JOHN DAYAL
4 OCTOBER 2014
Prime Minister for the
next five years. We respect the verdict of the people. As law-abiding citizens,
we are honour-bound to contribute all tht we can to the growth of India, and
the values of secularism and socialism, the interests of the common man,
specially the marginalised.
But just a few days
ago, 27th September 2014, the Christian Community with Civil Society and Muslim
groups, organised a Public Meeting at
Jantar Mantar, near Parliament House, to protest the sharp spike in the hate
campaign and violence against Christians and Muslims in several states, a
hateful description of religious minorities that was heard even in the Lok
Sabha in the speech of BJP member and Hindu religious head Adityanath, MP. This
was for the first time a speech full of such venom had been heard in the
history of the Lok Sabha.
At the Public meeting,
they released the Report on Minorities, which documents much of what has
happened in the last three months, and the response of those in Civil Society
who cherish the values of the Freedom Struggle, led by Mahatma Gandhi and
Jawaharlal Nehru. This is called The Idea of India.
I will not narrate
ever incident of violence, or every hate speech, every burning of a church and
the beating up of a pastor. They are a matter of record, now.
India’s worst violence
against Christians was in 2008, mostly against Dalits and Tribals, in the Kandhamal district
of Orissa and in several other districts including the state capital of
Bhubaneswar from 23rd August 2008 following the killing of Vishwa Hindu
Parishad leader Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, reportedly by Maoist groups who
have been operating in the state for some time. The violence later spread to
some other states, specially Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka as also some other
states.
More than 56,000 men,
women and children were displaced in the violence that continued for several
weeks. They first survived in the forests, and then in government refugee camps
for almost one year. More than 5,600 houses and over 300 churches and Christian
institutions were totally destroyed in Kandhamal alone. We have a list of more
than 100 persons who were killed, though the government admits to fewer dead.
There were several rapes, including the gang-rape of a Catholic Nun. Several
Catholic priests and protestant pastors were injured and one Catholic Priest,
Fr Bernard, then treasurer of the diocese, died later of injuries he suffered.
We have been extremely
unhappy and dissatisfied with both the relief and the rehabilitation process of
the government and the pace and quality of the criminal justice dispensation
system, including the police investigations. The Christian Community has filed
Public Interest Litigations in the Supreme Court demanding better relief and rehabilitation,
and retrial of murder cases.
Structural violence is
another cause of deep worry.
Dalit Christians, who
have their origin in the former untouchable castes, have been denied the rights
given to Hindu and Sikh and Buddhist converts. All governments have been deaf,
ad the Supreme court has been listening to the case for ten years.
The second one is the
issue of the so called Freedom of Religion laws, or anti-conversion laws, that
exist in the States of Arunachal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat
and Himachal Pradesh. They have been internationally condemned as violating the
human rights and freedom of faith of these people. It is feared these may
become a national law.
Islamic violence in
Syria and the near-elimination of Christians in Mosul by the Islamic State of
Syria and the Levant, ISIS, has been in focus internationally.
But away from the view
of the International media, South Asia’s increasing bigotry and religious
intolerance has reached an unacceptable stage. Official impunity, extreme
legislations and the complicity of state and non-state actors compound the
issue.
Christians as minority
religionists are the subject of persecution in each one of the seven South
Asian countries -- India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
[Maldives, the seventh, has almost no minorities in an entirely Islamic state]
– but followers of every other major world religion are persecuted in one or
the other of the sub-continent’s seven country.
Muslims and Christians
are victims in India, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists in Bangladesh and
Pakistan, which are Muslim-majority nations, and Christians and Muslims in the
Buddhist countries of Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal.
It complicates issues
as the countries differ in their political structures and overlays of ethnic
identities. Ironically, India’s anti conversion laws designed against the
Christian church, and Pakistan’s anti Blasphemy laws, are sought to be
replicated in the other countries to contain evangelisation, and assert the
supremacy of the majority religion.
This complicates
sharing of good practices – such as the proposed Communal and targetted
violence prevention Bill which the National Advisory Council headed by Mrs.
Sonia Gandhi evolved in 2011 in the face if sharpening religious divides in
India in the wake of the 2002 anti Muslim violence of Gujarat and the 2008
pogrom against Christians in the Kandhamal district of Orissa state. I know
this because I played s small part in the making of that Bill which was junked,
and which the BJP government will never enact.
