The Sabre-Rattling By the Right-Wing Activists Should be Checked!

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  • Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has formed the central government for successive terms, the right-wing jingoism too has witnessed a steady rise deeply polarizing the society further. The opposition political parties claiming to be secular are hell-bent on cornering the Narendra Modi government on various issues plaguing the country, especially the inflationary surge and now, the jingoism.  As you are aware, the identity politics of all varieties are not new to the country.  But has taken a serious turn with the recent statements attributed to the BJP’s two spokespersons riling the Islamic countries as well as the domestic population.  The political discourse has taken a path that resembles muddier by the day.

PC: Hindustan Times

  • That it took diplomatic censure from strategically and economically important Gulf countries for BJP to act against spokespersons, whose appalling comments on TV and Twitter were known for days. Also, that the Ministry of External Affairs chose to describe these well-known BJP figures as fringe elements adds an element of farce that’s nonetheless instructive, because it shows the bind the Union Government finds itself in.  Needless to mention, you cannot distance yourself from a mess by stretching the truth.  Mind you, the mess hasn’t happened over one fervid news TV debate or one unacceptable tweet.  It’s a mess that’s been building for some time.  Only it has flared up now placing the BJP government in an awkward situation.
  • Looking back, one would realise that dangerously divisive rhetoric and state/police actions and responses that would have been rare even a few years ago have become so frequent as to almost lose their power to shock. Relentless aggressiveness of the Hindu Right is visible, and what has been absent is any critique from central BJP or government leaders, even when some of this aggression turned particularly nasty.  As if on cue, that lack of intervention has supplied the oxygen for right-wing rhetorical fire as well as an implicit green light for various official agencies to lose even the pretence of neutrality.  The news outlets, both the electronic and print media, have been abuzz with several controversial actions over the last few months.

PC: PRAVEEN NAGDA

  • Bulldozing houses, slapping sedition charges on history professors and university students, evicting hawkers selling non-vegetarian food, creating controversies out of halal meat and namaz venues, not to mention strange lower court receptions to this-mosque-is-a-temple petitions encouraged the TV and Twitter right-wing saber-rattlers no end.  Of course, two spokespersons in news are products of this ecosystem.  Thus, if BJP and its government are serious about course correcting, just symbolic actions against these two won’t suffice.  Firm signals emanating from the top are inevitable alongside firm and quick actions if those signals are ignored by overzealous leaders and associated figures.  Cold calculations, if not good sense, should force the BJP to rethink.