Thread by @amit_tushar

For me, M Kesavan's article wasnt just about UP elections. It was about how we as a people imagine ideas around freedom and security.

It was about how we choose to live and die under successive governments without anything fundamental changing.

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Why do our expectations from those who protect us have nothing to do (anymore) with demands for safety, public health and collective well being?

The idea that covid deaths are a natural phenomenon has a firm hold in public conciousness. It's isn't seen as a preventable collapse of a system. Because our media doesn't ask questions about what went wrong.

So we never arrive at ideas of failure and responsibility or fundamental changes in governance strategies that might involve difficult changes.

What I am saying is that systemic material failure In the real world is also the failure of public imagination and memory. This cynicism we have about our politics ends up destroying the very space of ideas where ideas of change can be brought to the table.

All of this marks a limitation (if not a failure) for a new politics to emerge centered around ideologies of justice and values of fairness.

telegraphindia.com/opinion/bloodi…