By Ananya S Guha
The victory of Narendra Modi and the BJP in Gujarat was expected. It shows a people’s mandate including all sections of the society. However, the BJP fanaticism or its harping on everything that is Hindu must also change and they must adapt themselves to certain local and even historical dimensions. Narendra Modi’s victory according to the political pundits showed acceptability of all sections of the society. But we must remember that the ‘fear’ and survival motif is ubiquitous in the country, especially when plutocracy and muscle flexing are the orders of the day. However, the Hindu and Hindutva bug must go just as the Congress must refrain from talking on divisive lines that minorities are unsafe there. This was their pre-election campaign for the Gujarat election and we have the same marked tonality as a gearing up for next year’s parliamentary elections.
The pre-election campaign of both the parties for the parliamentary elections speak on very divisive lines which further hurts the compositeness of Indian society. Moreover, there is always the blame game with the Robert Vadra episode being the latest bone of discontent. Whoever wins the parliamentary elections, it will testify that it is the verdict of both the majority and the minority that is acceptability and this verdict should be taken as the people’s decision or will. An article in the Outlook Magazine highlighted such tendencies to divide society on minority majority lines in the country and contended that it was detrimental to national interests. Political parties must refrain from such fissiparous tendencies. The Gujarat victory in the state assembly elections should not in any way signify the infallibility of the BJP. Anyone professing secularism today in the country is dubbed as a pseudo secularist. What does it mean? It also means that both the Congress and the Rightist Parties talk of secularism in their own interpretive ways. While the former castigates the latter, the latter in turn mouths platitudes and actually begins to talk about societies in terms of minority interests and so on. In doing so it at once polarizes the society and the country as a whole. If we are to talk in one breath about India we have to realize the secular values and principles upon which this nation is founded. We cannot talk about religion first or minorities first and then speak about the country. It has to be the other way round.
The recent rape (I call it ‘recent’ because it will continue to haunt our memories and conscience) of a young lady in a running bus in New Delhi has led to loud protests from all over the country irrespective of ethnic and religious groups. It is the Indian sensibility which is in wrath, mattering little which community the lady or her friend comes from. The fact of the matter is human dignity has been violated in the worst definable manner, and this has led to the demand of capital punishment for such heinous crime and moral decrepitude. It is the moral view point and the issue of depravity which are being inquired into. The same thing should happen if the crime is perpetrated against a foreigner.
It is high time that we continue defining and redefining ‘Indianness’. What does it mean? What does it uphold? The concept of India is greater than Indians said M.J. Akbar in a in a talk in Shillong. Before discovering ‘Indianness’ we must comprehend the dimension of India and what it entails with referential meanings of caste, community, race and religion. This must be one of the basic tenets of education in school and college. Only then can be uphold the sacrosanct value of what it means to be Indian and the hallowed concept of India. In the brutish episode in New Delhi, as well as those happened earlier there, as well as in other parts of the country, have been examples of not only the violation of women’s rights but violation of human rights. Such transgressions are seen even in fractious fights among communities whether they are on religious or ethnic grounds. At that point in time, it is the vulnerability of the country and its integrity that are exposed in the worst manner. Once we respect humanity we respect every man and woman in the country immaterial of the fact to which region they belong to, what language they speak and what religion they profess.
So, introspecting it is undoubtedly a fact that the BJP’s victory in Gujarat is a mandate of the people; Hindu, Muslim and Christian. It is up to political parties to review and reappraise the concept and notion of secularism. This is the fight in the country between embattled forces of both secularism and those which have pretentions to it, but are totally off the mark.
The recent polemics are Amartya Sen’s remarks that he doesn’t want a person like Narendra Modi to head the country, L.K. Advani’s disenchantment with his own party, a party which he has nurtured for over decades, Chandan Mitra’s diatribes against Amartya Sen and Narendra Modi’s criticism of the Prime Minister’s speech on the ramparts of the Red Fort on a historic Independence Day. All these are a pointer to gimmickry and the on coming elections. They also show a blunt insensitivity towards a united country, no matter how much we mouth platitudes about unity and diversity and make children utters such expressions, parrot like devoid of any meaning. The real test of democracy or for the political system of any country is rising over board above any politics when the country is threatened both externally and internally. Pakistan’s recent belligerence against India however, had that cliché – the silver lining when some politicians rose above party allegiances to counter Pakistani threats verbally – thanks to the electronic media which of course thrives on such sensationalism.
The sad truth is that the country is losing, losing in terms of integration, losing in terms of a volatile short term politicking, losing in terms of being insensate to the unfortunates, the poor and the deprived.