Why those holding exalted national positions seek to sully public discourse to abysmally low levels?

By RK Misra*

India’s ruling party has perfected a formula to win elections and master the mandate.
Every politically important poll you have variations of this theme dished out in myriad forms and features. The formula is simple. Use symbolisms. Flail at Pakistan, muddy the minority and harvest the Hindu. Cite Muslim mobilization to seek Hindu voter consolidation. Many times it works as in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and the north-eastern states and sometimes it does not as in Bihar. The by-election results declared May 3I are further cause for saffron concern. The cleaver failed to cut in Kairana, UP Lok Sabha seat as the Jats, Muslims and Dalits forged a front to frustrate the BJP.

The controversy stirred up around the portrait of Mohammed Ali Jinnah at the Aligarh Muslim University falls in this category. It was part of the saffron poll programme, aimed at the Hindu voter in Karnataka.

BJP MP from Aligarh Satish Gautam who raised the issue in a letter to the AMU vice-chairman on May 1 this year was among the members of the university court who had been informed of the existence of the portrait almost a year ago. The MP did not raise the matter at the appropriate academic body all this time. Why now.
The implication is obvious. Soon after, activists from the Hindu Yuva Vahini, founded by present UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who had been campaigning in Karnataka, were upon the scene clashing with the students, stoking the fires; grist for the media mill, job done for the saffronistas. Rake an issue in a distant north Indian town and turn it into nation-wide news to cleave communities for majority community votes in election-bound Karnataka.
Interestingly such a political poll experiment was first conducted by Narendra Modi who took charge as chief minister of Gujarat in October 2001.
The statewide ‘gaurav-yatra’ by the chief minister in the aftermath of the 2002 communal riots that followed the Godhra train carnage was the first of such cleaving exercises.
Come elections and the formula surfaces with religious regularity. Prime Minister Modi and his party chief Amit Shah have no qualms about leading from the front. In the Bihar elections three years ago, Modi gave a communal swing at a Buxar rally, charging chief minister Nitish Kumar and RJD leader Lalu Yadav with conspiring to take away five per cent reservation from OBCs, EBCs and dalits and give it away to Muslims.

In UP early last year it was the ‘kabristan-shamshan’ controversy and in Gujarat later the same year he went to the extent of accusing the former Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh of hobnobbing with Pakistan to ensure ‘his’ defeat. Brazenly, in your face and without batting an eyelid.
In Karnataka this last election, the Prime Minister again stated ‘untruths’. He is on record saying in an election rally at Kalburgi that after defeating Pakistan in nineteen forty eight,General Thimayya was insulted by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and defence minister Krishna Menon. Mr Prime Minister Sir, Thimayya became the army chief of India nine years after that event.
There were numerous other lies that the Prime Minister peddled during this last elections. These included that Congress leaders had no time to visit revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt who were in jail but they have time to meet leaders jailed on corruption charges, alluding to the visit of Rahul Gandhi with Lalu Yadav at AIMS. Mr Modi could do with reading Jawaharlal Nehru’s autobiography and the reference thereon to his visit to Lahore jail to meet them.
In Gujarat critics gleefully remember the public function at Siddhpur in 2005 when chief minister Modi had ‘magically’ revived the Saraswati river in a highly publicized state event through the convenient ruse of diverting Narmada waters. Thirteen years later, the mystical river is nowhere in sight though the chief minister who propagated a myth- and saw thousands carrying bottles of muddied water as precious ‘prasad’ -has now been the Prime Minister for over four years.
This brings us to the all important question whether those holding exalted national positions should be sullying public discourse to such abysmally low levels that things can never be the same again. The Prime Minister sets standards for others to emulate. The depths that he plumbs today will set the benchmark for those who succeed him. Modi has ensured that public discourse in India is plunged into a jousting journey to the centre of the earth.
If a Prime Minister with just four years in the saddle seeks to lampoon the country’s first executive head who ruled for almost 17 years at a stretch, he can rest assured that those who succeed him will put him through the shredder as well. After all, the Congress ruled India for three straight decades with king-sized repeat mandates from countrymen while the BJP which is into a scattered second term should remember that it came to power the first time only because the nation wanted the gentleman-politician Atal Bihari Vajpayee rewarded.
With just one more year for elections, enhanced exactitude and oratorial civility now may save future soiling.
Remember, overflowing trash cans only head to garbage dumps.
---
*Senior Gujarat-based journalist. This article first appeared in https://wordsmithsandnewsplumbers.blogspot.com/

