There was a time, just as when Modi became the Prime Minister, people thought India is on a glorious path of development sans communalism or corruption. In just over a year after he donned the mantle of Prime Ministership instead of development what the nation has been witnessing is a regressive Hindutva agenda and vigilante groups such as Hindu Sene’s of various sorts interfering in people’s life to the extent that even those who praised and supported Modi are frustrated and angry. The horrible state of unfreedom that India has been reduced to is well explained (humorously) in an article in scroll.in under the following heading: The incomplete guide to living in Modi’s India (as defined by Hindutva apologists).
Frustration mounting among the supporters
It is Tavleen Singh again in The Indian Express, having been frustrated with the destruction that Hindutva thugs sow in the body politic, community cohesion and the economic agenda of Prime Minister Modi, vents her anger about the failure of Mr Modi to reign in such disruptive elements.
“At this point in Narendra Modi’s term as Prime Minister we should have been talking about good things- Jobs, growth, economic reforms, new policies, India’s role in the world and her transition towards fulfilling that promise of making the 21st century her own. Instead, all we have talked about since Mohammad Akhlaq’s barbaric murder are the things that have held India back for decades. Old hatreds, old enmities, cultural intolerance and religious violence. These things have so dominated the national debate that it is beginning to feel as if we have moved backwards to an uglier time when such things were routine.”
The frustration turned criticism could not have been more scathing than the image of NDA government conjured by Arun Shourie, one of the most powerful ideologues of Hindutva for many years and a minister in Vajapeyee government. For Shourie, Modi’s NDA government is nothing but the UPA with a cow added. He even goes to the extent of naming the current Prime Minister’s Office is the weakest and least professional. He admonishes the government to desist from picking up fights about silly issues. Obviously these, one time admirers of Mr Modi are fed up with the silly issues such as bans, beef controversy and the likethat the government is wasting time with. What they are irritated about most is the tolerance Mr Modi has with the rabid elements of Hindutva who try to push the anachronistic Hindutva agenda down the throat of the nation at the expense of national development and community cohesion.
Excuses, excuses, excuses
To justify every one of their failures, the BJP spokespersons, ministers and bhakts point fingers at the Congress period and claim that similar atrocities have happened even then. They point fingers at Pakistan where minorities are mistreated under an Islamic constitution. But these party represenentives, don’t seem to understand that by comparing India to some poorly managed or regressive nations they lower the threshold of the very democracy that India and the Indians have been proud of. But such comparisons don’t wash away the ignominy of the present state of affairs engendered by a government with an absolute majority in the Parliament and having a Prime Minister claiming to have a 56 inch chest (a supposedly powerful leader).
What good is that chest if he can’t control what the more fundamentalist elements of his own Hindutva family are wreaking everywhere? Soon, as the government is discredited more and more, there will be worst and worst atrocities against secular intellectuals, minorities and dalits. Even Congress period would not be good enough to justify such genocidal acts. At that stage, who will Hindutva talking machines compare themselves with? One should not be surprised if they compare their acts to Soviet Gulags, Nazi gas chambers or Rwandan genocide and say that their acts are not as bad.Their propensity for moral and political regression appears unlimited. This kind of monsters lack conscience and ethics in every sense.
Their morality is identitarian and sees only the good of Brahminism and nothing else. Everything, including the nation and everybody, including Modi, is mere instrumental in their project. Lower caste narcissists like Modi, backward caste Hanumans such as Paswan, Manjhi, and whoever can be used to put an upper caste man in a position of power is good enough in the shorter term for achieving their longer term strategy of total control over the bodies and minds of Indians.
Agenda hijacked, Medieval Barbarism and Mob rule is back
The excuse that such incidents happened in Non-BJP ruled States where there is no proper governance is a preposterous tomfoolery. Everyone knows that such incidents are perpetrated by the Hindutva operatives to orchestrate a communal divide and frame the ruling governments. Such incidents are organised precisely for tarnishing the image of the opposition ruled states so that Modi and the BJP can be presented as the leader and the party of governance respectively.
Today everyone knows these are strategically planned, low intensity communal atrocities designed to prepare the ground for Hindu majoritarian mobilisations in view of upcoming State or Local body elections. If the Prime Minister honestly stands by his modernist development agenda then he should rein in the Hindutva forces that are operating on a cultural plane reminiscent of medieval barbarism and mob rule. In the longer run, when passions are allowed to run amok rational discourse of development drowns out. That means Modi of development mantra disappears and the Modi of post-Godra Gujarat (2002) remerges. There lies in tatters the dream of development which Indians have been eagerly waiting since Modi came to power. Fear of this happening worries when Modi remains silent.
