Cutting The Nose To Spite The Face !

 

BY R.K. MISRA   

It takes a big heart to light a memorial candle and a small mind to start a bushfire.

 A surefire formula that involved cleaving to conquer, over two decades ago, is showing signs of a nation-devouring blaze. Tiny Fragments seem flawless from a distance but are in fact, explosive fuses awaiting ignition.

There are numerous cases, listed from time to time, of the selective use of law and justice by the executive dribbling for the ruling party in their unabashed pursuits of majoritarian, electoral politics. The latest case is that of the demolition of a dargah in Nashik, Maharashtra which had spiraled into violence. Published reports state that the Maharashtra Waqf tribunal and the civic body has taken cognizance of its decades old existence. The judicial melee that followed saw the dargah panel move the Supreme Court but before it could hear the plea, the civic body demolished the entire dargah. The apex court has, nevertheless, stayed the demolition notice but has sought to understand what transpired in- between.

 The top court in the country has taken on itself the task of putting the legal aspects under the scanner. There is, however, the issue of political accountability for actions emanating from outcomes. And therein hangs a tale.

The 2002 Sabarmati train carnage at Godhra in Gujarat was an unfortunate tragedy which unleashed a macabre communal holocaust that left over a thousand people, largely belonging to the minority community, dead. The figures remain mired in controversy and its outcome in slander. The country’s current Prime Minister was the chief minister of Gujarat at the time. In 2012 he was cleared of complicity in the riots by the Supreme Court and that ruling was upheld in 2022.

However The Gujarat Gaurav Yatra that chief minister Modi undertook covering 5000 kms, all 25 districts and 182 Assembly constituencies between September 8 and October 1, 2002 not only helped him reap an electoral bonanza but   consolidated his hold over power in the state. He bagged 127 of the 182 seats in the state Assembly. The tone and tenor of the Gaurav Yatra, though, will remain a subject of global study long after posterity has turned Modi and us generation into crusted pages of ancient history.

Additionally, this period of politics has two critical take-home messages. For one it anointed Narendra Modi as the Hindu Hriday Samrat (Hindu heartthrob).Secondly, it established majoritarianism as a political short-cut to power in the country. With some tinkering, a little permutation and plethora of combinations, it seemed to have worked well for him as he cruises into his third term as Prime Minister.

Except, that familiarity breeds contempt and the BJP, under Modi has become very predictable in its unpredictability. The discernable pattern of minority bashing to ingratiate itself to the majority, worked until it was beaten to pulp and the opposition as well as a large mass of the populace saw through the smokescreen. No wonder a chest thumping party  of 2014 stood reduced to a government limping on crutches in 2024. In 2014 BJP won 282 of the 542 Lok Sabha seats to a miserable Congress tally of 44. In 2019, the BJP scaled up to 303 and by 2024 after unfurling it’s independence from the RSS was down to 240 ,short of the majority mark of 272-all when it boasted of crossing 400 seats.The Congress is now up to a respectable 99 seats while the BJP is precariously perched on the stilts of Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party(TDP) in Andhra Pradesh and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-U in Bihar.

The BJP may be adept at dislodging and rolling boulders downhill but it has scant ability to control and little intention to guide. These have acquired a momentum of their own and are loose cannons swaying at will. And a loose cannon eventually points your way.

The bulldozers that went to work on set minority targets conveniently termed illegal are now careening to newer attractions. Thousands of Jain community members marched in a protest on April 19 anguished over the recent demolition of a 90 year old Digambar Jain temple in Mumbai. It was the same story of hurried demolition in a bid to avert the length of the legal process. The demolition has triggered nationwide outrage among Jains. Both Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and the Congress see a pattern in it.

Lathi wielding Bajrang Dal activists walked into churches in Odhav, Ahmedabad on Easter on April 20 shouting ‘Jaishreeram’ and terrorizing women and children. It was as if no law and order machinery existed. The skirmishes between the Swaminarayan sect and the ‘sanatanis’ both belonging to the hindu fold, just before the last  state Assembly elections had ruling party politicians burning midnight oil in a bid to settle the row lest it effect their vote bank. In an Agra village in Uttar Pradesh a dalit wedding procession faced a violent attack, allegedly from upper caste hindus.The groom was pulled off the mare, abused ,thrashed and his gold chain forcibly taken away. What began as an inter-religion affair is now increasingly turning into a intra-caste one with more to follow.

It is not only in this particular case, but a pattern is discernible in many other such cases. Notably, the targeting of Opposition ruled states through the office of the Governor. In a landmark verdict a Supreme Court bench termed the prolonged refusal of the Tamil Nadu Governor to give his assent to ten bills as illegal and erroneous in law. Governments of many such states which are a thorn in the flesh of the ruling dispensation at the Centre have the Apex Court to thank.

Over time a clear pattern has emerged. Key constitutional functionaries are targeted by politicians holding eminent position in the ruling BJP. Mr Nishikant Dubey is a BJP MP as is Dinesh Sharma, a former deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The two have in no uncertain words attacked the judiciary and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in particular.

 All that the BJP President J.P. Nadda had to say after such a vicious tirade was that the party disassociated itself from the criticism of the Supreme Court and rejected their comments as their personal views. ”It neither agrees with them nor does it ever support such remarks”, he said. Pressure tactics go by many names.

  A spiritual Guru once recited an interesting folk-tale. The moral of the story was that when you are in deep shit, the least you can do is to keep your mouth shut.

This syndicated news column was published in the multiple editions 0f the Indian newspapers Orissapost and  Lokmat Times  dated April 22, 2025  . Their links are given below:-

 

https://odishapostepaper.com/edition/5295/orissapost/page/9

https://epaper.lokmat.com/articlepage.php?articleid=LOKTIME_NPLT_20250422_6_1