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Journalism of Courage
Will Campaign 2014 be about re-heated words and labels that have long lost their edge or meaning?
In drawing a parallel between his feelings about the loss of life in the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat and the regret felt by someone in a car that runs over a puppy,Narendra Modi may have,at the very least,cast himself as an observer someone who was saddened about the killings in the state,but felt no greater responsibility. The unfortunate analogy and Modis self-description as a Hindu nationalist have been seized upon by the Congress,JDU and other parties. Modi provided them yet more ammunition in a Pune speech,subsequently,where he accused the Congress of wearing a burqa of secularism. These remarks are heavy with past baggage. Modi has earlier deployed a similar vocabulary,in references to Pakistan and to Indias minority community,in an ostensible bid to rouse his Hindutva base. In the run-up to 2014,Modis remarks have also raised a question: For all his supposedly formidable PR powers,could he be losing control over his message: is he a development icon,or a Hindutva mascot? Or,is this confusion carefully crafted? The Congress,meanwhile,appears to have decided that its sole strategy will be to attack Modi on the secularism question. In another context,Mayawati has asked for a ban on the RSS and VHP. Taken together,these positions portend a return to an older time,and the language of polarisation that had seemingly been left behind in the 1990s.
Now,with Modis ascendance,the calcified positions seem to be back again. This is not a fresh debate,one that speaks to a new generation. It merely reheats worn stereotypes about secularism and communalism. A conversation about each partys commitment to the ideal may even be necessary. But verbal volleys of the kind we are witnessing now will only close off possibilities of debate.
