With his Parliament speech, Modi undermined his own case
Amulya Ganguli
There are three aspects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech in parliament -- which was probably his most combative in recent times -- that deserve attention.
First and foremost is the undeniable fact that he is today by far the most effective speaker in Indian politics. His oratory has the potential, therefore, of carrying the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) well ahead of the others.
It is such attributes which can have a seminal impact on events. It may not be inappropriate to mention in this context that but for Hitler's rousing eloquence, the Nazis would not have become -- albeit for a decade -- the force that they were in Germany.
However, the success of such declamation lies in a one-sided articulation of a viewpoint devoid of nuances and marked by a blindness to the possible flaws in the presenter's own case. But more of that later. For the present, it is worth noting the second feature of Modi's speech, which was an unrelenting focus on the Congress to the exclusion of all other parties.
What this approach emphasised is that despite the Congress's present weakened condition, it is still perceived by the BJP as a major threat. A corollary to this perception is that the BJP's dream of a Congress-mukt Bharat or an India without the Congress will not be easy for the party to achieve.
What is more, the Prime Minister's speech was a pointer to the political reality that at the national level, a virtual two-party system has come into being in India. The two leading parties may have their allies but, notwithstanding the latter's influences in their local areas, they are no more than appendages to the two main players with little possibility of replacing the two top parties at the Centre.
However, a caveat is necessary at this point. It is that the clout of today's BJP is entirely due to Modi. There is no one else in the party who can take his place. No one can say with certainty how the BJP will fare if he is dislodged. The present primacy of the two parties is heavily dependent, therefore, on personalities (in the Congress's case it is the Nehru-Gandhis) rather than on their respective organisations.
The third aspect of Modi's speech is the stress on the Congress's -- and, as a result, on the country's -- past, since the history of the 132-year-old party is intertwined with Indian history since well before Independence.
As it is, the past played a major role in the BJP's politics considering that its elevation into the mainstream of Indian political life from the margins was based on raking up the depredations of Muslim invaders in medieval times, including the destruction of temples and the building of mosques in their place such as the one in Ayodhya in 1528 on a site regarded as the birthplace of Lord Ram, venerated by Hindus.
From the 16th century to the 20th was but one step for Modi when he put the onus on the Congress for the partition and all that followed, including the division of Kashmir. Modi's contention that the division would not have taken place if Vallabhbhai Patel was the Prime Minister in place of Jawaharlal Nehru was no more than a surmise, but what it underlined was the BJP's current game plan of denigrating at every available opportunity India's first Prime Minister.
The disparagement of Nehru began in Ram Nath Kovind's first speech as the President when he omitted the first Prime Minister's name from the list of those he mentioned, which included Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, the Hindutva brigrade's latest icon about whom little is known to the average Indian outside the Sangh Parivar.
However, nothing showed the bias of the saffron brotherhood more starkly than Modi's refusal to credit Nehru with the establishment of democracy in India since, as he said, democratic principles have marked the country's polity since the time of Lord Buddha.
Even if, for argument's sake, this point is conceded, it would have been interesting if Modi had dwelt on the teachings of Buddha's disciple Emperor Asoka about tolerance -- "one should listen to and respect the doctrines professed by others" -- when a BJP MP, Vinay Katiyar, was reiterating M.S. Golwalkar's diktat about Muslims having no right to live in India when they have carved out of the subcontinent two homelands for themselves -- West Pakistan and East Pakistan (now Pakistan and Bangladesh.
True, the Congress has much to be ashamed of -- dynasticism and corruption being the foremost among them -- but for a Prime Minister to be so ahistorical in his outlook as to believe that the Congress's earlier electoral successes were based solely on the weakness of the opposition and help from the NGOs is odd, to say the least. History is as complex as the reasons for the choice of the people of one party over another.
As a matter of fact, Modi undermined his own case by devoting virtually his entire speech to a party which he thinks should listen to Gandhi's advice to disband itself.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmaill.com)
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Trouble ‘Miyas’ everywhere only then they will leave Assam: Himanta Biswa Sarma
Says “Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP are openly against them, we are saying it openly
New Delhi: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that four to five lakh “Miya voters” would be removed from the electoral rolls in the state once the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists is carried out. He also made a series of controversial remarks openly targeting the Miya community, a term commonly used in Assam in a derogatory sense to refer to Bengali-speaking Muslims.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an official programme in Digboi in Tinsukia district, Sarma said it was his responsibility to create difficulties for the Miya community and claimed that both he and the BJP were “directly against Miyas”.
“Four to five lakh Miya votes will have to be deleted in Assam when the SIR happens,” Sarma said, adding that such voters “should ideally not be allowed to vote in Assam, but in Bangladesh”. He asserted that the government was ensuring that they would not be able to vote in the state.
The chief minister was responding to questions about notices issued to thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims during the claims and objections phase of the ongoing Special Revision (SR) of electoral rolls in Assam. While the Election Commission is conducting SIR exercises in 12 states and Union Territories, Assam is currently undergoing an SR, which is usually meant for routine updates.
Calling the current SR “preliminary”, Sarma said that a full-fledged SIR in Assam would lead to large-scale deletion of Miya voters. He said he was unconcerned about criticism from opposition parties over the issue.
“Let the Congress abuse me as much as they want. My job is to make the Miya people suffer,” Sarma said. He claimed that complaints filed against members of the community were done on his instructions and that he had encouraged BJP workers to keep filing complaints.
“I have told people wherever possible they should fill Form 7 so that they have to run around a little and are troubled,” he said, adding that such actions were meant to send a message that “the Assamese people are still living”.
In remarks that drew further outrage, Sarma urged people to trouble members of the Miya community in everyday life, claiming that “only if they face troubles will they leave Assam”. He also accused the media of sympathising with the community and warned journalists against such coverage.
“So you all should also trouble, and you should not do news that sympathise with them. There will be love jihad in your own house.” He said.
The comments triggered reactions from opposition leaders. Raijor Dal president and MLA Akhil Gogoi said the people of Assam had not elected Sarma to keep one community under constant pressure. Congress leader Aman Wadud accused the chief minister of rendering the Constitution meaningless in the state, saying his remarks showed a complete disregard for constitutional values.
According to the draft electoral rolls published on December 27, Assam currently has 2.51 crore voters. Election officials said 4.78 lakh names were marked as deceased, 5.23 lakh as having shifted, and 53,619 duplicate entries were removed during the revision process. Authorities also claimed that verification had been completed for over 61 lakh households.
On January 25, six opposition parties the Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(M-L) submitted a memorandum to the state’s chief electoral officer. They alleged widespread legal violations, political interference and selective targeting of genuine voters during the SR exercise, describing it as arbitrary, unlawful and unconstitutional.
