India, as a nation, is rife with speculations on the divided nature of our society today. For some these speculations are hard truths not because there are valid reasons to support such a development, but more because they just want to believe in the idea that India is a divided society. This belief in turn seems to serve them well as it gives them a reason to be vocal, to challenge the establishment and an opportunity to seek visibility. Politicians, social activists, religious bigots, media personnel, showbiz luminaries, business tycoons to students in universities, the cross section of people believing in the idea of a divided India has found some takers in nearly every section of the society. Today the nation is at a point where the number of such believers seems to have reached a critical point.

That is something the nation as a whole has to stand up and worry about because if it tips on the wrong side, the nation will see mass protests and anarchy may prevail in the country. Such a development has the potential of creating a Hindu – Muslim divide that may become a permanent part of our Indian society.

The reality is that these speculations on division of the society were expected once BJP came to power in 2014 led by Mr Narendra Modi and not Mr L K Advani. No sooner was the new government in power, rumours started doing the rounds that government would be remote controlled by RSS, an organisation that has only one agenda – to make India a Hindu nation.

The fact that Mr Modi had been hounded by previous Congress governments for nearly a dozen years for his perceived role in 2002 Gujarat riots was now used as a tool to paint him as anti-Muslim. Those who were opposed to BJP and hated Mr Modi, used these two perceptions to create a feeling of fear among Muslims in the country. It did not matter if Mr Modi was cleared by nation’s judicial system of all the charges levelled against him of any complicity in the riots. The fact that none of the top functionaries of RSS were in any active role in the government too was of no concern. Soon anything and everything that the government did was given communal colour by these people in their single minded pursuit of creating an environment of distrust among Muslims towards the government.

In last four decades the two most heinous and biggest manmade disasters in this country have been the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the 1990-91 ethnic cleansing of Kashmir valley.

Enough has been written and said for both and how the state and national governments of the day sat twiddling their thumbs while mayhem ruled. One wonders why all these who are championing the protests today were silent then. Today they are vocal to the point of being anti-national at times and deliberately make mountains of molehills to push their selfish agendas. These people who did nothing in 1984 and 1990-91 are now engaged in creating a massive manmade horror in the form of a communal divide between Hindus and Muslims that will haunt the nation for decades to come if not checked in time.

As long as this despicable activity of promoting communal divide was restricted to politicians, social activists, pseudo liberals and some religious leaders in the past, it was more of an irritant and not really a mass movement. Over a period of time the nation had understood that for these people it was part of their profession to do so. But now after the passage of Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAA) this has taken a dangerous turn. There is no doubt that the government has failed in communicating effectively with the population to bust all myths about CAA (and NRC) being anti-Muslim. Their feeble attempts to convince Muslims that it has nothing to do with any current citizen of India has found few takers in the community. This communication gap has been exploited by the anti-government lobby to spread false fears within Muslim community regarding their future status in India. Once this belief took roots in the Muslim population, it was not long before some in this lobby even canvassed for full citizenship rights for illegal Rohingya Muslims too.

The problem took a more serious turn first when educated Indians started questioning government’s stand on CAA without really understanding the implications of the bill. When nation’s youth from some of the universities too joined the protests the situation became grave. Government’s opponents soon saw this as an opportunity and pushed the youth to the forefront and ensured that protests turned violent. It was a given that any police action against students would not go well with public at large.

It also had the potential of spreading rapidly to other universities of the country as part of student solidarity. Both these understandings have been proved right over the last few weeks. While bulk of protesting youth are from Muslim community, there is a sizeable number from other communities as well. It is a different matter that many are just there so as to be seen and not because of any firm conviction. This is because over the last few years it has become fashionable for youth to be seen as anti-government and anti-establishment – kind courtesy over the hill and free loading student fraternity of JNU.

The need for CAA and NRC is not debatable. The fact that past governments too framed policies in this direction and carried out limited work towards their implementation only proves this point. The question is how government should proceed in the current vitiated environment in the country. First it is important that government does no backtracking on CAA. It may be prudent for authorities to be transparent in who and how many immigrants will get citizenship under this act. The only concession that may be considered is to limit NRC to affected states like Assam and a few others along the border with Bangladesh. National NRC perhaps can wait for a more opportune time and could become part of the next census in 2021 by default.

There is no doubt that JNU as an institution is setting a wrong example for other universities and for the nation’s youth as a whole. Government should consider setting up an autonomous governing council for this institution made up of eminent educationists and other personalities but none from political fraternity, pseudo liberals or past alumni of the institution. The council must be given a free hand to revamp this institution towards the singular goal of achieving academic excellence. The institution should only have a student committee as opposed to a multitude of politically affiliated student unions. Student subsidies and freebies should be revisited and available to only deserving students based on sole criteria of excellence in academics instead of giving the same across the board. The council must ensure that JNU stops being a parking ground for those who have yet to fathom out what to make of their life.

It is time for the government to take control of the situation instead of letting it prevail for any extended length of time. The negativity that is spreading internally and externally must be stemmed since it impacts the nation’s image adversely. If India is a democracy then how can laws passed in parliament be questioned by one and sundry? If protesting by a minority is a right under the constitution, implementation of laws passed by the parliament (read majority) have much greater democratic and constitutional sanctity. Can a democratic nation survive if any law passed by the parliament is not allowed to be implemented by a few who oppose it? It is time for democracy to exert itself in the nation – both in spirit and in word.