When I learned on Thursday that in a few hours, the prime minister is slated to address the nation, I felt my heart sink into the fear-sized hole that had opened up inside my body a few days ago, when I heard the echoes of democracy-s death knell. Until then I had still deluded myself into feeling hopeful. I still believed that the right-wing government would not let hate triumph over humanity. But, can you imagine waking up one morning to find that phones won-t work, that the Internet has been cut off, that there is no cable television, no access to the world outside. Shops are closed, schools and universities are shut down indefinitely, and everywhere you look you find gun-toting army personnel. You are then informed that the land to which you have historical and ancestral claim, is now, thanks to a glitch in the system, no longer yours to govern, that you are no longer deserving of fair democratic representation. From a citizen with rights, you have been demoted to a minor that needs parental protection "for your own good". How is this freedom?

It is shocking to learn of the many who are rejoicing... the privileged Hindu majority who have sold into the dream of a fundamentalist state, who have allowed themselves to be brainwashed by the propaganda machine; and of course, the hyper misogynists who are convinced that Kashmiri women are now fair game.