M L Kotru
In the event all it required was a pin-prick to deflate the exaggerated egos of the saffronites, the Bharatiya Janata Party their ruling arm, as much as the mother of all the saffron parties, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh. The pale-faced storm-troopers, so disdainful, until the previous day, of those who dared to challenge them, lying in a daze, as it were.
Yes, even during the mindless games the money-making TV channels played, finally succumbing to the pressure of a massive defeat, looking so very drained and exhausted. You pitied them, as they groped for words, unable to explain what exactly had hit them. The sure-footed cockiness, that has been their hallmark the whole of these past ten months or so, appeared to have deserted them for once. Their hollering, their impatience, a virtual given with the battery of vocal party spokesmen, for once had betrayed them.
Words to explain away the Aam Aadmi phenomenon that all but wiped out their party in the elections to the Delhi Legislative Assembly were obviously not easy to come by. The arrogance of power, the accompanying swagger and the newly acquired sharpness that marks their tone, their fierce tantrums markedly noticeable in debate ever since that other phenomenon, spearheaded by Narenda Modi, which brought the party to power in the country just nine months ago, would have required them to pooh pooh the Kejriwal tsunami. But dimensions of the defeat in the Capital City State were so stark.
The Bharatiya Janata Party hounds in other parts of the country, and in different garbs, did manage nevertheless to keep the fires of hate burning through their daily quota of belittling anything that others might adore. Like you had one of the defilers coming out on the morning of the crushing defeat with another predictable gem: Veer Savarkar, a Hindu extremist and an accused in the Gandhi (Mahatma) murder trial was, along with Bhagat Singh, the great martyr, the only patriot the country had known and not M. K. Gandhi who obviously was deemed a usurper.
All of it counter-productive, according to the Sikh candidate, contesting on a BJP-Akali ticket, who believes the Sadhvi Minister in the Modi Cabinet cost him his election when she made that ignominous reference to ‘ramzadas’ and ‘haramzadas’ in his constituency while supposedly promoting his candidature. And the day the results were announced Madhya Pradesh had virtually been converted into a RSS backyard with the State Government in attendance at the numerous religious functions fixed for the day.
The Delhi election was like a statutory warning to party leaders, cautioning them against sticking their heads too far over the walls. For the record the Congress party, totally decimated, not a single seat to show and with almost all its candidates losing their deposits, had no place to hide in. Modi did take it on the chin, choosing to call Kejriwal to compliment him on his victory.
But much more will be needed of him. He cannot afford to survive politically – never mind his massive mandate in the 10-month-old general election, if the promises made during the campaign continue to remain just promises.
His image which won the general elections and the State Assembly polls held thereafter for the BJP, has taken a body blow even as he continues to invent new slogans and abhiyans. The Delhi defeat can be read as a vote against campaigns that are in your face and in your hair. Shamelessly bloated and gimmicky publicity budgets, star campaigners para-dropped into the campaign arena, and the complacency of the management headed by party president and Modi right-hand man Amit Shah, cannot be your vote catchers forever.
With the BJP reduced to just three seats in Delhi, the sense of unstoppable inevitability that the Modi wave created nationwide has been lost. Modi continues to believe that his extended honeymoon period can be stretched even further as he continues to sell slogans domestically, unfortunately not one of them translated into ground reality, hanging on to his hope that some of his aspirational slogans would sustain him for a while more. The truth is that even some of the programmes which are a direct lift from the discredited UPA – II era remain unimplemented. I must have asked a thousand people in the hinterland about the deposits said to have been made into their bank accounts as required by a Modi diktat, and am still awaiting a positive answer.
On the other hand you have Modi’s saffronites giving every sane Indian unrelenting nightmare with their ugly slogans, desecration of churches, conversions of Christian and Muslims, particularly those living in predominantly Hindu communities. Some of the incidents are very worrisome including, of course, the highly objectionable ones mouthed by the likes of Pravin Togadia, spokesemen of the Hindu Vishwa Parishad and the allied bhagwa outfits. Earlier this week we had the RSS supremo, Mr. Mohan Bhagwat having yet another go with his Hindu Rashtra verbiage including a reassertion of the RSS article of faith that all Indians are Hindus.
We do not need a Barack Obama to remind us of our commitment to religious freedom but we are well within our rights to demand that the Prime Minister of India, who until recently was a major pracharak of the creed, rise up to the challenge thrown by Saffronite goons. As someone whose concern it should be to uphold our Constitution and the spirit that informs its preamble, as well as specific provisions defending people’s basic rights Modi can’t plead his inability to act.
The Prime Minister will have to decide whether he will continue to be a prisoner of his loyalty to the RSS’s acutely divisive creed. He must break his silence on these issues including, the freedom to practice and propagate one’s religion.
I was happy to note that the tallest of Kashmiri leaders and the founder of the People’s Democratic Party, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, with whom the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir is set form a coalition government in the State, has urged Mr. Modi to rein in some of the disruptive forces within the country. This, in his congratulatory message to Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP on its success in the Delhi elections while asserting the diversity of our country and the need to respect it.
“While it was heartening to see people of Delhi closing their ranks to give democracy a push, the BJP would do well to rein in the elements that have started feeling free to indulge in divisive language and action. If there ever was a need for course correction for BJP, the voters in Delhi have brought it home loud and clear,” the Mufti said.
The Kashmir leader urged the Prime Minister to take the lead in disciplining elements who had started conveying a different idea of India so that the country forges ahead retaining its ethos of tolerance, diversity and communal harmony. And coming from a senior politician and with whom the BJP is set to join hands in Kashmir, one expects the Prime Minister to heed well-meant advise offered by Mufti by giving a positive response to the call for restraint.
Mufti Sayeed is only stating the obvious when he urges Modi to call the radicals in the parivar to order. As the most important voice of the country’s only Muslim majority State he is obviously concerned over infuriating, divisive voices raised by some in the sangh parivar including those holding Ministerial positions in Modi’s government.
I know even the moderate Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee had largely failed to break loose of the parivar. The farthest he ever went in defying the RSS was to invoke the needs of raj dharma after the tragic happenings in Gujarat at the turn of the century. But try he did. Ironically that was when Modi was embarking on his first stint as the Chief Minister of the State.
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