Thanks to Ram Punyani and Madhu Kishwar;
Good summary of Modi Sarkar.
As an Indian committed to do my share of work in building a cohesive India, I am keeping up with thousands of Indians. It is embarrassing to see that nearly 31% of Indians exhibit intolerance towards a different point of view, a handful of them don’t even want to handle any criticism of Modi Sarkar.
I look at the human body, the universe or a car and even an office or a family, and the best functioning ones are those who do well individually and collectively. One major disconnect with any one of the organs will bring a collapse.
Mr. Modi does not comprehend that his silence is what is encouraging the extremists among us to go wild creating chaos within the structure. Ram Punyani has clearly listed them in the link below, so does Madhu Kishwar.
Obama’s advice should be pinned on every wall of the parliament about social harmony as the basis for the strength of our nation. Indeed, if we don’t see the other Indian as an Indian, an equal Indian, our prosperity is like a body with an unknown disease eating it away.
I sincerely hope each one of us, asks ourselves – am I prejudiced towards a fellow Indian? Do I genuinely feel every Indian should have the same rights and opportunities? If I need to correct myself every day, I must until I find Mukti from that ugliness.
When you see something is wrong, speak up, and for God’s sake don’t slap religion on it, a bad guy is a bad guy regardless of his religion. Every group has rapists, murderers, cheaters, abusers…
Without criticism our country would have gone to dogs, it is the criticism that keeps the ruling parties in check, not completely but somewhat. I remember those newspapers editors, including Indian Express editor who went to jail protesting Indira Gandhi’s clamp out.
Ram and Madhu, I have got to salute them, and salute you for standing up against what you perceive things “to be wrong”. I will continue to present the good, bad and ugly of who we are.
We have to keep at it, the larger population of the nation believes in live and let live, and that gives me hope.
The two articles are at these links:
Ram Punyani - http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2015/05/one-year-of-modi-sarkar-hate-speech.html
Madhu Kishwar - http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2015/05/modi-is-like-new-bride-refashioning.html
Mike Ghouse for India
http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/
# # #
One Year of Modi
Sarkar: Hate Speech Galore
Ram Puniyani
The coming to power of
Narendra Modi in a way gave an open license to all the affiliates of RSS
combine to indulge in open hate speech against the religious minorities. The
current agenda behind the hate speech is to consolidate the communal
polarization of the society along lines of religion. The well known case of
MIM’s Akarbar Uddudin Owaisis’ hate speech has been despicable and very rightly
Akbarudin Owaisi had to be in jail for some time. The case against him should
be pursued and the legal course of action must befollowed. At the same
time what about the hate speech indulged in by the likes of Pravin Togadia,
Subramaniam Swami, Giriraj Singh, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Sadhvi Prachi, Sakshi
Mahraraj, Yogi Adityanth, Sanjay Raut and company?
Apart from these associates
of Hindu right wing patriarch, RSS, who are reported in the media, there are
many more indulging in the divisive speech and worsening the communal
situation. During this year they have started feeling emboldened as they know
it is ‘their’ Government and they can get away with it. Day in and day out they
are becoming more aggressive and vicious in their language. The hate speech
against religious minorities has been stepped up.
One recalls even before
Modi Sarkar assumed the seat of power the divisive activities of ‘BJP associates’ in the form of
propaganda of love jihad and Ghar Vapasi were
on, and they continued without any respite during this year. Soon after this
Government came to power in Pune, Mohsin Sheikh, a person working in IT was
hacked to death by activists of Hindu Jagran Sena, in the aftermath of morphed
pictures of Bal Thackeray and Shivaji being posted on the social media. The
attack on Churches was very glaring and the process which was dominant in Delhi
and Haryana was also witnessed in places like Panvel near Mumbai, Agra in UP
amongst other places.
Sakshi Maharaj not only
said that Godse was a patriot; he also went on to say that Hindu women should
produce four children, as Muslims are overtaking the population. Sadhvi Prachi
went to prescribe eight children for Hindu women. She also gave a call that the
Muslim film actors, Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan should be
boycotted. Pravin Togadia has been the leading person in making hate speeches;
he has the highest number of cases regarding hate speech against him. Yogi
Adityanath, BJP’s MP keeps making very derogatory remarks, He said that in
‘love jihad’ if one Hindu girl is converted then 100 Muslim girls should be
converted to Hinduism. The propaganda around love jihad keeps simmering and
various small and big leaders keep using it to divide the society. Same Yogi
went on to say that Mosques should be converted into den of pigs and that
Muslims should not be allowed to come to Hindu holy places.
