Ram Madhav, the BJP leader, in the context of Kashmir, said that “all is fair in love and war”. Born and bred in the RSS culture, Ram Madhav is simply reflecting the ethics of RSS/BJP.

The much quoted “all is fair in love and war” phrase that is heavily distorted is not the reality of the human world. Love and war are opposing tendencies and they can be two plausible outcomes of the process depending on how they are dealt.

All is Not Fair in Love and War

Love and war are between two parties. In love, people aim to mate, while in war, people aim to decimate each other. The outcomes are different, but both involve two parties. In love, the involved parties create something new. In war, the involved parties destroy each other. It is the pattern of communication, the desire to mate or decimate, and more importantly willingness to participate in the mutual game that determines if the ending will be satisfying.

Fairness is important for any society to survive. Even the wars can be fought on the basis of fairness and justice. When the World War II was on, Babasaheb Ambedkar supported the war efforts of Allies, but with a condition that the German people should be informed that the war was not against them and that there will be justice for them.

Fairness is an important principle and must be the pivot on which both love and war must revolve. The RSS/BJP has been acting unfairly as they have their political interest of keeping the Brahmanism alive. RSS cannot go away from its poisonous agenda of imposing and consolidating Brahmanism on India’s oppressed majority and it has used unethical methods to keep its propaganda alive. It keeps the mettle of “Hindus” alive by constantly creating “Non-HIndu Other”.

That non-Hindu Other is Islam. The polarisation that takes place during the elections is exactly on these lines. Their agenda is simple: create the fear of other and make Hindus divided by caste united in the name of artificially created Hinduism. In order to do this, any strategy can be used.

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India was not created by fighting a war against an enemy.

India was transferred power through negotiations and mutual discussions. Indian constitution was a consensual document and therefore it was based on love, and not war.

It was the genius of Babasaheb Ambedkar who averted the emerging civil war like situation in India when the Indian assembly was thinking of civil war against the incipient Pakistan.

In December 1946, Babasaheb Ambedkar gave an important speech where is completely went against any idea of civil war with the incipient Pakistan. He based his speech on love. He was always devoted to love, persuasion, and negotiations.

Whether it is love or war, principle of natural justice must be followed but when RSS was a practitioner of any principle. Never. It only advocates rule based society modelled on Manu Smriti.

If it was not for the love that Babasaheb Ambedkar taught to the constituent assembly, India would have ended up in the bloody civil war and that would have doomed all the possibilities of creating world’s largest democracy. We should be proud of our country for it stands on the principle of Justice.

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We have many problems in the country, but they cannot be resolved with war.

Only love will solve them, but saying that only love will solve them is being naive. Besides love, there should be negotiations and negotiations can take many forms and it can create a system of give and take. With the failure of love and negotiations, the open war is also a possibility, but this is the last possibility and it cannot go on. Nothing can exist if it goes into the cycle of perpetual war. War has to be avoided at any cost, and if it is the only option available, it should be fought with less collateral damages and must be short lived.

Kashmir and Ayodhya are important places for Hindutva brigade. They keep their machine of Brahminical Hindutva moving by fuelling these two places. For the politicians of Pakistan as well, Kashmir is important. It keeps their politics alive. But resolved must be these issues with negotiations and the consensus of the people. Otherwise, the deadwood of the past will destroy the incumbent peaceful future for people and communities in both the countries.

So Ram Madhav is wrong in invoking such statement – “all is fair in love and war”. They must come out of this narrow mentality if they really have to make India a respectable power in the world.

Author – Mangesh Dahiwale, Human Rights Activist

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