidential campaign, activists say. There are an estimated seven to 10 million Muslims in America. “I think we are seeing the mainstreaming of anti-Muslim hate… that gives a false sense of legitimacy to those who would carry out hate crimes,” Ibrahim told AFP,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council of American-Islamic Relations, the country’s largest Muslim civil liberties group.

Political silence in India

BBC News reports on “what the backlash against Bollywood’s Aamir Khan tells us about India,” saying that anxiety is caused by political silence. For the outside world taking a closer look at India, that’s the open wound they see that’s being left to fester. Foreign media, almost without exception, has noticed that Modi, too often, is quiet, when he must speak.

“There were a number of federal ministers present when Khan made his remarks at an awards ceremony on Tuesday. Many wondered why Arun Jaitley, the senior-most minister in the audience, did not stand up and say he understood the actor’s anxiety and that his government would guarantee that every Indian, irrespective of his belief, was safe?,” says BBC News.