When the PM targets Minorities | Vazhipokkan

Ashis Nandy, social critic and psychologist, wrote an illuminating article in the Seminar dated May 2002, in the wake of the Gujarat riots. He made some remarkable observations about Narendra Modi in the essay.  ''More than a decade ago, when Narendra Modi was a nobody, a small-time RSS pracharak trying to make it as a small-time BJP functionary, I had the privilege of interviewing him along with Achyut Yagnik, whom Modi could not fortunately recognise. (Fortunately because he knew Yagnik by name and was to later make some snide comments about his activities and columns.) It was a long, rambling interview, but it left me in no doubt that here was a classic, clinical case of a fascist. I never use the term 'fascist' as a term of abuse; to me it is a diagnostic category comprising not only one's ideological posture but also the personality traits and motivational patterns contextualising the ideology.''

''Modi, it gives me no pleasure to tell the readers, met virtually all the criteria that psychiatrists, psycho-analysts and psychologists had set up after years of empirical work on the authoritarian personality. He had the same mix of puritanical rigidity, narrowing of emotional life, massive use of the ego defence of projection, denial and fear of his own passions combined with fantasies of violence - all set within the matrix of clear paranoid and obsessive personality traits. I still remember the cool, measured tone in which he elaborated a theory of cosmic conspiracy against India that painted every Muslim as a suspected traitor and a potential terrorist. I came out of the interview shaken and told Yagnik that, for the first time, I had met a textbook case of a fascist and a prospective killer, perhaps even a future mass murderer.''

''The very fact that he has wormed his way to the post of the chief minister of Gujarat tells you something about our political process and the trajectory our democracy has traversed in the last fifty years. I am afraid I cannot look at the future of the country with anything but great foreboding.''

Ashis Nandy, who is 86 years old now, should be reminiscing his prescient words even as he listens to PM Narendra Modi's speech at Banswara in Rajasthan on April 21. We should also remember  Karan Thapar's interview with Modi in 2007. The interview was wound up abruptly when Modi was asked if he regretted the role of his govt in the Gujarat riots. Modi didn't upbraid Thapar after the interview was discontinued. He was cool and calm. He spent almost one more hour with Thapar and treated him with some delicacies and saw him off saying that he would have lunch with Thapar when he came to Delhi. But, the fact is that Thapar could never meet him again. Modi even saw to it that no ministers from his cabinet talked to Thapar ever.

There is no need to ask if Modi's Benswara speech was venomous. Those, who know Modi well, won't ask how he can spew poison against the minorities. They will recall the 'swabhiman yathra' conducted by Modi in the wake of the Gujarat riots. The goal was to rebuild the image of Gujarat, which was badly damaged by the riots. Modi alleged then that the critics  were bent upon destroying the glory of the state. It is not known if Modi had the same opinion about Atal Behari Vajpayee, the then PM, who told him to follow Rajniti.

Modi made a slanderous remark against the Muslims during that yathra: ''Hum paanch, Hamare pachees'' (we are five and we will have 25,'' he said sneeringly. This dialogue goes hand in hand with his speech, delivered at Banswara, where he alleged that Muslims produce more children than other communities. He also referred to them as infiltrators. It was RB Sreekumar, the then head of intelligence in the Gujarat police, who reported Modi's speech to the central home ministry in 2002. RBS told this writer that the then Chief Secretary and DGP of Gujarat, asked him not to report the speech to the central govt. But, RBS stood his ground saying that he was only doing his duty as per the police manual.
 

RB Sreekumar came under the scanner of the Modi govt after he filed the report. 20 years later RBS was arrested by the Gujarat police and put in prison in the wake of an SC verdict.  Vito Corleone, the mafia don in Mario Puzo's novel 'The Godfather' famously observed: ''revenge is a dish best served cold.''

Modi made a scathing remark against JM Lyngdoh in 2002 August in Gujarat. Modi had dissolved the Gujarat assembly in July 2002. The motive was to have maximum mileage out of the Hindu- Muslim conflict in the wake of the riots. Modi wanted the assembly election by October 2002. But JM Lyngdoh, the CEC, was not convinced  of the Modi govt's demand. He had reports from the ground which made it clear that peace and normalcy had not returned to Gujarat. The reports filed by the police officials including RB Sreekumar revealed that thousands of Muslims were still languishing in refugee camps. The election commision took note of all these and informed the govt that the election would have to be postponed. It was in this context that Modi turned against JM Lyngdoh. Some journalists asked me recently, 'Has James Michael Lyngdoh come from Italy?',' Modi 'jokes', spelling out the CEC's full name. 'I said, I don't have his janam patri, I will have to ask Rajiv Gandhi. Then the journalists said, 'Do they (Lyngdoh and Sonia) meet in church?' I replied, 'Maybe they do'.'

A.B. Vajpayee, the then PM, didn't find Modi's outrage against Lyngdoh appealing. Vajpayee reminded Modi of the decorum to be followed by those who hold constitutional posts: ''It must be recognised by one and all that the maturity of our democracy lies in all its institutions working within their constitutional limits, respecting each other's domain and maintaining proper balance.'

