By B.K. Chum
It is not the 1975-like Emergency Indira Gandhi had imposed. Nor is there any possibility of the Emergency again being imposed in today’s radically changed India. But the actions and utterances of our present day rulers are creating an Emergency-like atmosphere. First it was Hindutva hardliners and extremists inflammatory utterances which communally polarized the country. While some bhagva activists asked those not supporting PM Modi to go to Pakistan, some others lynched Muslims and attacked churches. How could the Aya Rams Gaya Rams Haryana lag behind? Its former RSS parcharak chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar commented “Muslims can continue to live in the country but they will have to give up eating beef because the cow is an article of faith here”.
To quote the eminent journalist and former member of Atal Bihari Vajpyee cabinet Arun Shouri “The way to characterize policies of this (Modi) government is – Congress plus a cow. Policies are the same.” Before one dwells on the political implications of these developments, it is necessary to briefly enumerate them.
These developments were bound to have their fallout which took the form of protests by those who wanted that India’s plurality and secular character needs to be maintained. Writers, filmmakers, and academicians took the initiative by returning their Sahitya Akademi awards as a protest against the increasing intolerance and communal polarization.
The returning of their Sahitya Akademi Awards by many eminent writers has now turned into a tsunami with a dozen film personalities, many top scientists including four Padma Bhushan and one Padma Vibhushan awardees also returning their awards. The latest among the celebrities protesting against “rising intolerance and the highly vitiated atmosphere prevailing in the country” are India’s 53 eminent historians. They have protested that “these days, differences of opinion are being sought to be settled by physical violence. Arguments are met not with counter-arguments but bullets”.
A latest media report says that more than 300 members of the artist community including painters, gallerists and scientists from leading academic and research institutions across the country and abroad have also submitted a petition to the President Pranab Mukherjee expressing their unease over recent instances of intolerance, “deliberate polarization and fanning of communal hatred resulting in the death of innocent people”.
Jaitley has called the return of awards as a “manufactured paper rebellion against the government” and those returning Padma and national awards as “rabid anti-BJP elements”. Coming to Jaitley’s help, the RSS which otherwise claims to be “cultural and social” organisation has also now described the writers and filmmakers returning awards as “politically motivated handful of pseudo-secularists.”
The situation needs to be seen in the background of two developments: Appointment of “RSS people with a narrow vision and questionable merit/eligibility” in the country’s prestigious institutions including FTII, Children’s Film Society and Censor Board of Film Censorship by Arun Jaitley’s Information and Broadcast Ministry; and, Jaitley’s comments on the Supreme Court’s decision rejecting the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act and upholding the validity of the Collegiums system.
In his rather harsh reaction Jaitley said that “Democracy cannot be “tyranny of the unelected (supreme court judges)”. The question arises: Isn’t it the tyranny of an unelected finance Minister rejected by his Amritsar constituency’s voters in 2014 Lok Sabha elections to describe the return of awards by eminent litterateurs and artists as a “manufactured paper rebellion against the government?”
Jaitley has now been joined by film star Anupam Kher to slam the 12 eminent film makers for returning their National Awards. Kher has described it as a publicity stunt and a single point agenda against the PM. Kher is ‘justified’ in criticizing his colleagues since he must be feeling obliged to the BJP for getting his wife Kiron Kher elected as Lok Sabha member on BJP ticket from Chandigarh.
Those who expect the prime minister to break his silence on the awardees returning their prestigious national awards are living in a make-believe world. They forget that despite his prolific addresses to his foreign audiences during his frequent foreign visits, Modi has maintained Sphinx like silence on crucial issues his own country faced even after the President Pranab Mukherjee’s subtle comments which should have forced the prime minister to break his silence.
In one of his remarks made in the wake of lynching of Dadri’s Mohammed Akhlaq by a BJP-led mob Mukherjee had said “India’s core values of diversity, tolerance and plurality could not be allowed to wither away”. Even after Mukherjee thrice making the comments, Modi did not condemn Akhlaq’s lynching. He simply asked Hindus and Muslims not to fight among themselves and maintain communal peace! He did not take any action against his motor-mouth ministers or party MPs and MLAs for making divisive utterances.
The above happenings are going to impact Bihar polls outcome. This is indicated by the contesting parties reactions. While both the BJP and the three-party mahagathbandhan are claiming they would win the elections, there are signs of desperation among the BJP leadership. This is indicated by the sudden spurt in the prime minister poll campaign meetings. In his hunt for votes, the party president Amit Shah has also tried to escalate communal polarization by his “there will be fireworks in Pakistan if his party loses Bihar” comments. His Bihar colleague Sushil Modi asked voters to strengthen PM Modi as “China and Pakistan are afraid of him”.
To the dismay of the BJP, topping these signs came the Election Commission’s warning to the ruling party to stop its poll advertisements on quota and also to newspapers prohibiting publishing such advertisements. The EC warning has cited BJP’s two advertisements which the Commission said had the “potential to create disharmony and mutual hatred between different communities.”
Making predictions about polls outcome is always hazardous. The stakes in Bihar polls are higher not only for both BJP and Opposition’s mahagathbandhan but also for the Modi government as their outcome will influence the future shape of India’s politics. (IPA Service)