Published in oHeraldo on 29th May 2019
The nastiest and vicious election in independent India’s history has ended with a bizarre outcome giving the right-wing party, so to say, a landslide margin in the 17th Lok Sabha. Such a slanted verdict delivered by the citizens is far from healthy for a democracy. The sheer scale of victory for the BJP could embolden the hardline Hindutva forces to muzzle the secular and democratic voice of their adversaries. It would be totally unfair and sheer cowardice for civil society to now sit back and expect the demoralised secular political parties to defend the Constitution and democracy after such a lopsided electoral verdict. Considering what is tom-tommed by hardline fundamentalist forces as a tsunami for Modi, and juxtaposing this with the Modi government’s track record of the past, these next five years may be precarious for Indian democracy. Political experts fear that neither the Apex Court nor the President of the country may be able to tame and regulate a government whose leadership’s ego is bloated beyond bounds. The onus now rests exclusively with civil society to protect secularism and democracy in this country.
There remains a strong doubt in several sections of society that this election process was designed to achieve such a verdict. The controversial and partisan approach of the Election Commission while enforcing the Model Code of Conduct for the political parties in this election has damaged the neutral image of this institution. The contradictions arising, between the mood and whispers on the streets even prior to the elections and the contrary electoral results, raise doubts as to whether the polls were really free and fair. Where has the farmer crisis, distress from demonetisation, unemployment and the insecurity among minorities evaporated when it comes to the electoral results? The extent of resistance from the EC and the BJP towards the popular demand by several political parties for complete transparency in the use of EVM machines lends enough fuel to the suspicion that the election process could have been manipulated. Some political analysts had forewarned that this would not be an election but a ‘poll capture’. Merely throwing a challenge to the public to prove the allegations that EVMs can be hacked without allowing access to the programming of the machine, is more like expecting the cops to crack a crime and secure a conviction in the case without interrogation of the suspects, not making arrests, and without access to the scene of the crime. The EC definitely has a lot of answering to do if its neutrality and the people’s faith in the EVMs is to be restored.
The Bollywood type storyline woven around BJP’s victory in the election is nothing new. Putting their adversaries off the scent has been the tactic of the Hindutva forces since the days of India’s freedom struggle. Tantalising and flattering stories planted through whisper campaigns, nowadays in social media, to camouflage the disruptive and divisive communal operations is nothing new. When university campuses are in turmoil, promises of acche din in 2014 remain unfulfilled and the job market on a downslide, and with nothing spectacular in the last five years for Modi to harp upon in his election campaign, to now ascribe this victory to the nation’s confidence in Modi’s leadership sounds more like a cruel joke. One has to be naive to fall for the story that this huge electoral mandate was a vote for Modi from a new, young and aspiring India. And had it really been so, then what explains the compulsion to give party tickets to hate spewing yogis, babas, sadhvis and a terror accused to contest the elections? If Modi’s performance as PM was so stellar, then where was the need to position Bajrang Bali as a counter to Ali, to hype Balakot, to invent a threat from ‘green virus’ and false propaganda about an imaginary conspiracy against Hindus? What was the need for alliances with other political parties?
It’s most unfortunate that new India has no appetite for doing its political homework. It feeds on fake news which is viral and trending and only ends up dumping truth and reason, without even the slightest consideration, into the dustbins provided under Swachh Bharat mission. What should baffle a reasoning mind is the stoic silence in the mainstream media, about why it was so crucial for the Hindutva nationalist brigade to win these 2019 elections at any cost. If the Hindutva forces have reconciled themselves with the idea of democracy, plurality and diversity in the present Constitution of India, which is based on universal law and not Hindu law, then what explains the continuing existence of the organisation which was formed to establish a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ and will be completing 100 years of its existence in 2024? When Hindus are not expected to forget the centuries old injustices against them, then why expect the minorities to trust the Hindutva forces after all the targeting and violence against them over the last seven decades since independence?
PM Modi’s latest speech after this electoral victory reflects a nervousness in admitting the tyranny against minorities. He attempts to brush it aside as imaginary fear, probably like the imaginary threat to Hinduism. Any sincerity in his appeal for inclusiveness gets blunted when his numbers in Parliament include a terror accused who reveres Godse and ridicules the Father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi. Why are those who shamelessly provoke religious polarisation, so hesitant and embarrassed to admit that this verdict in the recent election is very much about Hindutva and its toxic majoritarian nationalism? With the 350+ mark conquered, all that now remains to be achieved is a three-fourth majority before a surgical strike on the Constitution of India, as some predict, to possibly kick off the centenary celebrations for the Hindutva nationalists.
(The author is a Social Activist and works in creating awareness on local self-governance)
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