Modi's biggest contribution to India is teaching it to hate Democracy is a celebration of contrasts and differences, diversity and change.

VOICES | 5-minute read | 09-03-2018

It seems to be finally dawning on the people that "Modistan" is the same as "Rogistan".

As the BJP wins election after election to now rule 21 states in India, victory galas and revelry should swamp party cadres. Instead, what have the BJP and its Sangh ideologues ushered in? The plague of hatred, bigotry, acrimony, bile and an overpowering majoritarian rage to smash history, Dalits, minorities, free thought, cultures, eating habits, multiculturalism, classicism, and now, statues.

Oye BJP, kahe so angry?

Let’s look at random history since Modi became the prime minister. In the latest statue-smashing politics of hatred, BJP leaders like party strategist Ram Madhav and Tripura governor Tathagata Roy, the constitutional head of the state, first celebrates the bringing down of Lenin’s statue, by tweeting that it’s okay “for one democratically elected government to undo what another government can do” or the jubilant “Lenin statue down in Tripura, not Russia, let’s change”, to swiftly deleting the tweets after it was pointed out that it’s an act of vandalism and wrongfulness.

Democracy, in case they have to be educated, is a celebration of contrasts and differences, diversity and change.

Why should Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath declare barely three days after the Holi festival of spring that he’s a “proud Hindu” and assert even more haughtily, "I’m a Hindu, I don’t celebrate Eid. I am not one of those who sport sacred thread (Janeu) and at the same time wear cap (Muslim topi) and kneel down to offer prayers".

Has Yogi Adityanath declared UP to be a Hindu state and is his allegiance to the Gorakhnath Mutt of which he is the head priest, and not to the Indian Constitution?

Does the mahant know that “secularism” is included in the preamble to the Constitution? Can he make his position clear?

The UP CM should have been booked on criminal charges from attempt to murder to rioting and possession of a deadly weapon, to trespassing on burial grounds and more. Instead, he brought in a government diktat that throws out “frivolous cases” and his government merrily drops all charges against him.

Then the Yogi has attempted to foment hatred among communities by exhorting Hindu men to marry 100 Muslim women in retaliation to "love jihad", or saying Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan speaks the same language as Pakistani terrorist Hafiz Saeed - apart from allowing Sanghi outfits to threaten Christian schools from celebrating Christmas to slashing holidays in madrasas, thus inconveniencing students.

Is Hindutva so much about hatred, Yogiji?

Of course, the UP CM must have got his lessons from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who famously refused to wear the topi when some Muslim leaders had once gone to meet him. But it was the Modi government, which within months of being elected to power declared Christmas Day as Good Governance Day.

If that wasn’t a communally provocative move, it then went ahead and declared Good Friday, a day of prayers and penance for Christians, as Digital India Day.

It would have forced state governments and central bureaucrats to be present in office to commemorate the government diktat on what would have been traditional religious holidays.

Why so angry, Modiji?

There are the murderous lynchings and vigilantism by so-called "gau rakshaks" against legitimate cattle traders and buffalo slaughterhouses. But the Modi government’s forked tongue reply that it’s a "law and order problem" tries desperately to underplay the atmosphere of hatred that has colonised large sections of the people. Or the tragic suicide of a Dalit student in Hyderabad which exposed the Modi government’s abject lies about the student’s death; apart from attack on Dalits by Hindutva vigilantes in Modi’s hometown in Gujarat when they were trying to skin a dead cow, to being attacked by Hindutva groups in Bhima-Koregaon in Pune on January 1, 2018, when they were commemorating a British defeat, helped by a Dalit leader, of the Peshwas, 200 years ago.

It’s no longer about hatred for Muslims, Dalits, Christians, women, but about including everyone who is against the Modi government - critics, analysts, students, common folk who are skeptical and hesitating, and question the Modi government - are roundly called out with the choicest of abuses such as traitors, anti-nationals, communists, Lutyen’s liberals etc. Also, that they should all go to Pakistan. Of course, goaded and aided by a lackey media, hilariously called “Modi Godi (Modi’s lap media)”.

Why so mean-spirited, Modiji?

Why do millions of your ardent fans and followers who have mostly never been a victim of communal riots or who are mostly "upper caste" and Hindu, hate minorities and Dalits with such venom?

Why is lynching and murdering cow traders a defence of Hindu culture, but blinding teen stone-throwers with pellet guns in Kashmir admissible? Because they are branded terrorists?

What is this state ideology of hatred?

What is this constant whirring of images of barbaric, bloodthirsty, ruthless Mughals when there is a rich tapestry of history and culture that this country has also inherited, alongside battles and conquest? And, why so silent about British colonialism and its unabashed plunder?

Is it because the RSS leadership prohibited its cadres’ participation in Independence movements, which has been well-researched and accepted?

Modiji, are you fogging your own dodgy history?

Also read: Why I'm sure Modi will win 2019 Lok Sabha elections hands down