Recent dialogues
between representatives of all religious groups from the south Asian countries
have cautioned against a rise in extremism that could threaten peace in the
region where India and Pakistan have huge nuclear arsenals.
While majoritarianism
is a common factor, and the recent rise in Wahabi Islam in Pakistan and
Bangladesh a major trigger, smaller nations such as Bhutan and Nepal are
falling prey to extreme protectionism to keep “alien” faiths, and immigrants,
from polluting “traditional culture”.
In politically chaotic
Nepal this is done without legal provisions, as the country is no longer
officially a Hindu nation. A draft bill banning conversions remains on the
anvil. A cause of concern is the tentacles the extreme Hinduism ideology of
India’s Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh is spreading in the Himalayan nation. The
Catholic Church is perhaps sometimes tolerated because of its educational
institutions, but a Damocles sword always hangs over about 25,000 Christian
believers in house churches and Pentecostal Para churches. For all practical
purposes, it remains almost an underground church.
It is even more
underground in Bhutan with its archaic nationalism and culture policy designed
to preserve the purity of its Buddhist tradition and ethnicity. Even Buddhist
Nepalese feel the sting of being aliens. There are a mere 14,000 Christians in
a Bhutanese population of 700,000. But the country’s first-ever democratic
government is yet to clear a proposal to grant Christians the right to build
churches and form organizations, although it has not been tardy in enacting a
law against conversions. This means that officially the state does not
acknowledge the presence of Christians in the country, although it has punished
a few Christians in recent times.
In Sri Lanka after the
end of the civil war with The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the victorious
Sinhala-Buddhist government has started putting pressure on the Muslims, and
the Christians. About 70 per cent of the population of Sri Lanka is Buddhist
Sinhalese, 15 per cent Hindu Tamils, 8 per cent Christian, and 7 per cent Tamil
speaking Muslim. Almost 80 per cent of the Christians are Roman Catholics, many
of them Sinhala. The regime is particularly suspicious of Protestant groups, 40
per cent of who suffer from the double disability of being Tamils. Churches and
individual Christians, who comprise approximately 7 per cent of the population,
have been physically assaulted War crimes apart, the current triumphal Buddhist
onslaught against Muslims, and the sustained pressure on Christians has caused
deep concern in the international human rights community.
The plight of
Christians in Pakistan – women raped, houses burnt and men arrested and threatened
with execution on charges under the notorious anti blasphemy laws - is well
known and has attracted international opprobrium and clemency campaigns.
But it is the wave of
violence against Hindus and Christians in Bangladesh that is the immediate cause
of deep concern, especially in India, which is the recipient of people fleeing
for their lives from the febrile nation. India itself has a nuanced policy on
people from coming from Bangladesh; the Hindus are absorbed and often given
nationality as refugees, but the Muslims are deemed to be illegal infiltrators
and are forever under the shadow of expulsion. The situation of Christians
remains on a limbo. This year, Islamic fundamentalists protesting a trial of
the war criminals of the 1971 struggle for Independence from Pakistan vent
their anger specially on Hindus in an orgy of violence that has left thousand
homeless. The Dhaka government is taking some timid steps to control the
Islamists, but the minorities remain terrorized.
India, the big brother
in the sub continent named after it, is in no moral position to point a finger
at its neighbours. Official records show that in 2012, there reportedly were
560 communal riots, big and small, leading 89 dead and 1,846 injured. A
majority of the victims were Muslims. There are no official records for the
persecution of Christian pastors and believers.
In just three months
after May this year, over 600 incidents of targetted violence violence against
religious minorities have taken place from May to September 2014 in several
parts of the country, specially which have seen, or will soon see, by-elections
or elections to the Legislative Assemblies. In the first few weeks of the new
government, by its own admission 113 communal incidents took place in various
parts of the country during May-June in which 15 people were killed and 318
others were injured, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr. Kiren Rijiju told
the Rajya Sabha.
We have recorded 36
recorded incidents against the tiny Christian community in various parts of the
country. The Christian community, its pastors, congregations and churches, were
targets of mob violence and State impunity in dozens of cases in Uttar Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, particularly, as the Sangh Parivar declared a
campaign of “Ghar Wapsi” and Shuddhikaran or conversions to Hinduism, and a war
on all evangelical activity. Target dates, one of them coinciding with
Christmas 2014, have been set to “cleanse” various areas of Muslim and
Christian presence.