Let us now recall Modi's other speech in 2017 in UP. ''In Uttar Pradesh, everyone feels that they are being discriminated against and they are being denied their rights,' the Prime Minister said at an election rally. 'If a village has a graveyard it should also have a cremation ground. If there's electricity on Ramzan, it should also be there on Diwali. There must be bijli (power) both on Eid and Holi... There should be no discrimination.''  It was sad indeed that the PM himself was owning up the myths about Muslim appeasement even in the distribution of electricity.
 

Modi's hate speeches in 2019 election rallies at Lathru, Chitradurg and Wardha are history. The nation saw Ashok Lawasa, the then election commissioner, taking a firm stand on this. He was crystal clear that the PM had violated the model code of conduct. But the other members of the election commission stood by Modi and gave him a clean chit. Ashok Lawasa's close family members including his wife, son and sister had to face the wrath of  the central govt agencies. Lawasa's request to the CEC that his dissenting note must be recorded in the order of the election commission was rejected. Eventually, he had to resign from the election commission just months before assuming charge as the CEC. He wrote  in one of the national dailies that honesty had a price to pay. It was reported later that Pegasus software was used to snoop on Lavasa.

Modi said in 2019 December in Jharkhand that the terrorists could be identified by their clothes. The remark came in the wake of the protests against the CAA and it was crystal clear who Modi was hinting at.  It is only natural that his followers are more than happy to emulate their leader in spreading hatred against the minorities. It is against this backdrop that the dogwhistle for the genocide of the Muslims was heard at the Dharam sansad in Haridwar in 2021 December. One of the speakers at the Dharam Sansad demanded the Indian army to follow in the footsteps of their Myanmar counterparts, who had no qualms in turning against the Rohingyas.

We also cannot forget the horrendous crime against the minorities in Darrang district in Assam three years back. The horrific visuals of police firing at protestors and the photographer stomping on the body of a man who lay motionless, revealed how the hate speeches have polarised the society. To quote 'Independent': ''The video begins with hundreds of policemen firing at unseen targets from behind bushes in Sipajhar area of Darrang district in Assam on Thursday. As the camera pans out, a man dressed in a white vest runs with a stick in his hand towards the armed security forces personnel. The police fire at him and he falls to the ground sustaining what appears to be a bullet wound to his chest. Several police personnel, dressed in riot gear, surround the villager and hit him with their batons. As they move away, the camera shows the man lying motionless on the ground. Soon, a photographer begins to brutally attack the body.

The photographer, later identified as Bijoy Bonia, runs towards the body and jumps on his chest.''Writer Mukul Kesavan pointed out in his article in the Telegraph the visuals were symptomatic of the times, marked by state sponsored terrorism: ''The Photographer knew that stomping on Muslims, dead or alive, was sanctioned by the Zeitgeist. But he was also performing for the camera in a way that is the signature behaviour of this digital age.''

This didn't come out of blue. The photographer, who stomped on Moinul Huck, the young man, who was killed in the police firing, was the product of the historical context created by Modi and his party. Haridwar and Darrang were the reflections of the silence, maintained by the higher ups when Muslim girls were denied education in the name of Hijab and when Muslim men were killed in the name of cow.

Modi alleged in Banswara that the Congress was planning to distribute the wealth of the society among the Muslims. He took the speech of the former PM Manmohan Singh, out of context, to add force to his allegation. Manmohan Singh tried to emphasise the fact that equal participation of the marginalised sections, including the Muslims, should be ensured in the process of development. But Modi attempted to twist this statement to drive his message that Congress wanted to appease the Muslims at any cost.

This was unbefitting of a PM. The PM also attributed to the Congress' manifesto as something that was not there. It was a brazen, outright lie. The Congress manifesto is there in the public sphere and everyone can verify it.  It is a matter of shame that the PM has no qualms in uttering blatant lies in order to get some votes.

Dr Parakala Prabhakar, well known economist and political scientist, pointed out recently that Modi resorted to communalism since he had no progress card to present before the public even as he was trying to win the Lok Sabha elections for a consecutive third term. The BJP is polishing the tool of communalism to divert the attention of the people, who are reeling under pressure from unemployment and the rise in prices of essential commodities.
 

It is obvious that the PM has violated the model code of conduct.  The people's representation act also makes spreading enmity among the communities a punishable crime. The legal luminaries point out that Modi can also be booked under 153 A of the Indian Penal Code. A person can be disqualified for a period of six years for such a crime. Bal Thackeray, the late Shiv Sena leader, was disqualified in 1999 for such a violation he committed in 1987.

The times are really alarming!  The institutions that must come to support the people at this critical juncture are silent and inactive. The EC has sought explanation from the BJP president for the Bhenswara speech. One could very well presume what action would be taken given the structure and character of the present election commission.

TN Seshan and JM Lyngdoh have become old stories. The present day officials  may not even know what the word 'spine ' really means. That is why Dr Parakala says that the battle is between Modi and the people in this election.  The constitution makes it amply clear that we, the people, are the ultimate custodians of this republic. The election results of 1977 and 2014 have been the standing testimonies to this truism. The memories of these elections tell us that there is still light at the other end of the tunnel.