Thursday 22 January 2015

THE ART OF SCORING OWN GOALS

Two statements of Narendra Modi captured the imagination of the electorate during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections:
  1. Sabka saath, sabka vikaas (roughly translated as “together with all, development for all”)
  2. Na khaunga, na khane doonga (translated as “I will not take bribes nor will I allow anyone to take a bribe”)

The second statement, posed against the backdrop of scams during the UPA rule, attracted voters who were disgusted with widespread and endemic corruption in India. The first statement heralded a new image of the BJP which was always seen as a Hindutva party. The inclusiveness embedded in the statement was meant to transcend religion and attracted to the BJP fold even secular voters who might have otherwise been suspicious of the BJP. Both these statements created a persona of Modi far removed from the politician who delivered aggressive speeches during the Gujarat Gaurav Yatra in 2002.[i] The rest, as they say, is history: Modi, single-handedly, delivered a majority to the BJP. In all fairness to Prime Minister Modi, the two statements that he made were not meant for election purposes only. He and his cabinet have been very responsible so far and there has been no dithering or divergence from the sabka saath, sabka vikas (SSSV) position. If only, this message in the SSSV statement had been imbibed by those who are in the BJP’s saffron corner there would have been hardly any misgivings.

Confined to the BJP, the Na khaunga, na khane doonga statement has stood up to the test of time so far. The future may yet bring stories of malfeasance within the BJP but, for the moment, there is no information in the public domain. The curbs implied by the statement have, however, not covered those from whom the BJP might take support. As I write this, there is news that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has paid Jayalalitha, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (who was forced to step down by the courts), a courtesy call.[ii] Are we to believe that Jaitley was politely inquiring how Jayalalitha was coping with the loss of chief-ministership? Would he have been as concerned about Jayalalitha’s welfare if she did not have eleven members in the Rajya Sabha? Almost certainly, political equations are being worked out between the BJP and a politician who has been convicted of corruption. The remit of the na khaunga statement does not seem to run to non-BJP politicians whose support may be of help to the BJP.

In the unsavoury episodes in the aftermath of the Maharashtra elections, the na khaunga statement was given an unceremonious burial. Sure, the NCP was quickly off the blocks to offer support to the BJP in the wake of the tiff between the BJP and the Shiv Sena; sure, the NCP and its leaders would have extracted their pound of flesh for supporting the BJP. However, the BJP could well have refused the offer. But the lure of power was too tempting. By playing footsie with the NCP in order to spite the Shiv Sena, the BJP revealed its feet of clay. Of course, the farce of the confidence vote had to be engineered to ensure that the NCP’s support was not officially recorded. The question remains, can one consort with the corrupt and yet remain true to the spirit of the na khaunga statement? Certainly the Maharashtra episode and, probably, the Jayalalitha episode (if an agreement with her comes to pass) implicate the topmost leadership of the BJP, Modi and Amit Shah included, calling into question their announced stand on corruption.

The inclusiveness of the sabka saath, sabka vikas (SSSV) position has been torn to shreds by, not only members of the broader Sangh parivar, but by members of the BJP itself. Here is (possibly a partial) list of the divisive/offensive episodes that have come to light:

  • In the run up to the Lok Sabha elections, Giriraj Singh wanted to send Modi’s critics to Pakistan.[iii] The electorate was informed that Giriraj Singh had attracted the ire of the BJP leadership and was pulled up.[iv] That was then, before the elections. What has happened in more recent times? The Prime Minister has shown his displeasure of Giriraj Singh in a strange way: the “embarrassing” BJP member was inducted into the Cabinet in November 2014.[v] Unless there is something that we are missing here, this must be seen as a reward for Giriraj Singh. The question is, what is the reward for?

  • Sadhavi Niranjan Jyoti, Minister of State for Food, created a furore by her extremely offensive Ramzadon-Haramzadon (children of Lord Ram versus bastards) speech[vi] with the target, of course, being Muslims. Apart from a perfunctory apology, no action has been taken against the Sadhavi: she continues to be minister.
  • Yogi Adityanath’s Love Jihad campaign during the bye-elections in Uttar Pradesh[vii] raised the bogey of Hindu women being lured into marriage with Muslim boys. Was Yogi Adityanath an aberration? Not at all. He was merely articulating a position held by the RSS.[viii] The BJP denied that love jihad was ever its poll strategy.[ix] But, of course, no action was taken against the Yogi who was soon to be in the news in connection with the religious conversion row.
  • Ghar Wapasi or reconverting those who had converted to Islam or Christianity was a further blow to the spirit of Modi’s SSSV position. This was the RSS/VHP programme spearheaded by the indefatigable Yogi Adityanath. The programme began with the reconversion of more than 50 Muslim families in Agra in December 2014[x] and continued, in spite of widespread condemnation, with the reconversion of Christian families in January 2015.[xi] Despite the dare of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to non-BJP parties to bring in an anti-conversion bill, I doubt very much if the Sangh parivar will ever support it.[xii] With such an anti-conversion law in place, how will the VHP’s design of homogenising India into a 100% Hindu nation ever take place?[xiii]
  • Lastly, there is BJP member of Parliament Sakshi Maharaj’s call to Hindu women to produce 4 children.[xiv] Not satisfied with 4 children, BJP’s Shyamal Goswani has raised the target to 5 children.[xv] Not to be outdone by mere politicians, a Hindu sadhavi and a seer have set higher targets of ten children.[xvi]

