As brutality entertains and hate mobilises, India’s public life risks losing its moral compass.
IT IS DIFFICULT to recall any period in independent India when the level of public discourse had sunk so low, or when hate, violence and communalism had become so normalised. This is happening both in the virtual and the real world, with perhaps each feeding the other.
Violence as Entertainment: Films and Television Shape Public Psychology
Let us first take a look at films and television serials. The more the violence and bloodletting, the more popular such shows become. Scenes of gruesome murders, throat slitting, bloodshed and torture are apparently being relished by viewers. Films like Animal, Tere Ishq Mein and Dhaurandhar take brutality to another level.
Similarly, television serials like Paatal Lok revel in blood curdling scenes right in our homes. In almost all such cases, the person perpetrating the violence, generally the hero, gets away without any legal punishment.
Evidently, the popularity of such shows propels producers to keep raising the bar in depicting brutality.
The statutory warnings and age based viewing restrictions are more of a formality than a serious consideration of the impact such violence may have on viewers.
All this is justified in the name of freedom of expression, but the damage it may be causing to human psychology, particularly among the youth and the impressionable, is immeasurable and long lasting.
Political Rhetoric and the Spread of Communal Poison
It is no wonder that hate, violence and communalism are getting normalised in society as well. Our political leaders are taking the lead in spreading poison in society, with the judiciary and the media conveniently looking away and failing to question such tendencies.
Recently, a short video clip went viral on social media. It showed the Assam Chief Minister, Hemanta Biswa Sarma, holding a gun and shooting at a group of people belonging to a particular community. The video clip was released by none other than the Bharatiya Janata Party’s official media handle in Assam. The clip was titled “Point Blank Shot” and carried the words “No Mercy.”
A still from a controversial video shared on X by BJP’s Assam unit.
After it created a stir on social media, the clip was taken down by the party’s Assam unit. Equally appalling, however, was the refusal of the Chief Minister or any party leader to apologise for or condemn the content of the video.
Sarma has taken the plea that he had “not seen” the 10 second clip despite its continued circulation on social media. It is clear that he is unapologetic about such a hate filled and communal video.
This is the same Chief Minister who recently asked people to inflict financial harm on Muslim rickshaw pullers by giving them four rupees if they ask for five rupees for a ride. He believes that is the only way to force illegal migrants to leave the state.
Just a normal conversation between Mama and Paaijaan… pic.twitter.com/RjGM511hPh
— BJP Assam Pradesh (@BJP4Assam) February 6, 2026
But what about the responsibility of his own government, which has been ruling the state for a decade, to stop infiltration or identify illegal migrants? More so when the same party is also the ruling party at the Centre and is responsible for checking illegal migration across the border.
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His recent attacks on minorities give the impression that he is not confident about winning the ensuing Assembly elections in the state on the grounds of development and progress during the party’s rule. He has also attacked his main Congress rival, Gaurav Gogoi, accusing him and his wife of spying for Pakistan. Besides this, he has slapped a ₹500 crore defamation suit against him.
Judiciary and Elections: Courts Enter the Political Arena
The Supreme Court has now agreed to hear a petition against the Chief Minister’s alleged hate speeches. While accepting the plea for hearing, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant remarked that as elections take place, part of the elections take place in the Supreme Court.
No date has yet been fixed for the hearing, and it is unlikely that the Chief Minister will dial down his rhetoric against the Muslim community.
Rising Threats and Institutional Silence
Yet another instance of open threats of physical violence and communal mobilisation relates to the incident at Kotdwar in Uttarakhand.
Video still from the Kotdwar incident showing the shopkeeper at the centre of the confrontation and ‘Mohammad’ Deepak
A video clip is circulating in which members of a group declare that they will march to the township to avenge the action taken by a Hindu youth to protect an elderly person from another community.
The leader is seen exhorting the youth to join in large numbers on a specified day and time, and challenging the police to dare stop them.
At the time of writing this column, neither the police nor the judiciary had taken note of the threat.
Society at large, and our senior leaders in particular, must engage in soul searching and reflect on what kind of environment we are leaving for the future generations of our country. 
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Vipin Pubby
The author, a freelance journalist, is a former Resident Editor of Indian Express, Chandigarh, and reported on the political developments in Jammu and Kashmir, North-Eastern India, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab in his long, illustrious career.
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