The dust has settled, the shockwaves that the results of the general election sent have ebbed. It is time for dispassionate analysis. This is necessary because the main players, on both sides, are displaying the same arrogance and that same delusional sense of power that they did before. In my opinion, the worst consequence of this is that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s senior political strategists have shown no sign that they intend to stem the tide of hatred and hate crimes that have so shamed India in the past ten years. Here, I would like to remind you that although there were horrible communal riots, massacres and at least one pogrom before Narendra Modi became prime minister, what is new are hate crimes and the use of mobs to lynch Muslims in public places. This is always done to spread terror and it always does.
In my conversations with people since the results came, I find that even those who voted for Narendra Modi for the third time feel that the divisions his government’s policies have created between Hindus and Muslims must be healed. In the words of a young businessman, “This Hindu-Muslim business has gone too far. I voted for Modi again because frankly I don’t see Rahul Gandhi as an alternative, but I think this targeting of Muslims is dangerous.” I quote him because I have heard similar things said by everyone who voted for Modi, but were pleased that the BJP did not get a full majority. For some reason, those seated in the highest echelons of the ruling party have become deaf.
In recent days, there have been three hate crimes. The first, against a young Bengali worker who was beaten to death in a Haryana village by young men who dragged him to a public square, charged him with eating beef and killed him. The second, was on a train going to Mumbai, in which young men beat up an old Muslim man in his seventies because he was carrying meat. Both violent incidents were videoed and uploaded with pride. I watched the old man being abused and beaten while he protested that he carried buffalo meat. Buffaloes do not count as cows. And India exports more buffalo meat than almost any other country. The final hate crime was against a Hindu student who vigilantes killed because they mistook him for a Muslim cattle trader. Not a single BJP leader has spoken out against these hate crimes because they have been too busy in Bengal.
Here is what I think Opposition leaders are doing wrong. They are swaggering about as if they won the last election. They did not. And yet, almost not a day goes by when Rahul Gandhi does not pop up somewhere or other to say something offensive about the Prime Minister. Most recently, he has taken to boasting about how Modi’s “56-inch chest” has shriveled so much that he now walks with a stoop. Other Opposition leaders are more circumspect and less childish in their comments, but somehow none of them are raising the serious political issues that matter.
On the political front, they have failed to raise the issue of hate crimes. And totally failed to make political capital out of the recent judgment of the Supreme Court against bulldozer justice. The loudest reaction has come ironically from Bulldozer Baba himself, who seems undeterred by the strictures and wanders about making reckless foreign policy statements like dragging the events in Bangladesh into our own problems with caste. “If we get divided, we will be cut to pieces like in Bangladesh”, is what he said recently. How the events in Bangladesh are connected to our own caste divisions is a mystery that needs explanation.
On the economic front, the Opposition has almost totally failed to exploit the revelations against the head of SEBI. She has chosen to brazen things out but why is the Opposition not making at least as much noise about her refusal to resign as they made when the scandal broke about the NEET examination? The Prime Minister has shown more than once that his approach to a problem is to simply pretend that it does not exist. He could get away with this when he had a full majority in Parliament. He no longer can, but the new Leader of the Opposition seems unable to exploit his vulnerabilities.
Instead, he has taken to swagger around with that air of entitlement that he used to exhibit before leading his party to humiliating defeats in two general elections. Just the other day, while on a visit to Kashmir, he promised to restore statehood on day one when it comes to his turn. He has also promised a caste census on day one and many other things. When is someone going to explain to him that ‘day one’ is not visible yet?
When is someone going to explain to Modi that although he is still prime minister, he is a much-weakened leader than he was and needs to listen more to what the people are saying. He has not achieved the great things that he promised, and it is because of this that people have lost faith. Businessmen continue to flee to more business-friendly countries, workers flee to countries with more job opportunities and students flee to foreign colleges. India is not yet the country he promised it would become.
