The Sangh parivar became excited when a bomb exploded at a prayer convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Kerala. The spontaneous solidarity and almost visceral rejection of fascist designs by its political class, its vernacular media and its people helped Kerala narrowly dodge a cataclysm.

In the current context, these debates serve the same purpose as gladiatorial contests in ancient Rome: promoting a violent spectacle of duelling parties to distract the public from serious policy failures.

Allegations of corruption took centre stage as TV anchors took up the opposition's charges on the government contract given to Sprinklr, leaving fundamental questions on privacy in the time of pandemics unasked.

The Sangh parivar and its acolytes have dislodged hate speech from its accepted uses in contemporary discourses, and deployed it in reverse.

Bindu Ammini has single-handedly braved the entire might of the Sangh, a neutered public, and an opportunistic state. She will never be forgotten.