Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah. (File Photo)
In recent days, I have found myself wondering more than once if the higher echelons of the Bharatiya Janata Party have mysteriously become completely deaf. There seems to be no other reason why the message that voters sent in the Lok Sabha elections is being ignored. The sharpest rebuke came from Uttar Pradesh and it has remained completely unheard. Last week, the Chief Minister’s Deputy made his rebellion against the senior leadership loud and public. He reminded those at the top that there was a need for some deep introspection about the state of the party.
The rebellion was quickly squashed. But then the RSS chief made a speech last week, in which he said men should not think they were gods because this would lead to them thinking that they were God himself. Were they listening in the BJP headquarters? Apparently not. They appeared to convey to the Prime Minister that they were certain it was panic created by the opposition’s ‘false narrative’ that was to blame for the party returning to power without a full majority. They should ask themselves why the opposition parties were successful in convincing voters of their narrative and why the BJP failed.
Instead, they decided that the way to take on the ‘false narrative’ about the Constitution being changed was to commemorate the Emergency by declaring June 25 as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’. They forgot that it was through a provision in the Constitution that Indira Gandhi suspended democracy. It might have been more appropriate to celebrate the end of the Emergency instead. What commemorating ‘Murder of Constitution Day’ indicates is that the BJP’s top leadership has not realized that it was more than fears of the Constitution being changed that turned voters hostile.
At the top of my list is the atmosphere of hatred and fear that has become normal since Narendra Modi became prime minister. This is evidently something that nobody has told him or there would not have been that sickening edict in Uttar Pradesh last week that orders shopkeepers to write their names outside their shops. Ostensibly, this was done because of the Kanwar Yatra in which Hindus trek hundreds of kilometres to the Ganga to carry home pots of its sacred water. Ostensibly, this is to ensure that there is no communal tension along the route of the pilgrimage. But this Yatra has taken place for decades without trouble, so why this monstrous new edict?
Monstrous because it recalls Germany in the thirties, when a similar edict by the Nazis set off the events that led to the Holocaust. Muslim leaders have pointed out the ominous similarity, and they are right. For me, it was both chilling and sad to see ‘Arif Fruit’ scrawled in shaky letters on the side of a pavement shop that will certainly ensure that Hindu pilgrims avoid buying Muslim mangoes. The owner of the rickety barrow probably makes enough to survive the day and the pilgrimage would have helped hugely. The Hindu owner of a dhaba was reported on social media to have been ordered to suspend his Muslim employees for the period of the pilgrimage. This is shameful. But is anyone up there listening?
There has been an orchestrated economic boycott of Muslim businesses for ten years now. And one message that Uttar Pradesh voters tried to send was that people were sick of the hatred and fear that seemingly has official backing. This time, it is a pilgrimage that is the excuse. There is always some excuse. Before this Yatra, it was beef, cow slaughter and ‘love jihad’. The wounds left by this campaign of hate are deep.
It is not as if BJP chief ministers cannot find better things to do. One of the biggest failures of the past decade has been the failure of Modi’s chief ministers to improve government schools. They are so bad that in most countries they would not be considered schools at all. They churn out students who are barely able to read and count, and this handicaps them when they seek higher education and jobs. Unless there is revolutionary reform, there is no chance at all that India will benefit from our vaunted ‘population dividend’.
If the BJP wants to win the state elections that happen in the next few months, its leaders will need to show that they have heard the message that voters sent by denying the party a full majority this time. This can best be achieved by BJP chief ministers showing that they can bring real change in the lives of ordinary people by improving schools and healthcare, and by showing that they can govern better. There is much constructive change needed and it is needed desperately.
Why then is the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh allowed to continue poisoning the communal atmosphere in his state? Has he not noticed that it was his state that was most responsible for the Prime Minister being denied a full majority in his third term? It truly is as if the top leaders of the BJP have suddenly become hard of hearing or as if they are pretending to be deaf. That is worse still. Modi may have managed to become prime minister for a ‘historic’ third time, as he likes to tell people on his foreign travels, but he must know that things have changed for him. A little introspection will go a long way.