The state apparatus
and specially the police often became a party arresting not the aggressors but
the victims to satisfy the demands of the mob. There have attempts at religious
profiling of Christian academic institutions and their students in the national
capital, New Delhi.
The hate campaign, the
violence, the open threats have stunned not just the religious minorities, but
civil society, jurists and academics. Many of them articulated their concern
not just at the violence but at the silence of the Government, State
organisations charged with addressing issues of communal harmony and national
integration, and the leadership of the BJP and Mr. Modi.
The well known
Dalit-OBC political scientist recently wrote :“The highest in the government
and the Sangh Parivar are in unison in sending across the message that Islam is
un-Indian and Muslims by and large anti-national. We must take these signs
seriously because the implications of linking up religion and nationalism are
bound to be disastrous.”
The internationally respected
Economic and Political Weekly recently noted “If communal polarisation of the
electorate to build a Hindutva vote bank was a constant presence in the general
election campaign, it has only seen a sharpening in the, supposedly important,
“first 100 days” of the BJP-led government in office. An important way in which
this has been done is the strategy of the Sangh Parivar to calibrate communal
violence and hate campaigns in a way so as to keep it “under the radar”. One of
the ways of accomplishing this is to shift the locus of violence and
mobilisations from the urban centres to small towns and rural areas; another
course is to keep the “dead-count” low and use variants of everyday, “routine”
violence to spread tensions and create panic.
Eminent jurist Mr.
Fali Nariman, a former Member of the Rajya Sabha and a Member of the National
Integration Council traditionally chaired by the Prime Minister of India,
expressed concern at the government’s “silence” on the hate speeches witnessed
in parts of India and rued that Hinduism was “changing its benign face”.
Recurrent instances of religious tension fanned by fanaticism and hate-speech
has shown that the Hindu tradition of tolerance is showing signs of strain. And
let me say this frankly – my apprehension is that Hinduism is somehow changing
its benign face because, and only because it is believed and proudly proclaimed
by a few (and not contradicted by those at the top): that it is because of
their faith and belief that HINDUS have been now put in the driving seat of
governance. Nariman praised Jawaharlal Nehru, saying he “never looked upon the
diverse and varied peoples of India from the standpoint of Hinduism”. While
dealing with minority rights, Indian courts had once conceptualised their role
as that of an Opposition political party — until the BJP in the early 1990s
characterized Congress policy as “appeasement of the minorities”. The label
stuck; “minority” became an unpopular word, he said. “We have been hearing on
television and reading in newspapers almost daily a tirade by one or more
individuals or groups against one or another section of citizens (from) a
religious minority. The criticism has been that the majority government at the
Centre has done nothing to stop this tirade. I agree,” he said delivering the
annual lecture organised by the National Commission for Minorities at the
Constitution Club. It was titled “Minorities at crossroads: comments on
judicial pronouncements”.
Human rights activist
and former Administrator, Mr. Harsh Mander notes that the patterns are
familiar. A multitude of ever-growing Hindu nationalist organisations – some
mainstream, some fringe – deploy and refashion small local disputes to spur
rage and suspicion against the Muslim people, each time reviving and fuelling old
stereotypes. The manufactured flashpoints are also familiar: disputes over land
for shrines and graveyards, an offending loudspeaker in a place of worship,
charges of young Muslim men sexually harassing hapless Hindu women in a
sinister campaign of ‘love jihad’, sometimes with the added twist of forced
conversions, or cow slaughter, and conversion by Christians and Muslims.
According to me as an
observer of the Sangh Parivar for close to 45 years, the BJP is unabashed about
its links with the Sangh Parivar. Mr. Modi is himself a former RSS leader, as
are several of his Cabinet colleagues. Some ranking RSS officials have in
recent weeks been inducted as general secretaries of the BJP, leaving
absolutely no one in any doubt of the seamless fusion of the political party
and the Sangh which styles itself as a social and cultural organisations.
Mr. Seshadri Chari,
former editor of RSS mouthpiece Organiser and member of the BJP national
executive, who enjoys a deserved reputation as a sober and reflective commentator,
is quoted in the Outlook Magazine saying says that Hindus have always been a
majority in India but the manifestation of majoritarianism has been reflected
in the cultural and social field. “Now it is reflected in the politics of the
country. A large number of foot-soldiers in the RSS-BJP do believe that the
political Hindu has arrived.”
