By Dr. Gyan Pathak
On a sacred religious occasion of Dussehra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, played a vicious game of communal politics, when he expressed his diagnosis on social disharmony alleging ‘casteism’ and ‘regionalism’ as the causes, but not even mentioning the hate speeches based on religious bias and communalism. He was grossly wrong on facts and also on his intent.
PM Modi was addressing a gathering on October 24 on DDA ground in Dwarka in Delhi who were there to celebrated ‘Ravana’s effigy burning’ organised by Dwarka Shri Ram Leela Society. He was there for the second time after 2019, and made use of the sacred occasion for political purposes, when five states are going to polls in November, considered a semi-final for Lok Sabha election 2024 in which he and his party would be seeking for their third term.
It is simply an act of blasphemy, if chanting of “Jay Shri Ram” means anything other than “Victory to Shri Ram the God”. Praising and denigrating any human being by using this slogan as a tool for political purposes is indeed irreligious. Let it be so, the announcer, certainly a political activist of the RSS-BJP clan, welcomed PM Narendra Modi as he stood on the stage with “Jai Shri Ram” slogan as a tool to enhance the communal politics of the clan. Misuse of religious gathering for politics was obvious.
PM Modi wished well to the citizens of India in his speech, reminding the people the underlying principle of “Vijayadashami” which is victory of justice over injustice. The dichotomy in his speech was obvious, since we have seen how he has been keeping his lips closed on numerous injustices, such as in case of recent violence in Manipur. However, he said that the sentiment behind effigy burning was not enough, we need to reiterate the pledges. What about action to end the injustices being done under his premiership? He did not talk about appropriate action to end the injustices.
He talked a lot about actions, but about only those that was useful to boast about his perceived achievement, though one may not agree with him. For example, he wrongly mentioned India’s victory on the Moon, an exaggerated idea of winning a celestial body that helps to boast. India has just reached there. How can it be victory over the Moon?
He boasted about having wisdom of the Shrimadbhagvad Gita, while projecting India as the worshiper of the brute force and the armament. His political signal was clear when he said that we know the restraint but also how to defend our borders. It was expression of what was deep inside him, both for domestic and international players.
Apart from boasting about magnanimity and brute force to be applied to others, he expressed something deep inside in his heart, the Hindutva politics. Her referred to ‘construction of Ram Temple at Ayodhya’, which everybody knows as one of the chief religio-political Hindutva promise for playing the majoritarian Hindu politics.
He goes on boasting on economy and wealth creation, but without mentioning the great inequality that has been widening under his rule. With the intention of putting it under cover, he said that we are going to be the third largest economy in the world. The reality is that the wealth creation is limited to only handful of the rich.
Women are half of the electorate, and hence, he talked about the Women Reservation Bill recently passed in the parliament of India. RSS-BJP clan calls this Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, so does our Prime Minister. The reality is that it was nothing but a political stratagem, since PM Modi never intended it to be implemented immediately. The Bill has been linked to Census and delimitation, and the government itself has said that it could be implemented only after 2029, that is after the two Lok Sabha election from now. Independent analysts say that it could only be implemented after 2032 and by 2039, only if appropriated actions are taken by the future governments.
There is no denying the fact the PM Narendra Modi has been in need of defending himself as a democratic leader, since the world believes him to be autocratic, under whose regime hundreds for people have been prosecuted under sedition and draconian laws of the country denying the jailed persons even the right of an accused under Criminal Procedure Code. No wonder he has been reiterating that India is the “Mother of Democracy”, while the entire opposition allege him to be “murderer of democracy”. He asserted that world is looking at the “Mother of Democracy” and a dawn is approaching India after 75 years of her independence, implying that nothing had been done by former governments, which is again a political lie.
Then he goes on targeting other opposition political parties for pursuing casteism and regionalism, which according to him brings social disharmony. In fact he was making allusion to political parties that have promised for caste census if voted to power. No doubt, caste based injustice and inequality are still prevailing in the country, and their removal needed political movements. Since RSS-BJP play Hindutva politics, they see the opposition move as political threat to their politics. Moreover, he targeted regionalism as a threat to social disharmony, at a time PM Modi himself is facing a grave political threat from the regional political parties across the country.
Politics reverberates even his ten pledges that he wanted the people of the country to take. These have in fact nothing to do with religion or the principle underlying Dussehra celebrations. For example, the second pledge was to inspire people for digital transaction. In the fourth pledge he calls for “Vocal for Local” which has to do with economy. He is in fact against “Vocal for Local” in politics which he brands as regionalism, which according to him brings social disharmony. It should be noted that he has been accused of violating the federal secular democratic republic structure of the country. He only talks about well being of all poor citizens but in the 10th pledge expects people to do that as a cover of government failure in bridging the inequality between the poor and the rich, rather widening it through its policies since 2014. (IPA Service)
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