Obama caution not gratuitous

Do Indians really need United States President Barack Obama’s counsel that they will progress as long as they do not get splintered on sectarian lines? It is clear as daylight. And there is the past – a divided India has fallen prey to foreign invasions.

Yet, there is something inexplicable, perhaps diabolic, about the way changes in law, even the Constitution, are mooted and when that triggers a controversy, they are rolled back.

Poor people belonging to religious minorities are coaxed, cajoled, threatened or bribed to convert. When there are protests, Union Ministers ask why not change the law to ban ‘illegal conversions.’ The idea is to render the current conversions ‘legal.’

Preamble from the 1950 Constitution is ‘mistakenly’ displayed. Shiv Sena uses this to ask, why not drop ‘Secular’ and ‘Socialist’ that were incorporated later. “We have never been secular and socialist,” it argues. Again, some Union Ministers justify it and want a debate. When that gets controversial, the idea of debating and dropping the two words itself is dropped.

As Information Minister and the government’s chief legal brain, Arun Jaitley, has put a stop to the talk of any changes in the Preamble. Thankfully, Amit Shah endorses it and Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat also wants India’s diversity ‘celebrated.’

It is good because there is unease within the NDA. Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal, who represents Akali Dal and thus, the minority Sikhs, has opposed both moves.

These forth-back- and-forth moves on sensitive issues leave people confused, and those who cause the mischief play for time to renew their acts later. Why isn’t Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking up? Economist magazine asks whether his silence is because he believes in conversions. Himself brought up in the Sangh training and tradition, can he alter or negate the Sangh agenda?

Then, how does all this match with his development agenda that has impressed the young who continue to vote for him, the business and industry that support him and the world community that is impressed with him and has expectations?

Some minority groups have converted, but it is not possible to put the clock back on history. The whole idea of conversion offends the minorities and remains highly contentious. There are reactions to the conversions to which Modi and his party cannot be oblivious.

Media reports indicate that the conversions are being stopped. Pravin Togadia of Vishwa Hindu Parishad who converted 100 tribal Christians in Gujarat has been charged with “hurting religious sentiments.” But new plans are frequently announced. The signals are conflicting. Is there a method in this?

Outbursts of fanatical nature preceded the conversions. They can easily be identified to associates of the Sangh Parivar and are not without tacit approval from their mentors. They are actually drums beaten to produce sounds of those who want to further the Sangh agenda, taking the advantage of the Modi-led government. These outbursts are indications of the steam let off from the simmering cauldrons inside. They are not individual actions with a different point of view. Hailing Godse, assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, as patriot, while on the treasury bench, cannot be a mindless outburst.

If Modi is a Gandhi follower, placing rose petals at the statue in his office and gifting Bhagawad Geeta’s interpretation by the Mahatma to the world leaders, why are statues and films of Godse being planned?

They certainly are an embarrassment to Modi who seems to have undertaken the task of completing the Gandhian mission that the Congress governments left unfinished. For one, he has made it his personal mission to provide toilets in every home and clean India by 2019, the year of the Mahatma’s 150th birth anniversary. But the Sangh Parivar, mentored by Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), of which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the political wing, has its own agenda and an identical deadline of 2019 for constructing Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

Modi has maintained a mysterious silence over an ultimatum the Sangh recently gave to his government on the temple issue. This has provoked the Sangh Parivar to bless conversions. Despite strong resentment expressed all over, the RSS chief announced from a public platform in Kolkata that the programme of ‘Ghar Wapasi’ (homecoming) would continue. His withdrawal from it later was tactical and half-hearted. The message had already gone out.

While Modi has hailed Mahatma Gandhi as Yug Purush, Sakshi Maharaj, a BJP Lok Sabha member, has hailed Godse as true patriot. He took back his words, but soon bounced back, recommending four children for every Hindu couple as response to the supposed proliferation of Muslim population. Not only does this flout government policy; it panders to an atavistic fear that Hindus are producing fewer children than Muslims.

Maharaj recommends a course that even the poor, of all communities, have voluntarily given up. They realise that it is difficult to raise even two children. Importance of education has forced them to give up their old ways of having more hands to work for the family. They realise that large families jeopardise all efforts to accelerate the process of economic development.

Apparently at Modi’s instance, the party finally served a show-cause notice on Sakshi Maharaj. This is also a notice on the Sangh because everyone knows that Sakshi Maharaj, not a novice in politics, would not have dared open his mouth unless he was sure of the strong support.

It needs recalling that Modi undertook to lead the BJP in the last election only on the agenda of all round economic development. Placing the need for toilets over temples, he had campaigned for it single handed and built his own election machinery with extensive and effective use of modern communication means, winning a majority for his party.

It also needs recalling that he jettisoned divisive and controversial issues with which the BJP has been identified for long. This yielded the party 283 seats in the Lok Sabha. But his silent critics in the Sangh who want to leverage the Parivar’s organisational strength to push the ‘Hindutva’ programme, are pointing out that it is only ten more than the simple majority.

The BJP’s winning spree in the states that went to the polls in last eight months indicates a continued support to his development agenda. That the economy is doing better is in turn pushing people’s aspirations higher.

There is an ongoing tussle, although it will be vehemently denied by all concerned. It has the potential of the Parivar trying to pull the parliamentary rug from under Modi’s feet if he effectively blocks the Hindutva agenda. The strain is showing.

By: Mahendra Ved