THE HATE CAMPAIGN: RSS
chief Mr. Mohan Bhagwat has asserted that everyone in India is Hindu, including
Muslims and Christians, because this is the land of the Hindu people and
civilisation. This refrain was picked up by the Deputy Chief Minister of Goa,
and by big and small leaders across the country, going viral on social media
and the national TV News channels in their English and Hindi debates. The Sangh
ideologue MG Vaidya said on 19th May, three days after the election results,
that they can now tackle issues such as the building of the Ram temple on the
site of the Babri mosque they demolished in 1992 Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader
Mr. Ashok Singhal, said “if [Muslims] keep opposing Hindus, how long can they
survive?”. Another leader said “Modi will restore Hindutva rule, like
Prithviraj Chauhan (25th May 2014). The focus is now on Love Jihad.
RECENT ATTACKS ON THE
CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY: Christians constitute 2.3 per cent of the national
population, according to the 2011 census. They have been a focal target of the
Sangh Parivar for a long time. Recent weeks
have again seen a rash of well-planned and organized attacks on Churches,
Christian schools and institutes. of religious symbols, burning of Bibles and
Crosses to dishonour the religion have been intentionally carried out through
the country. In August 2014, 72 Valmikis (a section of the Dalit or former
Untouchable community) who had in the past converted to Christianity underwent
a so-called “re-conversion” to Hinduism in Aligarh in the state of Uttar
Pradesh, under the auspices of the ‘Dharam Jagran Vivad” (Religious Awakening
Forum). This was a “Ghar Wapsi” (literally, a “return home”) ceremony through which
the Sangh Parivar intervenes to claim non-Hindu members of the Dalit and
Adivasi communities as Hindus.
The Constitution of
India guarantees freedom of religion, allowing for the free exercise of
individual choice over matters of faith. However, “Freedom of Religion” laws
enacted in several states presume that individuals are incapable of making
their own informed decisions regarding matters of faith, and can only be
manipulated or coerced into conversion.
The language of the
Gujarat anti-conversion law enacted in 2003 is telling in this respect.
Conversion is viewed as an attempt “to make one person to renounce one religion
and adopt another religion.” These laws empower district administrations to
oversee and regulate religious conversions, in order to prevent what are
referred to as conversions by “fraud” or “force.” Effectively, these laws
target Christian and Muslim communities and provide opportunities for both
local officials and Hindu supremacist organizations to harass and intimidate
them.
The anti-conversion
laws, passed by a number of states, do not apply to such ‘Ghar Vapsi’
ceremonies. The Sangh Parivar has a singular focus on curbing any conversions
out of Hinduism, particularly by Dalits and Adivasis. In April 2013 BJP leader
Venkaiah Naidu, now a Cabinet minister, had publicly announced his party’s
intention to “bring an anti- conversion law to ban religious conversions in the
country if it is voted to power in 2014 General Elections.” Highlighting the
primary motivation underlying his party’s anxiety over conversions, he went on
to add: “...The country will be safe and sound only when Hindus are in a
majority.”
Inspired by the
party’s rise to power, several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have
launched so-called “re-conversion” drives targeting Christian communities. RSS
Hindu activist, Rajeshwar Singh recently declared while converting a Christian
family to Hinduism in Hasayan (140 km south of Delhi in the state of Uttar
Pradesh), “We will cleanse our Hindu society. We will not let the conspiracy of
church or mosque succeed in Bharat (India).” Rumors continue to circulate
suggesting Christians were forcibly converted and the church has also been
refashioned into a Shiva temple. These conversion efforts are directed
primarily at Adivasis and Dalits, informed by a caste politics that drives
Hindutva anxieties over conversion.
The basic claim that
all Christians, like Muslims, are converts, empowers Hindutva groups to deny
the religious legitimacy of Adivasi and Dalit Christians. Moreover the claim
that conversion to Hinduism is merely “re-conversion” rests on the fallacious
notion that all Adivasis are “Hindu” by default, denying the legitimacy of
their own distinct and autonomous religious traditions. In BJP-ruled states
like Chhattisgarh, draconian laws specifically target Christians, as in the
recent case of the Bilaspur High Court banning “all non-Hindu religious
propaganda, prayers and speeches in the villages” in Bastar district. The
message is clearly that the only religious identity permissible is Hinduism.
