Former metro editor of “The Times of India”, Mumbai, Singh’s column in the daily “The Fault With Reality” in FPJ, which he began at the start of the pandemic, was suddenly discontinued following his last piece ‘India isn’t a safe place for comedians either’ (May 7, 2022), where he scathingly asks, “Where was the need to rely on the global index published by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders when hundreds of your own brethren are being locked up under trumped-up charges ranging from sedition to spreading infectious diseases?”

While the book doesn’t contain this last piece, there is reason to wonder why the column wasn’t stopped earlier. No doubt, it has several pieces on environment, urban development, architecture and heritage in Mumbai, but Singh, ever since he began writing in early 2020, was always strongly critical of Modi and his policies.

In “Mahatma of the New Millennium?”, which he wrote on September 20, 2020, for instance, he says, the common man is led to believe that if Nehru “thrust alien concepts such as secularism on us”, while Modi “is a homespun hero” not hesitant “about flaunting his Hindu identity”, hence he “embodies their hopes and aspirations today just as Gandhi once did.”

Disputing this, he comments, “Gandhi harvested hope, Modi harvests hatred. Gandhi appealed to the higher values, Modi is a rabble-rouser. The Mahatma insisted that the end should not justify the means and called off the non-cooperation movement at its height in 1922 after the Chauri Chaura incident when a mob burnt a police station with the 22 cops and three civilians in it. Modi’s handling of the Godhra riots which saw over 1,000 deaths was not seen as ‘raj dharma’ by his own party leader, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.”

He continues, “Gandhi would surely launch a satyagraha against the undeclared Emergency of today, he would join the Shaheen Baug sit-in, side with Prashant Bhushan over the contempt of court case and demand the release of scholars such as Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha and Varavara Rao and others held for over two years in the farcical Bhima Koregaon case.”

Despite such writeups, the column continued for two long years till May 2022. Indeed, there is reason to ask: Did FPJ owners sense which way would the political mood in Maharashtra was likely to move in early May 2022, a little over month before Uddhav Thackeray’s coalition government with Congress and NCP was to collapse, giving way to the breakaway Shiv Sena under Eknath Shinde forming government with BJP as partner?

Indeed, Singh remains critical of Modi or his policies all through. In “Modi’s Temples of Modern India”, for instance, he says, “Modi and his masters in the RSS” razed “Nehruvian temples and build their own on the ruins”, noting, “Some mad cow disease has afflicted our research institutes. IIT-Delhi received several proposals from top research institutions to explore the benefits of panchagavya, a mixture of five cow products: urine, dung, milk, ghee and curd.”

Then, critical of the Modi establishment for dismantling of institutions, he states how the Election Commission of India went out of the way to hurriedly disqualify 20 Aam Aadmi Party MLAs from Delhi on the ‘office of profit’ charge; how the Chief Information Commissioner has turned into a toothless tiger after the RTI Rules-2019; and how nobody hears about the Lokpal and the Lokayuktas, who are supposed to be ombudsmen representing public interest.

At one place, he asks, is Modi the “the same man who swears by Lord Ram who went to the extent of banishing his wife based on hearsay?”, even as reporting elsewhere that donations were being solicited for the Ram Temple “in the middle of a pandemic”. He comments, “Babies die like flies in our hospitals for lack of oxygen cylinders, as in Gorakhpur, or are charred to death because of faulty incubators, as in the Bhandara civil hospital in Maharashtra, but we are obsessed with a temple for Ram ‘lalla’.”

At another place, pointing towards how “religion has been weaponised to suit political ends”, he states, under the Modi dispensation, Ram rajya and ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ are just ‘jumlas’; the rule of law is an alien concept; lynch mobs will rule the streets and troll armies will rule the information highways; and those like Harsh Mander, who quit IAS to work for communal harmony and launched Karwan-e-Mohabbat campaign in solidarity with the victims of communal violence, are sought be prosecuted for ‘hate speech’.

Singh asks, “Are lynch mobs our answer to the alleged appeasement of Muslims by the Congress?”

The author wants the love poems of Bharatiya sanskriti must feature in Valentine’s cards, quotes Kalidas and Jayadeva’s Geet Govinda

The post This book reasons why Ram rajya and ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ have been just ‘jumlas’ appeared first on SabrangIndia.

