Whenever a high-profile political assassination takes place, the bereaved usually eulogise the deceased by saying that the murderers wanted to kill not the individual but his ideas, the school of thought that he espoused. Whereas this statement was also true in the case of the brave fallen Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer who was brutally murdered in Islamabad in January, the words are a better fit for the minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti. As opposed to the governor, he was not a party heavyweight and did not fit anywhere in the power structure of the state. He was a reserved seat legislator who headed a ministry that always has to kowtow before the all-powerful leagues who man positions in the sprawling number of jamiaat. The minister was killed, ostensibly, simply because he continued speaking up on the issue of the blasphemy law even when the ruling party itself had tried to brush the issue under the carpet. For reasons of expediency if not ideology. But the prospect of the relatively liberal ruling party making an amendment at some better time in the future, even if it is three elections away, is not lost out on the militants. Messages have to be sent.
As opposed to the more outspoken few who want the blasphemy law amended, the slain minister was not the one to use caustic words. Nor was he a high-profile publicity seeker. In this lies the bleak desperation of the situation. Voices of dissent, regardless of how careful and subtle they are, shall not be tolerated. The permissible public space for expressing views on the issue of the blasphemy law is ever shrinking.
As usual, the media jihadists will give Mr Bhatti some sympathy, albeit one assassination too late. Where was the government, they will ask. What of the security for ministers, those who otherwise criticise endlessly the security entourages of living liberal politicians will ask. Those are the right questions for the officials of law and order to deliberate on in meetings. But they are not the right questions for the polity to discuss. The real problems lie above mere lapses in this security detail or that. They lie in the bleak reality of the fascism that has taken over public discourse.