The administration has
remained silent on the growing atmosphere of repression threatening Christians
in India. Just as an example of the wanton violence, on May 18, 2014 in
Kundapur, Karnataka, the properties of two churches were damaged by
unidentified miscreants. An ornamental pot at the entrance of the Holy Rosary
church was broken and a signpost leading to St. Antony Church in Koteshwar also
was uprooted. On June 24, 2014 in Bhilai, Durg, suspected Hindu extremists demolished
an independent church. According to local sources, the church was completely
destroyed. Another incident is that of courage at one of the Free Methodist
Churches at Belar, 30 kms east of Jagadalpur, Chhattisgarh which was under
attack. A frenzied mob of the Bajrang Dal stormed towards the church premises
on June 3, 2014 with the intention of demolishing the building. But the
villagers took their ground and frustrated the evil plan.
A church was burnt in
Jobal, in Madhya Pradesh. Such attacks are pre planned and pre-meditated to
cause maximum damage to property, resources, vehicles, and cause damages that
are very hard to rebuild. Social Exclusion: 52 families were denied ration for
two months in the Sirisguda Village which was an order enforced by the
panchayat head. They approached the food inspector of the district and asked
for an enquiry to be conducted. On Monday, June 16, 2014, when the two
representatives were sent to appease the village leaders and the complainants,
both of them were chased away from the village. Then some assailants filed a
false complaint at the Badanji Police Station, Lakandi Taluk - District Bastar
about the Christians beating the Hindus in the village. This was simultaneously
followed up by a mob of 200 perpetrators who attacked 52 Christian families.
Most families were stoned and chased away with sticks, while 8 men and 2 women
were seriously injured and hospitalized.
This incident preceded
the banning of non-Hindu missionaries in Bastar, Social exclusions are one of
the primary tactics to victimize minorities denying basic human rights that are
common to every citizen. These exclusion orders, often make Christians
vulnerable to excessive violence and denial of social privileges like access to
water, electricity and work. On July 28, 2014 a mob of over 300 persons from
the Yadav community led by Swami Krishnadavananda threatened the Pastor and 30
families who were believers in the Church at Gallaragati, Holalkara in the
Chitradurga District to convert to Hinduism. They along with the local
Panchayat issued a one week deadline to decide on the same, which otherwise,
would lead to the families being ostracized from the local village. Such
exclusions force families into submission or are attacked for making a choice
of being Christian.
Assaults on Church
Leaders and Believers: Assaults on Church leaders and believers have augmented
bizarrely. Profiling of Christians in villages and attacking them has been the
most effective way of spreading terror among the minorities. A Christian along
with his wife, mother-in-law and mother were beaten by Hindu fanatics at
Parapur Village in Bastar, Chhattisgarh on July 26, 2014. The incident occurred
when five Hindu fanatics took Shri Raguram (name changed) outside his house and
started verbally abusing him. They alleged he had left their Gods and became a
Christian to which he replied saying that he had become a Christian because he
wanted to and no one had forced him to do so. On hearing this, they started
slapping and kicking him. When they began to strangle him with the intention of
killing, his mother and mother-in-law interfered and stopped the men from
trying to kill him. They slapped and beat the elderly women and his wife. He
was bleeding profusely and was later admitted to the Jagdalpur hospital.
Raguram's wife went to the Lohandiguda Police Station to file a complaint, but
the police refused to do so.
Most of these
incidents are not reported to the police due to fear and intimidation fromthe
local thugs that operate for the RSS, VHP and the Bajrang Dal. Such attacks are
unconstitutional and against the fundamental right to freedom on religion.
Police Inaction:
However, the violence in itself fails to reveal the full picture. The impunity
enjoyed by the violent mobs is a bigger cause for concern. Many victims of
violence complain about the lack of police action, including hostility towards
Christians. Police resist filing criminal complaints and have on several
instances allegedly threatened to falsely incriminate the victims in some
cases. On September 6, 2014, for instance, twelve pastors were beaten at a
Police station in Greater Noida on the pretext of a mob of about 150 Hindu
fundamentalists that had gathered outside and demanded such action. The police
obliged and thrashed the pastors. No reports were filed. It was baffling to
know that the police had thrashed the pastors. Such police atrocities have led
to increase of impunity among perpetrators.
