While the Supreme Court has pronounced its verdict on the hate speech issue, till the courts note and actively proceed to ensure that those who make hate speech outside the bounds of free speech are dealt with, the country’s fabric will be severely scarred.
Our government’s obsession with the past is contagious. It helps it craftily manipulate the present as it continues to sell dreams for the future. Its obsession with the past is weaved into the BJP’s electoral strategy to ultimately attract a sizeable Hindu vote bank to push it first past the post in every electoral battle. History will never be able to efface the contributions of past Congress leaders who sacrificed their individual freedom to give birth to our republic. The BJP exploits its stranglehold over the media to vilify Congress in handling the past, yet attempts to appropriate the legacy of Sardar Patel even though he was responsible for imposing a ban on the RSS. Having allegedly collaborated with the British during the Quit India movement, the RSS knows it played no role in the freedom struggle. So, it seeks to diminish the Congress party’s contributions in laying the foundations of a modern resilient India.
While the BJP embraces Gandhi, it chooses to remain silent when Godse is eulogised for killing the Mahatma. It has also succeeded, to an extent, in distorting history by blaming Nehru for the problems we are faced with in Kashmir today. It exploits the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits for political gain but fails to take steps, as promised, to rehabilitate them. With The Kashmir Files being screened at the recent International Film Festival of India, raising the communal pitch through cinema is now part of its political strategy.
To achieve optimal results in future electoral battles, this regime seeks to breed a culture of hatred by reminding the majority to get rid of the slave mentality suffered during Mughal rule, as if it has relevance in today’s India. Undeniable facts relating to the history of India are projected to be a burden, an albatross around our necks. We are told that we must forget and bury that past along with the memory of those associated with it. But what is alarming is the BJP’s strategy of having the minority community today pay for the suffering of the majority community’s past indignities. This is where the past is integrated with BJP’s present political strategy. The present is sought to be manipulated by demonising the past. This helps widen the communal divide and thereby seeks to garner the Hindu mind space.
Muslim minorities must, in this context, pay the price for having ruled the country for hundreds of years. The constant attack on mosques being places of worship built by demolishing Hindu temples seeks to salvage the indignities of the past and in the process, manipulate the present.
The marauders of the past are sought to be associated with the terrorists of today as they belong to the same religion and thus must not be trusted till they voluntarily accept the worldview of the RSS. In this context, all those then living on the banks of the river Sindhu, without reference to their religion, are Hindus. That is why our citizens, under threat, by the protagonists of the Hindu faith, are forced to say Jai Shri Ram, even though they are of another faith. This is symptomatic of how deep this virus has spread, with no attempt to stem its tide because it feeds into the agenda of the ruling political class.
Calls for commercial boycott of the community, bulldozing their homes in the event they choose to retaliate and the constant confrontation on the occasion of religious events are quite disturbing. Branding personal choices resulting in inter-faith marriages as acts of “love jihad” and holding public protests in this regard has become an acceptable mode of questioning such marriages. In fact, existing pieces of legislation have become impediments to such choices. Instead of integrating lives, the state has chosen to legislate on the subject allowing for the law to give its stamp of disapproval to such voluntary choices. This, in fact, tears asunder the faith and confidence the state should have in young people who chose each other as life partners. This has further vitiated the environment in which we live.
The vitriol spewed in events referred to as dharm sansads in BJP-ruled states, coupled with the nonchalance shown by the state in prosecuting those responsible for such utterances, suggests that the state executive machinery’s silence suits the ruling class politically.
The process of demonising the Christians has also started by suggesting that the conversions that are taking place are based on the allurement given to certain classes of Hindus at the instance of the Church. Of late, the Supreme Court, despite the law minister’s recent comments on public interest litigations, has through one such initiative by a known BJP sympathiser, mandated the state to look into the issue of forced conversions. Yet another community’s activities will be under the state and the court’s scanner. Another master stroke at gaining emotive salience with the majority community.
The recent speech of the Prime Minister at the Veer Bal Divas commemorating the martyrdom of the sons of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh guru, has sought to create a schism within the Sikh community itself. Building the Ram Janmabhoomi temple before 2024 and the commencing the movement against the mosque in Mathura — believed to be the birthplace of Lord Krishna — are attempts at exploiting the past for political currency today.
The public discourse in our country is least concerned with outcomes that matter to the people of India.
We are not recognised as producers of wealth but essentially a consumer-driven economy with a large section of our population steeped in agriculture and a vast majority of our people living on the margins. Our manufacturing sector has not shown any signs of incremental growth. Our service industry, which contributes over 50 per cent to our GDP, is running on the backbone of the educated few. Despite rampant unemployment, high inflation and real GDP growth likely to be around 4 per cent, Modi’s electoral juggernaut is still intact.
With his electoral strategy paying political dividends thus far, Modi will be emboldened to continue selling dreams to woo the electorate in 2024. When they will fall apart is anybody’s guess.
The writer is a senior advocate and former Union minister