Is it too much to expect that cretins of the religious brigade will ever understand that fertility rates emerge from the uncoordinated decisions taken by millions of women? And that fertility rates are determined by secular factors such as income levels, level of education of (especially) the woman and age at marriage? And that women in India are far too intelligent to be manipulated by so-called protectors of religion? Actually, I do think this is expecting too much from these mindless religious bigots.

The BJP’s response has been to send Sakshi Maharaj a show-cause notice who has, of course, denied receiving any such notice.[xvii] A question that must be asked is whether the call for more children is a call from the fringe or from the core of the Sangh parivar. If responsible newspapers such as the Hindustan Times[xviii] and the Times of India[xix] are to be believed, the call to Hindu women to produce more children comes right from the RSS, the original source from which BJP draws its strength.
  • With Sushama Swaraj, a high ranking Cabinet minister, calling on the government to declare the Bhagwad Gita as a national book,[xx] it appears as if the fringe of the Hindutva brigade has moved centre-stage. For all right-thinking Indians, there is only one national book in India and that is the Indian constitution. As far as I know, no one in the BJP has distanced the government from this call possibly because such a populist move could come in handy some time. For instance, if the going gets tough for the government, accepting Sushama Swaraj’s call would be useful to appease the Hindutva block and keep the BJP’s support bases intact.
  • As I write this blog post, it has become difficult to keep pace with the own-goals being scored by the BJP. The most recent one has been scored by another Cabinet Minister, Nitin Gadkari, who asserted that Modi’s government is made up of Ram Bhakts (devotees of Lord Ram).[xxi] There is no objection at all to Gadkari being a very devout person in the confines of his home. The objection is to giving the government a religious colour. Surely this violates the idea of secular India as enshrined in the Constitution to which Gadkari has sworn his allegiance.

Have these antics and actions of the Hindutva brigade embarrassed Modi and the NDA government? The standard line of various BJP spokespersons, when confronted with the divisive episodes listed above, has been to brush these aside and point to the development agenda of the BJP government. The implication seems to be that if the BJP has been pushing for an inclusive, secular agenda of development, not much attention should be given to comments/actions of the Hindutva brigade. This line of defence would have been credible had the BJP publicly denounced these elements of the Sangh parivar, including the RSS for carrying out communal and divisive activities. In the absence of that, how does one believe that the BJP has an agenda different from the rest of the Sangh parivar?

 The Prime Minister himself has remained completely silent on this, at least in public. (Incidentally, wasn’t Manmohan Singh pilloried for keeping silent far too often?) Has he pulled strings in the background to quell some of the strident elements in the party such as Yogi Adityanath? That is a possibility since there was no reference to love jihad during the campaigning for the Maharashtra elections. Was the BJP genuinely unhappy with Yogi Adityanath’s style of campaigning in Uttar Pradesh or was it just disappointment with the UP results that prompted the change in Maharashtra?

Is there a tussle between the Sangh parivar, which wishes to emphasise social, cultural and religious issues and would like their government to be more pro-active in this regard, and the Modi  government, which seems more focused on secular issues such as governance, growth, inflation and so on? Is this a clash of ideology between forces of modernity on the one hand and antediluvian forces which want to drag India back a few hundred years? Can we be sure that the BJP and the obscurantist Hindutva forces are not two sides of the same coin? Can we be sure that this is not an elaborate good cop-bad cop charade with the fringe elements (bad cop) doing the dirty work that the BJP (good cop) cannot take on board?

Far too many troublesome questions have been raised over the last few months about the exact role that influential elements of the Sangh parivar (notably, the RSS) play in guiding/controlling the BJP government. If such an intrusive role is indeed being played, does Prime Minister Modi have the resolve to stave off such challenges and stay the course to achieve secular goals such as economic development? All those who have pinned their hopes on Modi on the basis of the two statements mentioned at the beginning of this post fervently hope that the Prime Minister is strong enough to rebuff his alma mater.


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