There's no stopping the juggernaut called Narendra Modi. After the recent electoral successes, the Prime Minister looks totally unassailable, the lord of all he surveys. Even his worst critics like Aakar Patel and Rajdeep Sardesai have concluded that Modi is the most powerful politician and PM India has ever had. Not a small feat for someone who had long been haunted by the Gujarat 2002 pogrom and remained an international pariah for years. Modi's meteoric rise and rise would serve as a fascinating case study for all students of politics. How an RSS pracharak, with little formal education and experience and parachuted by the BJP as the Gujarat chief minister, ripped the rulebook to succeed. The numerous court cases, including a harsh rebuke by the Supreme Court for the 2002 carnage, have only been exploited to build his fearsome legend. Using his celebrity as a Muslim-baiter and tough-talking administrator, he upstaged his mentor Advani as well as rivals like Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh, winning the BJP's nomination for the top job. The recent reopening of the Babri Masjid demolition case against Advani and others is part of the same Chanakyan game of realpolitik. Besides, it keeps the pot boiling nicely until 2019. Even as the most rabid elements of the Sangh act out their agenda, Modi has preached "sab ka saath, sab ka vikas" (Progress for All) with a straight face, perpetuating a fiction that means all things to all people. This has been the hallmark of his journey all these years — saying something and encouraging his flock to do quite the opposite. Frequent foreign sojourns have ensured that the world powers and their media remain helpfully indifferent even as Hindutva bigots kill and terrorize Muslims across the land in the name of cow and "love jihad". Not a day passes without the defenders of cow targeting Muslims and even unsuspecting, innocent bystanders all over the country. Over the past year or so, a dozen people have been killed in these attacks and hundreds grievously injured. If such attacks targeting religious minorities had taken place in other democracies, they would have set off a political storm, if not brought down governments. In the world's largest democracy, they barely cause a ripple. The daily attacks on minorities and low-caste Dalits are the new normal of BJP's India. In any other country, a character like Yogi Adityanath would be behind bars for his incendiary hate speeches and attacks on minorities — the priest of Gorakhnath temple indeed faces a number of cases for instigating riots and religious violence. Under the BJP, he has been crowned the ruler of India's largest state. Is it any surprise then his rag-tag army of thugs has been going on the rampage across the state, brandishing swords and sticks? Last week, a BJP MP led a violent mob to ransack the office of a top cop for trying to prevent a riot in Saharanpur. It's not just UP; it is a free-for-all out there in much of the country, except for the south of Vindhyas. The might is right. As the BJP's rule and sphere of influence grows, so does its hubris and cynical politics of hate. Except for some states in the South, the land of Buddha and Gandhi is now ruled by folks who have always opposed and fought their pacifist teachings and worldview. No wonder the "party with a difference" feels increasingly emboldened and is showing its true colors. And in the line of fire are nearly 200 million Muslims who remain the most politically and economically dispossessed community. Despite having ruled India for a thousand years, they are worse than lowest of the low — low caste Dalits. The Muslims have become the new Dalits of India as they are hunted like animals by people who claim to love animals. The Jim Crows of India, if you will. What is remarkable about this whole state of affairs is the extraordinary veneer of peace and progress that the BJP dispensation has maintained, preaching tolerance, yoga and war on terror around the world. While the PM preaches the virtues of Digital India, Make in India, Clean India and all that jazz, the saffron brotherhood is busy dismantling the very idea of a democratic and inclusive India and dragging the country back to the Stone Age. It is no coincidence that the RSS shakhas poisoning the minds of generations of Indians and training them in martial arts daily against the demonized Other have mushroomed in thousands across the country over the past few years. Unfortunately, in this battle for India's soul, the media has been acting as the handmaiden and instrument of the government. By failing to confront and question the powers that be, it has not just neglected its duty; it has enabled the ongoing war on the nation's liberal, secular Constitution promising equal rights and equal share in power for all. Except for some courageous voices on the Left, most media houses — many of them now owned by the BJP's friendly moneybags — and journalists have chosen to crawl before the emperor. The international media is no better. Except for occasional reportage and angry editorials by papers like New York Times and the Guardian and concerns expressed by rights groups, much of the world media and international community remains indifferent to the unfolding disaster. Who cares as long as India remains the fastest growing economy and rolls out red carpet for international investors! In the words of eminent lawyer and rights activist Prashant Bhushan, "what is happening in the country today has many similarities with what happened in Germany and Italy in the 30s when Hitler and Mussolini came to power. The ideology is similar and so is the method of mass mobilization. The resemblance of the Nazi methods to the ones deployed by the current dispensation in India is disconcerting." Bhushan goes on to argue: "Today, the Constitution and the rule of law are both under unprecedented threat. The judiciary and the media, which are supposed to check such threats, are also not playing their role. This happens when fascist regimes emerge through elections. Such threats, browbeating and sometimes blackmail often lead to the subjugation and collapse of the regulatory institutions like the judiciary and the media. That's exactly what is happening today. If all this goes unchecked, the consequences will be disastrous. India will descend into the same kind of situation that Germany and Italy faced, with the collapse of Constitution, rule of law and democracy." The question is, who will stop this breathless march to perdition? If anyone can reclaim India, it is its silent, sensible majority. It must speak up. — Aijaz Zaka Syed is an award winning journalist. Email: [email protected]
