Albert Thyrniang
‘India’s Divider in Chief’ is TIME magazine’s cover story on the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi in its May 20, 2019 issue. Assuming significance due to current national elections, the story has provided ammunition to the opposition parties to attack the man at the helm who has polarised the nation like never before. In the meantime, the BJP termed the report ‘maligning’, and branded the writer, Aatish Taseer as a Pakistani and even defaced his page on Wikipedia. The American weekly International edition’s damning caption has also received a lot of attention from TV channels, print media, online platforms and social media.
That Modi is a polarising and communal figure was never in doubt. He earned the tag from 2002. As Chief Minister of Gujarat, he faced severe allegations of his Government’s acts of commission and omission that allowed the Gujarat riots, a three-day inter-communal violence that officially resulted in 1,044 deaths, including 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus. Critics even see him as initiating and condoning the rioting, pogrom (religious riot), arson, mass rape, kidnapping and mass murder.
The massive interest in the magazine’s catchy title is, perhaps, due to clear indications that the seven phases general election will negatively decide Modi’s fate. On the eve of voting in Delhi and in the thick of the marathon elections, the international media is being critical of the muscular nationalist. The Guardian on April 10 writes that Narendra Modi isn’t the strongman the world assumes him to be. NYTimes.com no longer supports Internet Explorer 9 or earlier. Please upgrade your browser.LEARN MORE »On May 2, The Economist emphatically stated that Modi poses a threat to democracy. The New York Times on May 8 predicted that young voters might desert Modi this time around. The same newspaper followed it up with the April 20 story observing that farmers have been hurt in the last five years.
The subject matter of the article critically analyses Modi’s tenure highlighted by mob lynching on minorities, women’s issues, demonetisation, growing intolerance, insecurity and alienation of minorities together with disturbing assertions of majoritarianism artificially enacted by the ruling party.
Prominently taking note of the economic failure, the writer terms the prevailing social situation under Modi as “stress” because “an atmosphere of poisonous religious nationalism” has been created totally negating Jawaharlal Nehru’s idea of secularism. Far from his promise of development for all, he has a state in which Indians are increasingly obsessed with their differences, writes the author of a Pakistani father and Indian mother.
The Indian PM is not a divider because The Times says so. Rather the world’s largest weekly (26 million readership) has given the title to the RSS pracharak to reflect a reality. The assessment is true as a matter of fact. The former three time Gujarat CM’s tone, rhetoric, optics, symbolism, demeanour and his very persona is divisive. The controversial figure, with the permanent stigma over post-Godhra violence, divides on religious lines. He divides the North and the South. And of late he has divided even the armed forces.
On April 2 after Rahul Gandhi’s candidature from Wayanad, Kerela was announced, the PM, in a rally, with communal intent, blatantly alleged that the Gandhi scion was scared of ‘peace-loving Hindus’ in Amethi and decided to flee to a safe seat where ‘Minorities are majority’ there. Later after Pragya Singh Thakur, a terror accused, was declared as candidate from Bhopal, he accused the Congress of inventing the term ‘Hindu terror’ and, with high pitched rhetoric, proclaimed that Hindus can never be terrorists.
During Modi’s five year regime communal tensions rose sharply, particularly in Uttar Pradesh and communal activities by Hindu nationalist organisations grew alarmingly. ‘Ghar Wapsi’ programmes were openly organised and campaigns against alleged “Love Jihad” were carried out disdainfully. Elements in the right wing outfits declared their ‘Hindu Rashtra’ and Hindutva agenda contemptuously. On the policy front the BJP vouches for building of Ram Temple in the disputed area of Ayodhya, implementation of the controversial Uniform Civil Court and abolition of sensitive Article 370 for political mileage. The latest communal trick of the BJP is to enact the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 (CAB ) which promises Indian citizenship to illegal migrants belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian religious communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
According to the C-Voter survey, Modi’s popularity is least in South India with Tamil Nadu giving him the lowest at 2.2 percent. His election visits to South India were met with black flags and “Modi Go Back” slogans. His unpopularity in the south reflects a much broader and deeper reality. The more developed, more prosperous, more tolerant, more educated and more varied South sees Modi as someone hostile. Modi represents the North’s attitude of bias against them that had earlier attempted to impose Hindi on them. Despite its dominant force the South sees Modi’s BJP as a party of the north and the west. Though it subsidises the North the South plays second fiddle politically. The South-North divide has a history but under Modi the divide has only widened.
Ever since the Pulwama terror attack Modi has even succeeded to divide the armed forces. The Army, the Air force and the Navy have been adversely politicised. Starting with the PM himself, the BJP has shamelessly tried to appropriate the country’s apolitical defence forces. Retired personnel are forced to take political sides. Without even a cooling period many have joined politics and are fighting elections. Modi’s recent accusation that former PM, Rajiv Gandhi used INS Viraat as ‘personal taxi’ for his Lakshadweep holiday has split the Navy right in the middle. A former navy chief has denied the charge while at least two veterans have backed the claim. Modi has achieved in involving even the national defence forces in public, political mudslinging. Hence ‘India’s Divider in Chief’ is the most apt title for the 68 year old Modi!
The presence of ‘The Divider in Chief’ implies that there other ‘subordinate dividers’. Three ‘lower ranked dividers’ readily come to mind. Topping the list is Yogi Adityanath. The UP CM is considered the heir to Modi. Since March 19, 2017 in office, his state has been the Sangh’s Hindutva hate laboratory. The monk cum politician founded the Hindu Yuva Vahini, an organisation that has been involved in communal violence. The Hindutva firebrand leader was reportedly involved in conversion of 1,800 Christians to Hinduism in 2005 in his home state. He has at least 18 criminal cases against him ranging from murder attempts to defiling places of worship to rioting and criminal intimidation. His hate speeches and anti-Muslim statements are too well known.
Next is Pragya Singh Thakur. Better known as Sadhvi Pragya, Thakur is an accused in the 2008 Maligaon blasts and was arrested and jailed under the MCOCA and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. While on bail she joined the BJP and was declared the Bhopal candidate. Soon after she indignantly asserted that the former Mumbai ATS chief, Hemant Karkare was killed because she cursed him as she was tortured in jail as per his directions. Adding to her communal and obnoxious remarks, she also proudly declared her active participation in the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in 1992. The Chief Election Commission banned her for 72 hours from campaigning for violating the Model Code of Conduct.
Amit Shah is last in this short list. The BJP President, accused in the extra-judicial killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi is another polarising figure. As Home Minister in Gujarat he played a vital role in getting an anti-conversion bill passed. His current political speeches include vowing to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country to ensure removing of all infiltrators except Hindus and Buddhists, if Modi returns to power. In communally fragile Assam he vowed the return of CAB.
It is unfortunate that Time magazine has to negatively label the Prime Minister of this religiously diverse country, the land of the Buddha, Mahavira and Guru Nanak, Mahatma and the freedom fighters of all religions. The citizens of this multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-linguistic, multi-racial society who have evolved for over 75,000 years of civilization, are certainly not proud of the dubious distinction.