On my post about me mildly questioning the numbers put out by the media (no doubt at the insistence of the administration), I had many types of people commenting and engaging (on various social media platform where I shared it). Many agreed. Many disagreed. Many claimed I have an agenda (I don’t, unless you think ‘Truth’ is one). Many were less than charitable.
These (given at the end of the post) stand out. There were dozens of abusive ones too, which I deleted, but these not those. There are polite, from regular, reasonable people, most even accepting of my stand that the numbers may not add up, except they have one thing in common: they wish I disregarded the inconvenient truth about faked numbers and just saw the ‘big picture’, whatever that was or is.
We atheists are familiar with this pattern. Question a claim, back it with evidence, logic, and science, and their response is a shrug: “You may be right in this one instance, but you are nitpicking. Look at the larger picture. In any case, belief transcends facts.” Challenge another claim, and it is the same story. Wrong here, irrelevant there, but they insist the “whole truth” (whatever that may be) remains untouched.
This endless loop of dismissal inevitably devolves into accusations. Suddenly, it is not about the claim anymore; it is about you. Malicious intent. Hatred towards their faith. How they, the eternal victims, have been persecuted and hounded through history. They are always oppressed, even when they are the majority, holding all the power, commanding the law, and shaping society. Why? Because victimhood is the ultimate rallying cry. Rational thought crumbles in the face of tribal solidarity.
Honestly, I do not care. Let them cling to their fantasies. Let their gods and myths console them in their fragile bubbles. But the problem is, it never stays contained. It seeps out. Into society. Into governance. Into law. Into the lives of people who never signed up for their delusions.
That is when it morphs into something more dangerous: “Chandrachudian” thinking. This is where belief outweighs truth. Where the sheer force of numbers, not evidence, dictates reality. If enough people believe in a falsehood, it becomes irrelevant whether it is true or not. The role of judges, legislators, police officers, and journalists is no longer to pursue objective truth. Instead, they must serve the loudest, the largest, the most aggressive. Truth becomes not just inconvenient—it becomes a liability.
And what do we do with inconvenient things? We bury them. Lady Justice does not need her blindfold anymore. We are not interested in fairness or facts; we are interested in power. Not justice. Punishment. Not equality. Retribution. The law of the mob. Not of the book we gave ourselves back when we also wrote the inclusive, fair, just, and progressive Preamble to it. We are willing to throw it all away. As long as the mob’s thirst is quenched. And the majority feels ‘safe.’ From the minority!
So why not go all the way? Might as well replace “Satyameva Jayate” with “Sanghameva Jayate.” After all, the collective now defines the truth. Majority rules. Might makes right. Let us at least start being honest about this reality. And let us put Truth where we have always wanted it: in the bin. Along with the other principles like justice, equality, liberty, and reason.
Note: For the uninitiated, “Sangha” means “collective” in Sanskrit. Why clarify? Because, ‘चोर की दाढ़ी में तिनका!’ IYKYK.
