Modi Government should be replaced. Sooner than later. But that alone won’t remove sense of Hindu supremacy from India.
SCs ploy on the protesting farmers was the tragically predictable result of signature style functioning a fascist PM. But his departure from office, whether sooner or in 2024, will not solve the deeper problems exposed by this episode. What happened is cause for grief and outrage. It should not be cause for shock. What were too often passed off as the rantings of an unfortunate but temporary figure in public life are, in reality, part of something much bigger. That is the challenge that confronts us all.
The most important failure, was one of imagination. We do not believe leaders understood the gravity of the threat of inciting communal or class divide.
Almost 70 years later, we are living through another failure of imagination — the failure to account for the damage that can be done to our nation by a Government that incites violence, loose cannon ministers and their party leaders who fan the flames, and social media platforms that sear conspiracy theories into the minds of Modis supporters. Unless we confront the threats we face, we risk ensuring that last week’s events are only a prelude to an even greater tragedy.
Modi ran for 2014 elections on a vision of RSS-BJP where “being a follower of the Hindu faith” is valued at the expense of everything else. In the Parliament , the PM gave RSS-BJP members of the extreme right and conspiracy theorists their most powerful platforms yet, even claiming that there were “true nationalists and patriots” among them many charged with accusations ranging from rape, arson, murder, etc., who converged on the treasury seats in 2014.
By the time he hopefully loses elections in 2024, he had whipped a dangerous element of our country into a frenzy.
So how do we move forward as a country? What does it say about us that so many were complicit, while those who sounded the alarm were dismissed as hysterical?
The generous explanation is that it’s hard to comprehend the danger of what seem like ridiculous conspiracy theories until you experienced that danger firsthand.
Fanatical ideas can lead to real, even deadly harm. That’s something the people of Delhi realised last year when armed members of RSS-BJP complicit with the police unleashed violence and arson against protesting students in JNU and against the people raising their voice against the highly controversial CAA/NRC Bills. Now, it’s something all of India has experienced.
But it is not enough to scrutinize — and prosecute — the fanatics who attacked our students and citizens, and now making motivated allegations against our farmers at the border of our Capital. We all need to do some soul-searching of our own.
If people were given the choice between democracy and Hindutva , how many would choose Hindutva ?
The recent ploy by the SC on Farmers protests, the Delhi riots, attack on University students, silence against scores of lynching deaths by RSS sub groups, murder of Judge Loya etc. reminded us of an ugly truth: There are some Indians , more than many want to admit, who would choose Hindutva.
The next Government, after replacing the cancerous RSS-BJP in the next elections will need to address this crisis in all its complexity and breadth, including holding technology platforms and deranged media accountable, prosecuting all who broke our laws, and making public more intelligence and analysis about the roguish agenda of the RSS clan.
We owe it to ourselves not to do the same. We have the strength, the ability and — yes — the imagination to confront what happened and ensure that nothing like it ever happens again. That’s what real patriotism looks like.