Comments

India's GDP down by 50%, not 23%, job loss 200 million not 122 million: Top economist

By Our Representative One of India’s topmost economists has estimated that India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decline was around 50%, and not 23%, as claimed by the Government of India’s top data body, National Statistical Organization (NSO). Prof Arun Kumar, who is Malcolm S Adiseshiah chair professor, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi, said this was delivering a web policy speech, organised by the Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), New Delhi.

Youngest of 16 activists jailed for sedition, Mahesh Raut 'fought' mining on tribal land

By Surabhi Agarwal, Sandeep Pandey* A compassionate human being, always popular among his friends and colleagues because of his friendly nature and human sensitivity, 33-year-old Mahesh Raut, champion of the democratic rights of the marginalised Adivasi people of Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, has been in prison for over two years now.

India performs 'poorly' in Quality of Life Index, ranks 62nd out of 64 countries

Counterview Desk “Expat Insider”, which claims to be one of the world’s most extensive surveys about living and working abroad, in a survey of 20,259 participants from around the globe, has found that of the 64 destinations around the globe, has found that while Taiwan is the best destination for persons living outside their native country, closely by Vietnam and Portugal, India ranks 59th.

#StandWithStan: It's about Constitution, democracy and freedom of expression

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ* It is more than three weeks now: On the night of October 8, 2020, the 83-year-old Jesuit Fr Stan Swamy was taken into custody by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) from his residence in Ranchi to an undisclosed destination. According to his colleagues, the NIA did not serve a warrant on Fr. Stan and that their behaviour was absolutely arrogant and rude.

Stan Swamy vs Arnab Goswami: Are activists fighting a losing battle? Whither justice?

By Fr Sunil Macwan SJ* It is time one raised pertinent questions over the courts denying bail to Fr Stan Swamy, who was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), and granting it to Arnab Goswami, editor-in-chief of the Republic TV, arrested under the charge of abetting suicide of Avay Naik, who ended his life in 2018. It is travesty of justice that a human rights activist is not only denied bail but is also made to wait for weeks to hear a response to his legitimate request for a straw to drink water, while Arnab Goswami walks free.

Human development index: India performs worse than G-20 developing countries

By Rajiv Shah A new book, “Sustainable Development in India: A Comparison with the G-20”, authored by Dr Keshab Chandra Mandal, has regretted that though India’s GDP has doubled over the last one decade, its human development indicators are worse than not just developed countries of the Group of 20 countries but also developing countries who its members.

Buddhist shrines massively destroyed by Brahmanical rulers in "pre-Islamic" era: Historian DN Jha's survey

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Namaz in Mathura temple: Haridwar, Ayodhya monks seek Faisal Khan's release

By Our Representative As many as 23 members of the Hindu Voices for Peace (HVP), including the founder president of the well-known Haridwar-based Matri Sadan Ashram, Swami Shivananda Saraswati, and a one of its top monks, Brahmachari Aatmabodhanand, have expressed their “dismay” over the arrest of Khudai Khidmatdar chief Faisal Khan and three others on charges of “promoting enmity between religions” and “defiling a place of worship” after they offered namaz in Mathura’s Nand Baba temple premises on October 29.

Government of India 'refuses' to admit: 52% of bird species show declining trend

Finn's Weaver By Our Representative The Government of India has been pushing out “misleading” data on the country’s drastic wildlife decline, says a well-researched report, pointing towards how top ministers are hiding data on biodiversity losses, even as obfuscating its own data. It quotes “State of India’s Birds Report 2020” to note that of the 261 out of 867 bird species for which long-term trends could be determined, 52% have declined since the year 2000, with 22% declining strongly.

Dalit, Adivasi protest in Jharkhand against 'illegal' transfer of land for development

By Rishit Neogi Displacement and eviction are not new terms. It is surprising that they are still continuing and have become a tool in the hands of state backed corporates to forcibly occupy lands in the name of development.

Search This Blog