Two central ministers of
Modi Sarkar, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Giriaj Singh made very insulting and
humiliating remarks about non Hindus and the color of skin of UPA chief Sonia
Gandhi. Niranjan Jyoti stated that all those who are non Hindus are
illegitimate, Haramzade. Giriraj Singh had earlier said that those
not voting for Modi should go to Pakistan. Interestingly he said this before
the elections and despite such a record he was elevated to the level of
minister in the Modi sarkar. He made racial comments about Sonia Gandhi
recently. Sakshi Mahraj also held Godse as a patriot, while his another party
colleague from Kerala, one Gopal Krishnan wrote in RSS mouth piece Keasri that
Godse chose a wrong target in killing Gandhi, he should have killed Nehru
instead. Subramaniam Swamy, one of the very senior leaders of BJP, said that
God lives in temples alone, not in mosques and Churches, The hidden implication
of this statement is fraught with danger. These are few of the samples from
what all has been stated during this year. Its impact in increasing the sense
of fear amongst religious minorities is more than obvious. BJP ally Shiv Sena’s
MP Sanjay Raut went to the extent of demanding that the voting rights of
Muslims should be revoked.
As such one realizes that
‘Hate speech’ is the outcome of the politics of divisiveness, it is the
concentrated expression of the ‘social common sense’ prevailing in the society,
it is the forth right and blunt way of putting things, which communal parties
propagate anyway. It is not out of the blue that these formulations suddenly
crop up, their infrastructure, the base of these has already been made by a
section of political outfits.
Also ‘Hate Speech’ in case
of India is an accompaniment of the politics in the name of religion and
language, and also many times it precedes the violence or helps in polarization
of communities for electoral benefits. While BJP was on the upswing during Ram
Temple campaign; one recalls that Sadhvi Ritambhara, was propped up for
pravachans (religious discourses) by RSS combine. She was bluntly talking anti
minority things, duly endorsed by communal political organizations. This took
place around the Babri demolition period.
One has been hearing
similar things from many a sadhus of VHP, small and sundry members of communal
gang, some Muslim communalists and the ilk of Togadia. There has been a more
sophisticated presentation of the similar formulations by many others. Modi, in
his initial rise to power talked divisive language, but kept changing the form
in a very subtle way to suit the needs of his political strategy. When he said
that post Gujarat refugee camps should be shut down as they have become
factories of production of children, he was reinforcing the propaganda about
Muslims having more number of children.
In the wake of Mumbai riots
Bal Thackeray had indulged in Hate speech, inciting his Shiv Sainiks to
undertake violence. He also got away with it due to clever way of putting his
vitriol and due to the lack of adequate laws which can distinguish the Hate
speech from freedom of expression, which can distinguish between one’s
political opinion and painting the ‘other’ community in a negative light.
Incidentally it is important to distinguish between criticizing a community and
criticizing a political organization. While political organizations can and
must be criticized, communities should not be humiliated or insulted. Also no
political organization can be synonymous with the religious community, whatever
its claims.
It is not only disturbing
but totally against the values of our democratic society that such ‘hate other’
ideology and speeches have become the weapon in the hands of a type of
politics, which thrives on exclusion, which identifies a particular religious
community as synonymous with the nation state. Again this ‘hate speech’ is the
language of a section of those who thrive on identity politics far away from
the real issues of the society.
As such Hate speech in
India entered the political arena with the rise of communal streams in
politics, like Muslim League on one side and Hindu Mahasabha and RSS on the
other. These streams believed in the nation based on one religious
community. These streams came from the sections of earlier rulers, landlords,
Nawabas and Rajas etc. The ideology of religion based nationalism is narrow and
it excludes ‘other’ from its notion of nationhood. These beliefs then get
converted into Hate other, and later turn in to ‘Hate speech’. This did form
the basis of many a communal violence in pre independence era and also during
the last two decades. Varun Gandhi, allegedly said ‘he will cut the hands’, is
a BJP MP.
In this atmosphere once a
while the BJP spokespersons will say that the view expressed by the particular
leader are ‘personal’ and stop at that. For BJP another escape clause is that
its associated organizations like VHP, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and Bajrang Dal
are formally different organizations though they are also part of RSS
controlled Sangh Parivar. They all are working in tandem with BJP for
actualization of agenda of Hindu Rashtra. So while BJP is not directly
responsible for their actions, the direction of the actions is the same. Many a
people call these organizations as fringe elements, while as a matter of fact
there is a division of labor between these organizations. These have become
more aggressive during this time. And surely after the Modi Sarkar coming to
power their vitriol has become more intense.