THE RISE OF THE
RASHTRIYA SWAYAMSEWAK SANGH: The 89 year old Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is
witnessing steady growth. Experts have noted that with more shakhas, online
recruits, and mainstreaming of their agenda, the Sangh - ideological parent of
the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - is on the upswing. In July 2012, the
Sangh had 34,761 shakhas; this number swelled to 37,125 shakhas the following
year; and this year - by July 2014 - RSS was holding 39,396 daily shakhas.
There has also been a
spurt in the number of volunteers registering on the Join RSS link on its
website. If there were around 1000 such people every month in 2012, 2500
possible volunteers in 2013, this number has swelled to an average of around
7000 online recruits this year.
There was a time in
the last decade when the number of shakhas were over 43,000. Sangh officials
have said there had been a spike in numbers when they celebrated Guru
Golwalkar's Birth centenary in 2006-07.
The 2014 campaign
during the extended 2014 General Elections saw the Sangh in full flow. Sangh
was out there in full force backing the BJP. They visited homes, and this
increased their interface with society. It has received greater, and
appreciative media visibility.
On Dussehara day this
year, Mr. Bhagwat’s speech at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, Maharashtra, was
televised live by the Doordarshan Television
network, owned by the government of India, and reaching out to every nook and
corner of the country. Private television channels in the past few months have
done dedicated shows on the RSS head, Mr. Mohan Bhagwat's birthday, on the life
of founder Dr. Keshav Hedgewar, and discussions on Sangh's work. There has also
been more discussion on Hindutva related issues - be it the desirability of a
Hindu Rashtra, the place of Muslims in India, whether there is anything called
'Hindu terror', or 'love jehad'.
The Sangh has also
reached out directly to students in colleges and universities and in fact there
is currently a three day camp of Sangh affiliated students in Delhi underway in
Sonepat, attended by Bhagwat himself. They also organise social functions for
busy professionals in cities like Bangalore who cannot attend morning shakhas
daily.
THE RSS AND THE
NORTH-EAST: The North-Eastern States have been on the agenda of the RSS for a
very long time, from the 1960s certainly in the hysteria following the war with
China. It has been the argument of the Sangh that the presence of Christianity
in Nagaland, Meghalaya and Manipur poses a threat to the unity and integrity of
the political nation-state of India. Slogans such as “Nagaland for Christ” are
picked up as illustrations of what the Sangh calls the traitorous and
anti-national sentiments that Christianity has introduced in the people of the
North-Eastern states.
Both the BJP and the
RSS have been devising strategies to make an entry into this area, with their
older presence in the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, and among the
large Hindu Meitei population in the state of Manipur. “Our presence in the
north-east is not new. The Sangh has been active in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam
and Manipur for a long time. We have had MLAs in Manipur who came from the
Parivar. The BJP’s first State presence was in Meghalaya in the north-east. The
presence of the Sangh is limited in Tripura and Mizoram is the only State,
where the Sangh has no foothold. Expanding our work in these areas is part of
the Sangh’s overall strengthening plan. It is not linked to the BJP’s victory,”
a Sangh functionary has said.
Instilling a
“nationalist pride” in the Northeast is now on top agenda for the Rashtriya
Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), according to its chief, Mr. Bhagwat, who says the
Education wing of the RSS, which runs two schools in Nagaland, will carry
forward the work in Northeast. He recently inaugurated a school and disclosed,
“Five years ago, we started a Vidyabharti school in Nagaland. Today, the
children are speaking in Hindi and we are glad that we have been able to spread
the spirit of nationalism there. Tomorrow, they will be fearless and defend
every inch of this country. Our vision is not restricted to just these areas.
This is our country and we have to be concerned about what is happening here.
The Vidyabharti claims “The tribal society is an integral part of the Hindu
civilisation. The tribals are devotees of Hindu Gods and they are equal to any
other Hindu. They are very straightforward and simple and many people are
taking advantage of their lack of knowledge. Vidyabharti is educating tribals
to make sure they are aware of what is happening around them. It is unfortunate
that people see Vidyabharti as a violent organization. It is untrue. The aim is
to educate through the tenets of Hindu way of life.”