Perception is all that matters, not ethics
After a very long period of silence, after unabating criticism from every quarter, one fine day, finally, the Prime Minister spoke about the need for tolerance between people of all religions. The ‘sermon’ was so general that it sounded as if it would have been the same when Mahatma Gandhi had spoken during the Partition violence.
Forget about sympathising with the Muslim family that was the target of violence from the thugs of his own Party, he did not even mention the event. By the looks of it the statement was a reluctant uttering, stemming from the need arising out of a failed PR exercise. There is enough reason to assume that Mr Modi spoke because, if he didn’t, his carefully constructed image in the foreign lands would be in jeopardy.
Akar Patel, in live Mint, did argue that, in fact, Modi’s belatedly and reluctantly made statement and the PR type meeting Amit Shah had with Party blabbermouths (supposedly for upbraiding them) was the result of negative reports appearing in foreign media such the New York Times. He speaks of observation thus:
“What caused the government to stir? That report in the NYT. I have absolutely no doubt about it and the moment I noticed the report, I knew the prime minister would act. It is the damage to this fine dispensation’s international reputation that roused it to action. The NYT again reported on the issue the next day, mentioning the Shah action but summarizing all the events and the violence in a way that was not flattering.”
So, one is forced to conclude that this government’s intervention against Hindutva’s anti-national behaviour stems from the utilitarian necessities of image protection rather than from any moral or ethical stance. In fact, that precisely was the worry of some ruling party politicians. They claimed that Dadri-like incidents spoil India’s image abroad. But they hardly were worried about the ethical issues stemming from mob rule and the lynching.
They would not matter if the world did not notice them. Every intervention and purported action appears to be either to strengthen the image of the Prime Minister and the government, or to ward off criticism from abroad. In all this, one can wonder and ask: where is the conscience of the people who rule us? Don’t they think that something is right or wrong not because it is politically expedient but it is right and wrong in itself? Aren’t we supposed to follow certain ethics (Dharma or Rajdharma) when it comes to the basics that govern human behaviour? Since when is Hindu conscience so partisan as not to have any ethical imperatives at all? How can the majority Hindus remain quiet about such hijacking and misuse of their identity to the extent of demeaning it?
You have the mandate: Be a Statesman
Noting the danger contained in Hindutva politics and the tacit approval of it by Prime Minister Modi, Admiral Ramdas (Retired) who served as chief of Indian navy between 1990 and 1993 in a letter to the Prime Minister and the President has this to say: “India represents a unique blend of peoples and cultures which have evolved over 5,000-plus years in a constantly changing and dynamic process. This diversity and unique nature of our society and people can probably never be replicated anywhere on this earth – and for this reason alone, the concept of a single religious identity or mono culture represents an insult to this ancient civilisational heritage.” He worries how the divisive Hindutva agenda would playout when its impact reaches the armed forces, the supreme epitome of Indian secular, democratic institution.
Once Modi is perceived as a partisan figure whose tweets, empathy and even charity are driven by Hindutva identitarian morality alone, he lowers the exalted position of Indian Prime Ministership into a sectarian identity. Even in Bihar election campaigns he has tried to pit the backward classes and dalits against Muslims by alluding to Mahaghatbandhan’s intention to offer 5% out of the current reservations to Muslims. His Muslim hatred is visceral and completely explainable through his Hindutva frame. This personality problem is affecting the nation everywhere.
Perceiving his partisan moral approach even the charity Edhi Foundation of Karachi that looked after a dumb and deaf Indian girl (Geeta) for 15 years before retuning her to India recently has declined to accept one crore rupees that Prime Minister promised to donate. Any fool can see through his partisan morality when he fails to empathise with the family of Akhlaq who was lynched by his Hindutva men and tries to pay off the debt of a charity which had done their humanitarian responsibility going beyond identity politics. This is what you get when you, despite being in a position of power, do not act as a statesman but a mere partisan identity harvesting politician. Soon the majority Indians will realise the moral disaster that they voted into power for. Indians may be fed up with Congress party’s tolerance for corruption but they cannot and will not put up with being seen as a country of lynching mobs, freedomless zombies or people who cannot eat, talk, write and behave as they wish to because of some Hindutvavaadi obscurantists. Hence is the frustration and anger about the moral failure of a man the nation looks up to as the conscience keeper of our nation.
About the Author: Samuel Sequeira is a Postgraduate Researcher, at the School of English, Communication and Philosophy at the Cardiff University, Wales, United Kingdom. He is currently researching on issues such as South Asian immigrants in Wales, Immigration discourses in the UK and Identity and conflict.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Newskarnataka.com and Newskarnataka.com does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.
