Does politics have the right to form barrier between two individuals? Does difference in political opinions or orientations form a basis strong enough to disregard decades of friendship and bonhomie? That is the thought for the day. However this thought did not come up just by itself. There is a context to it. Let me briefly explain.
Recently I was contacted by a very old friend, whom I would still call a friend, however am not sure what that friend would call me now, in the backdrop of the conversation I am just about to describe.
The conversation started well enough. I started it on a wry note when the friend contacted me for the first time after a gap of nearly six or seven years. I was surprised that this friend of mine still remembered me and had the gumption to start up a chat. The conventional how do you dos, the traditional “how’s everyone back home” et al followed. A minute or ten into the conversation, this friend of mine brought up the issue of a relative who was leading an unhappy life.
Since my friend had been quite close to me once upon a time, and, a point in time existed when we literally exchanged words about our daily lives, daily, I had no qualms in asking why it was so that this relative was distressed in her life. What followed embarrassed me, and I do not know what I should be embarrassed more about, me being a friend of an individual like this or the fact that we studied in the same school as children — and two people coming from the same moral canon could act like this towards one another.
My friend answered that this relative was discontent with the current regime in our country. I assuming that this relative, whom I knew as an acquaintance, was going through those episodes of political rebelliousness, which the latest crop of human adults a.k.a Generation Z, suggested that, politics is everywhere, what does it matter either way. It escalated quickly after that. I was asked if I support the current regime. To which I said a resounding Yes, and added that I was a great fan. I asked if my display picture of Adolf Hitler was not a suggestion of that already, further wanting to prod my friend to reveal fully her position.
And just like that, the conversation was over, at least it was over for my friend. I was said that, if I did not understand the problems of supporting the Modi Government, it was felt on my friend’s part that any conversation with me was not worth having. And just like that, the chat stopped..!