After 2014 victory Modi, Prime Minister of India had promised that he will implement Sabka Sath; Sabka Vikas (Taking everybody along, development for all). To this slogan he has now added Sabka Vishwas (Every body’s Trust) Many prominent writers and activists from Muslim community in particular are trying to reassure themselves that he will keep his promise and not intimidate or oppress, religious minorities, Muslims and Christians. It’s always good to be optimistic and keep the hope alive, but the nagging experience in the recent past of Sabka Vikas raises many questions. The ideology of Hindu nationalism to which Modi belongs also gives rise to the doubts about such a promise. The goal of Hindu rashtra, the agenda of Hindu right pursued by Modi further dampens the chances of hopeful vision of inclusive peaceful India.

During last five years of Modi regime what was witnessed was the increasing sense of insecurity among the minorities. On the top of divisive campaigns like Ram Temple, Ghar Wapasi and love jihad was added the issue of ‘holy cow’-beef eating which took the identity related hysteria to the sky. This brought to the forefront the phenomenon of lynching of Muslims and beatings of Dalits. The atrocities heaped on these two communities in particular were frightening. What is called ‘fringe laments’, which are the core part of ‘division of labour’ of Hindu nationalist politics, became more aggressive during this period. Those in power not only turned a blind eye to doings of these aggressive elements but also gave the hints of appreciation of these cruel acts done by saffron robed, ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chanting crowds. These elements were given the signals, that with this government in power, such acts are a new normal. The example of Mahesh Sharma, the Union minster draping the body of lynching accused with tri colour and Jayant Sinha another minister honouring the lynching accused, which got bail, were the permanent approval certificates to those who were to indulge in such barbarian acts. These acts intimidated and marginalized the Muslims to no end. While not to this horrible extent, even Christians had their own share of the woes, as their prayer meetings and Carol singing teams were attacked in the name of ‘attempts for conversion’.

With this background of ‘Sabka saath Sabka Vikas’, Mr. Modi has now come to power with increased vote share and more seats for BJP. The cause of this massive mandate are being debated, the failure of opposition to unite, the ultra nationalism created around the Pulwama attack and the role of EVM machines with partisan election commission are disturbing enough. Meanwhile what is being witnessed in the society during last few days of Modi-BJP victory is frightening enough.

Right during this little time space we painfully witnessed
 

• In Begusarai Bihar a Muslim youth Mohammad Qasim was shot at Bihar on Sunday (May 26).  Previous morning he was asked his name.
• Four unidentified youths assaulted a Muslim youth wearing traditional skull cap on May 26.
• An Adivasi professor was arrested over a Face book post (May 25). In the post he had mentioned the right to eat beef.
• In Raipur Chhattisgarh a group of self-styled gau rakshaks entered a dairy (May 26), and accused people in the shop of cow slaughter and the sale of beef. They vandalized the shop and assaulted them.
• In Mahuvad, Vadodara,  village (Gujarat), a house of dalit couple was allegedly attacked by a mob of 200-300 upper caste people, His crimes was that the husband had put up a face book post  saying that the government does not permit the village temple to be used for Dalit wedding ceremonies.
• As per Janata Ka Reporter in Assam a Muslim man, Ashraf Ali, believed to be in his early 90s, ended his life. He was fearful of the possibility of his being declared a foreigner and these by being sent to detention centre.  The victim’s body was found from a school campus, close to his hut in Sontoli in Boko, 70 kms west of Guwahati,

So many incidents in such a short duration of time just indicate as to how the atmosphere is being vitiated due to Modi coming to power again. On one hand the so called fringe is emboldened more than before and this is the signal of their unrestrained behaviour. On the other the people do know the portents of the policies which Modi pursued during last five years and may be pursued with intense vigour now. The BJP President called the Muslim refugees as termites. That in a way sums up what Muslims mean to the ruling dispensation.

Interestingly of the 303 MPs elected on the BJP ticket not a single one is from Muslim community. The overall representation of Muslims in Lok Sabha has come down and remains so. Muslim community has weathered many a storms in the past. Its’ reflection came in the Rangnath Mishra and Sachar commission reports. While the Congress and other semi secular parties have been blamed for Muslim appeasement, the socio economic and political conditions of Muslim community have worsened over a period of time. Many committed leaders from Muslim community are feeling totally left out in the democratic processes, which anyway are being undermined more so from last decade or so.

The core reason of violence being witnessed is the frightening rise of Hindu nationalist politics, the Hidnutva. Earlier RSS gave rise to different progenies, what they call collectively as Sangh Parivar. Now with the trappings of power, BJP being in majority in Center, the major expansion of RSS shakhas has taken place, which is further strengthening different offshoots of this organization.

One understands that the security of minorities is the reflection of strength of democracy. On that count also the index of democratic values in our country is something to be worried about!

Courtesy: Two Circle

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