EVERYDAY SECULAR INDIA IS FIGHTING BACK
By B.K. Chum
To repeat Fortune senior editor Philip Elmer-DeWitt: “Some people make headlines while others make history”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week set a record by making both. He described lynching of Dadri’s Mohammed Akhlaq over rumours of beef eating and scrapping of Pakistani artiste Ghulam Ali’s concert in Mumbai and Pune as “saddening and unfortunate” incidents.
A day earlier he had described Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal as “the Nelson Mandela of India”. Modi’s observations evoked one of his critics to satirically comment: “If you don’t have a sense of humour, you probably don’t have any sense at all”. It had started with the prime minister breaking his 16 month long silence after President Pranab Mukhrjee’s remarks made in the backdrop of a mob including a local BJP leader’s son and some party activists lynching Dadri’s Mohammed Akhlaq. Mukherjee had said that “India’s core values of diversity, tolerance and plurality could not be allowed to wither away”.
Addressing an election rally in Bihar Modi without referring to the Dadri lynching advised “Hindus and Muslims to fight poverty, not each other”. Like his initial silence on Dadri lynching, he also later kept mum on the BJP’s ally Shiv Sena-sponsored ban on Ghulam Ali’s planned Mumbai and Pune concerts and the smearing of ink on the face of BJP’s ideologue Sudhendra Kulkarni for organizing the book release function of Pakistan’s former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri.
Widespread outrage over Dadri lynching and Ghulam Ali’s concerts ban later forced Modi to speak on the two incidents describing them as “saddening and unfortunate”. He, however, asked, “what is the Central Government’s relation with these incidents?” He accused the Opposition of indulging in “pseudo-secularism” and politics of polarisation. Bizarre argument coming from the prime minister of the world’s largest democracy!
True, maintaining law and order is the responsibility of the state governments. But how could the prime minister and his government escape the charge of abetting the despicable acts of his own party men and not taking any action against them at political and administrative levels? And how could he ignore the fact that the despicable happenings taking place since he took over as prime minister have created an atmosphere which has encouraged the Hindutva protagonists to communally polarise the plural Indian society by making inflammatory statements.
It is not the prime minister alone whose utterances and actions are making the headlines, some of his ministers particularly Finance Minister Arun Jaitly are also making comments which generate controversies evoking angry reactions. The latest is his comments on the return of Sahitya Akademi Awards by nearly three dozen eminent writers, poets and rationalists in protest against the spike in intolerance under the Modi government. Attributing motives behind the returning of awards, Jaitley described the writers step as “a paper rebellion against the government”.
Jaitley, whom the people of Amritsar had rejected in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, asked the writers “Is this protest real or a manufactured one? Is it not a case of ideological intolerance?” Jaitley needs to explain whether the actions and decisions his government takes are not manufactured and ideological which often create more problems than solve the ones the country already faces.
Jaitley must be feeling embarrassed by his critics describing his performance as finance minister uninspiring. For instance, against the claims made by his party’s top leaders before coming to power to bring back several lakh crores of black money India’s tax evaders had kept abroad, But he has been able to repatriate just over Rs. 4,000 crore only. Prices have been rising which has also made it difficult for the housewives to run the kitchen. Economy has not shown the promised improvement despite the prime minister’s self-promotional foreign visits which have yielded more promises than actual investments.
Modi’s other ministers are also making laughable statements. For instance, the Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma had on September 18 ‘proved’ his secularist (?) mind when he said “late former president APJ Abdul Kalam was an ideal nationalist despite being a Muslim”. He had also termed the writers protests a “larger political conspiracy”. Besides the Dadri and Ghulam Ali episodes, the second point in Modi’s statement last week was his description of Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal as “the Nelson Mandela of India”.
Though described as Punjab’s shrewdest politician, Badal’s modesty and humility are undoubtedly treated as legendary. He is always ready to help the needy. But are these qualities the main reason for Modi to describe him as India’s Nelson Mandela? Mandela had spent his whole life for fighting against apartheid and protecting the oppressed. Fighting for his causes, he spent most of his life in jail. Badal also spent many years in jail for the causes dear to him which needed to be fought for.
The phrase “Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention” also applies in matters politics. The question is why Modi thought it imperative to bestow the Nelson Mandela title upon Badal now. Did he want to belatedly reciprocate the flattering remarks of being “India’s greatest leader” and a ‘Sardar” made by Badal about Modi during his visit to Gandhinagar in September 2013? Or, was it because Badal has been pressurizing the Centre, but without any positive response so far, to help Punjab overcome its acute financial crisis which has made the state virtually bankrupt? The feeling that Punjab is being discriminated by the Centre has got accentuated after Modi’s announcement of the Rs.1.25 lakh crores special economic package for Bihar where the BJP is fighting its ‘life and death’ battle in the ongoing polls against the formidable JD(U)-RJD-Congress mahagathbandhan. A BJP defeat could create serious political and governance problems for the Modi government and the saffron party particularly in the 2017 assembly elections in some states including Punjab.
Do Modi’s adulatory comments about Badal signal the beginning of efforts to assuage the aggrieved allies and woo new ones? (IPA Service)