NDA in Power 2024: Whither Hindu Nationalism?
By Ram Puniyani for
New Age Islam
14 June
2024
Starting from
Propaganda That Congress Manifesto Was Labelled as Having the Imprint Of Muslim
League, Most Other Slogans And Promises Of Congress Were Turned Into Being
Presented As Appeasement Of Muslims. Muslims Were Called Ghuspathiye
(Infiltrators) And Had More Children. Modi’s Propaganda Reached A New Low When
He Said Congress Will Do Mujra (A Dance Which Emerged During Mughal Rule) For
Them.
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The failure
of BJP to get past 272 has brought back the NDA into the forefront. While
Vajpayee came to power and led the NDA Government in 1998, still there was a
strong imprint of the BJP politics in the Government. Among other things which
were part of Hindutva agenda that time was the appointment of Venkatchaliah
Commission to review the Constitution and Saffronisation of the textbooks and
introduction of courses in astrology and Paurohitya (Rituals) in the curriculum.
Twice, in 2014 and 2019, Modi came to power as NDA but as BJP on its own had
overwhelming majority the other components of the Government were on the
‘silent mode’ and BJP aggressively launched its Hindu nationalist agenda,
building of Ram Temple and abolition of article 370. In addition the fringe
elements killing Muslims on pretext of Cow-beef and love jihad had a free hand,
enjoying impunity from the state.
(Photo: PTI)
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The other
authoritarian streaks of Modi Sarkar, the subordination of Constitutional institutions
were very dominating along with the role of conversion of Media into Godi
media. All this did make the opposition to wake up and come together as INDIA.
Despite this formation coming into being Modi and BJP centred their election
propaganda around anti Muslim rhetoric. Starting from propaganda that Congress
manifesto was labelled as having the imprint of Muslim League, most other
slogans and promises of Congress were turned into being presented as
appeasement of Muslims. Muslims were called Ghuspathiye (infiltrators) and had
more children. Modi’s propaganda reached a new low when he said Congress will
do Mujra (a dance which emerged during Mughal rule) for them. Also it was said
that If Congress comes to power terrorists will be released and invited to have
Biryani, Taliban rule will be established.
The system
has been so tuned that names of many Muslims do not find place in electoral
rolls, at election booths, many Muslims are turned away by the police. Muslims
have been effectively turned into second class citizens and have been made
politically invisible. All this intensifies the prevalent hate against this
hapless community.
With this
background as the BJP failed to reach the propagated 400 par for NDA and more
than 370 for BJP, there was a big sigh of relief in the community. As the
results came and Modi declared himself as the next Prime Minister, he toned
down his language to recall ‘Sarva Dharma
Sambhav’ (Equal respect for all religions). This sounded as the sort of
peak of hypocrisy in the light of what happened to Muslims (and Christians)
during the last ten years.
What is in
store for this community in times to come? A small relief is possible as
probably the impunity enjoyed by the fringe elements may be slightly curtailed.
There is a big if as the fringe elements by now are too much rooted in the
system. Whether allies like Niteesh and Naidu will be able to raise their voice
against this scattered anti Muslim violence is yet to be seen. How effective
they can be against the strong arm tactics of the Modi party, only time will
tell. The hate spread by the Hindu nationalist is so widespread that it may not
be easy to curtail it.
It is
likely that the third pillar of Hindutva politics, Uniform Civil Code, may be
deferred in all probability. The CAA, which discriminates against Muslims is
like a hanging sword and time alone will tell us how much pressure BJP will put
to implement it. Surely after the remarkable Shaheen Bagh movement the communal
party BJP will not insist on it unless they feel through experience that they
can bulldoze their way despite the Naidu and Niteesh, who are more tactical in
these matters. Already BJP has allied with Naidu who had initiated four percent
reservation for Muslims.
The other
major issue of caste census, to which BJP is opposed, may have to be rethought
as it was Niteesh as CM of Bihar, where this was initiated and there is a
strong national sentiment for it. There are no buyers for Modi propaganda that
the INDIA alliance will remove the reservations for SC/ST/OBC and give it to
Muslims.
What can we
expect about the Muslims social, political and economic conditions? The hate
spread against this community by the RSS combine has sunk deep into the social
thinking. By default, anti Muslim thinking has become part of average
perceptions of the society. The consistent work of this RSS combine has gone up
exponentially due to the other associates, the changes in textbooks, the role
of media, and the word of mouth spread of misconceptions.
These
myths, misconceptions are the solid pillars on which Hate is constructed and
due to prevalent hate against Muslims, violence and subsequent polarization are
brought in. While the role of RSS in 2024 elections needs further analysis, it
is RSS machinations which keep pumping up the Hate against Muslims and now from
the last two decades against Christians also. Interestingly the number of RSS
Shakhas during Modi rule has more than doubled up during last ten years. One
suspects that in a state like Orissa where Kandhamal violence took place and
Pastor Stains was burnt alive, the roots of BJP’s political rise were watered
and now we see its results.
While in
Kerala, BJP does win over a section of Christians for various reasons,
nationally Christians are on the target of Hindu nationalist politics, as seen
by the rising sub radar attacks on prayer meetings of Christians.
All said
and done the marginalization of Muslims will continue. It is not easy to undo
the deep polarization introduced into society due to the work done by this
organization. What RSS has been doing was well diagnosed by our first Home
minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, when he wrote, “All their speeches were full
of communal poison, as a result of the poison the country had to suffer the
sacrifice of invaluable life of Gandhi Ji” (Writing after banning of Sangh in
1948). This aspect of our political life was not curtailed-combated and it grew
into a multi headed hydra using every opportunity to intensify the religious
division in the society. We cannot build the India of the dreams of our freedom
fighters without undoing the massive hate which grips the social
understanding.
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Ram Puniyani is
president of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/current-affairs/nda-2024-whither-hindu-nationalism/d/132504
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