The Hindu : Reject the poisoned chalice

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 12, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Perspective

Reject the poisoned chalice

By Malini Parthasarathy

This is a critical moment not just for the suffering people of Gujarat who have been put through the most harrowing of times as a result of the provocative and polarising politics of the Narendra Modi administration but for the entire nation. Never before in the history of independent India has a State Government been so unapologetic about its deep-rooted communal bias, adopting as it has an explicit Hindu majoritarian platform and never before has an administration been as unabashed about its tendentious and bruising approach to Muslim minority citizens, driving them to the very edge by questioning their nationalist credentials. What is ironic if not painful is that while every liberal and democratic Indian is understandably ashamed of what was signified by the communal madness that raged in Gujarat months ago and earnestly believes that this atavistic spectre of barbarism should be banished from the landscape of an otherwise modernising India, Mr. Modi and his party appear undaunted by the sense of national agony and are in fact seeking reelection today on the basis of this very atavistic appeal.

Nothing could represent a more provocative insult to the national commitment to communal harmony and pluralist coexistence that was so earnestly enshrined in the Constitution adopted more than five decades ago than Mr. Modi's repeated taunts of the Muslim minority people of his own State, his insinuations that they are susceptible to the supposedly adventurist designs of Pakistan and his final desperate suggestion that if the Opposition Congress party wins the election, it would represent a victory for Pakistan. Most mocking and challenging of the authority of the Indian Constitution has been the campaign of the BJP leadership, buttressed as it was by the incendiary propaganda of the VHP which openly called upon Hindus to "protect their interests". The fact that the Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, saw fit to praise Mr. Modi's "exemplary handling" of the post-Godhra riots, besides sounding unpleasantly Orwellian, showed a defiance of the basic principle decreed by the Constitution of ensuring that all citizens were treated equally before the law, unbecoming of a high constitutional functionary.

Confident as he is of the trust reposed in him by the BJP's national leadership, Mr. Modi, despite the fact that he is the Chief Minister of a State under the Indian Constitution, does not appear unduly troubled by the constitutional imperative of maintaining equidistance from the majority and minority communities in his State. His election campaign was sustained by a constant stream of abusive rhetoric directed at various opponents, real and imaginary, Sonia Gandhi and Pervez Musharraf, all presumably meant to stereotype the hapless minority Muslims as alien and also to tap into the deepseated prejudices of the average Hindu voters in order to consolidate them into a solid vote base. The BJP also did not hide the fact that it intended to go into this election fully using the Hindu card, never mind the horrors of the post-Godhra riots and the consequent traumatisation of the Muslim community.

Thus the election plank of the BJP was aggressively communal. It promised to adopt an anti-conversion law, similar to the one adopted in Tamil Nadu by the Jayalalithaa regime and also threatened to study "the utility" of madrassas, implying that these were hotbeds of "Islamic terror". It was evident that Mr. Modi saw no reason to pretend that he stood for anything else but Hindu majoritarianism. He was clear that he intended to pit Hindu against Muslim and he had no compunctions about branding all those who were not rank Hindu communalists as traitors to the nation. His repeated references to "Mian Musharraf", his unsubstantiated and incendiary suggestion that Pakistan had a stake in the defeat of his Government, represented an insulting and insensitive approach to the Muslim minority, questioning their sense of patriotism. It also very swiftly would serve to undermine their sense of belonging, which in fact, is part of the Hindu majoritarian political design.

But can India afford to let Mr. Modi throw away five decades of coexistence that has made Indian democracy a success story worldover? Therefore every citizen who sees India's future best preserved through a secular, pluralist and democratic governing vision has a stake in the defeat of the fanaticism and the deeply retrograde chauvinism that Mr. Modi represents. There is no use pretending that this election is like any other one, about Gujarat's water needs, electricity needs or even development aspirations. It is an election that is about political choice of the critical kind that tests India's identity as a modern and inclusive democracy, credentials that even the Vajpayee administration appears so keen to preserve. Given that Mr. Vajpayee, Mr. Advani and their colleagues in the Government often seem overeager to reassure the international community that their Government remains committed to India's secular and democratic governing traditions, their lack of embarrassment in retaining Mr. Modi as their candidate for Chief Minister in Gujarat despite the odium that his controversial actions attracted internationally, indicates an underlying dichotomy in the BJP's political approach.

On the one hand, the BJP realises that to win international acceptance, it needs to reaffirm its willingness to comply with India's time-tested and universally acclaimed secular and pluralistic governing traditions. On the other hand, it sees its continued political and electoral success as critically linked to pursuing the strategy of Hindu majoritarianism. Hence the continued relevance of Mr. Modi to the BJP's calculations. It is all too clear that Mr. Modi's reelection would be read by the ruling establishment in Delhi as an electoral vindication of the tactics and strategy of Hindu majoritarianism.

While this might suit the strategic designs of the ruling party determined to retain power in Delhi, the nation cannot afford the high political and social costs in terms of the agony and trauma inflicted on the minority communities, the state of siege that its civil society is being plunged into by jingoistic and self-serving scare-scenarios of "Islamic terror" and the chilling effect of all this on the collective national psyche. It is time to recognise that politics based on the mobilisation of hate, prejudice and fear are not in the nation's interest. Gujarat's election today puts to test the faith of millions of citizens in this country's ability to rise above such sectarian and narrow-minded bigotry. India's democratic institutions are meant to be the best guarantors of this country's pluralist and inclusive spirit. The people of Gujarat must reject the poisoned chalice of bigotry and chauvinism that is being held out by the peddlers of Hindu chauvinism. It is important that secular and pluralist values triumph in Gujarat. It would be India's gain.

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