In the recent general
elections, RSS prepared the ground for the BJP's spectacular performance. The
BJP clinched half of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam and opened its account in
Arunachal winning one constituency. As much as 36.6% of voters chose the party
in Assam, transforming it from being an outfit of Hindi speaking people to a
mass-based party. RSS cadres have worked silently leading to a huge
undercurrent among the voters. Around 1,000 RSS volunteers have been working to
turn the tide in favour of the BJP. They took to community contact programmes
in Assam and Arunachal. They also mobilised students in colleges and
universities. While the work by the ideological parent helped the BJP build an
organisational base, Narendra Modi's outburst against illegal immigration from
Bangladesh boosted its popularity among the locals. The BJP also brought
community leaders to its fold, making the party acceptable among tea tribes and
others. BJP's national security cell convener P Chandrasekhar Rao said Modi's
statement that after May 16 illegal immigrants will have to leave India has
created a sense of security among the Assamese people.
A LOOK INTO THE
FUTURE: Not since Mrs. Indira Gandhi lost office and Mr. Morarji Desai assumed
power at the head of the Janata Party has there been such a drastic change,
even a reversal, of ideologies, policies, and a vision for the future. The
factors that led to the defeat of Mrs. Gandhi in 1977 are now well known. She
halted democracy in its tracks and gifted the country’s governance to her son
Mr. Sanjay Gandhi, who emerged as the undisputed extra-constitutional center of
power and authority. For all practical purposes, the Constitution was
suspended, and an unofficial dictatorship came into being. I mention the
Emergency [1975-1977] for two reasons. The first reason for the total recall is
that the Emergency shattered the belief that the foundations of Indian democracy
are so strong and rooted in the Freedom Struggle that they cannot be shaken
even momentarily. The second is that a “popular” and “strong” leader with a
mass following and little opposition — and perhaps assisted by
extra-constitutional power centers — can if she or he wants to, do ` Mr.
Morarji Desai, who became prime minister after Mrs. Gandhi’s defeat, had to
make a clean break from the past. He was unequal to the task, but the Jan Sangh
was a part of the government and made full use of the opportunity, penetrating
the media and various wings of the government. This was of great help to the
Bharatiya Janata Party, the new version of the Jan Sangh, when it came to power
in 1998. Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, does not face the issues that
confronted Mr. Desai. Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Congress-led United Progressive
Alliance prime minister, did not alter the democratic fabric. Mr. Modi’s
speeches in Parliament and his intervention in the administrative structures
give ample evidence that he sees himself as the sole repository of political
and governance power, so endowed by the massive mandate he earned for himself
in the 2014 general elections.
Many analysts have
said that Mr. Modi rides two horses. One is the development and good governance
agenda, which he has repeatedly articulated as his mantra in Gujarat and in New
Delhi since he became prime minister. The other remains Hindutva, the
right-wing, hyper-nationalist argument of supremacy that posits Hindus as the
sole inheritors of the Indian civilization and culture.
If the development
agenda fails, Mr. Modi will have to ride full gallop on the Hindutva horse, if
he wants to win the next elections in 2019. That is the risk It will not be
easy for a development agenda to succeed miraculously in the circumstances that
the Indian economy finds itself in this globalized world?” is then the big
question.
Economic and emotional
depression brought on by crop failures due to the lack of rain in the forecast,
along with attempts to generate mass employment through highway and bullet
train construction that are bound to fail, do not bode well for the development
agenda. Moreover, there will be 100 million young men and women looking for
jobs, apart from those in the un-cleared backlog.
Cashing in the
demographic dividend will not, therefore, be an easy task with the main markets
in Europe and North America still not out of the doldrums, and little spare
capital from abroad for the much wanted foreign direct investment (FDI) that is
such a pet of Union finance minister. And this is not even hinting at the fact
that much of this FDI is really Indian black money generated by the Indian
corporate world.
The economy’s refusal
to resurrect itself in a rapid manner and the failure to create jobs on a
massive scale are dangerous portends. They may collectively pose a threat to
the self-confidence of the government and frustrate Mr. Modi in his
self-appointed role as the man who would deliver India from all its Ills and
past failures.
Mr. Modi just cannot
afford a failure. For if he does, he will have to adopt a Hindutva agenda full
force, appealing to the Hindu masses and mobilizing the RSS and its cadres to
polarize the people. That can mean big trouble for Christians and Muslims in
India.
I would like to pray
that this never happens. But We must be prepared for the worst case scenario
even as we work for economic development of the people of India.
No comments:
Post a Comment