Parties Can’t Divide Castes & Piggy-Back On
Minorities Anymore
This is a political obituary written a few days in advance.
But should its import come to pass, it will have considerable effect on the
future politics of India.
It will remove an eclipsed politician from centre-stage in
Kolkata. And it will cast her party, the AITMC, more usually called the TMC,
into the outer darkness. But beyond the impending defeat, it will put paid to
some long-established political formulae.
It is bad enough that the minority vote has been turned into
a battering ram. It is driven by an impressive population explosion, egged on
by multiple wives and sharia law spouting mullahs in mosques. Then there is the
creeping illegal immigration that has run into crores of people melted into the
Indian populace.
Illegals, who are not grateful for a new lease on life and
dignity, but who foment violence and Islamic terrorism. Illegals, given state
government abetted makeovers and concocted identity papers. These sometimes
even disguise Muslims as Hindus, as the national level scrutiny has hardened.
In J&K, rescued from the brink by the Modi government,
there is an ongoing effort to broaden the voter base by enfranchising those who
are native Kashmiris, but were left out by the previous dispensation. There is
a new census and preparation of voter lists underway. The demographics of the
Valley which are overwhelmingly in favour of the Sunni majority are being
diluted. Ladakh, both Buddhist and Shia, is already blossoming without the
domination of Srinagar, or indeed Jammu.
It is telling how, out of the five rioting people shot dead
by the CISF in Cooch Behar recently, four were claimed by Mamata Banerjee
herself to be ‘Muslim Rajbanshis’. How this oxymoronic feat has been pulled off
in a Hindu caste is hard to understand.
Matuas, the other Hindu caste prominent in the upcoming
phases of the West Bengal elections are also Hindu. How many Matuas has Mamata
Banerjee managed to turn Muslim?
This demographic challenge is not just the West Bengal story.
It is rampant too in Assam. The Islamic minority now numbers over 30 crores
nationally. Border states cannot afford this wilful and porous onslaught. And
neither can the country as a whole.
This time, the West Bengal assembly elections have not only
seen unprecedented defections from the TMC to the BJP, but also the support of
the lower castes and the Communists. The Communists are saying if backing Modi
gets rid of Didi, so be it.
Mamata Banerjee, realising she needs more than just the
existing minority vote, at almost 30%, is battling to gain lower caste votes
too. They will determine the outcome of over a 100 seats in the coming phases
of the election.
Meanwhile her high profile, reputedly rain-making election
consultant Prashant Kishor, has washed his hands of the affair. He has blamed
her squarely for excessive minority appeasement. The phases so far have
apparently gone against the TMC. Kishor avers Narendra Modi enjoys tremendous
popularity in West Bengal. This includes most of the women voters.
If there is a BJP sweep, nothing can be done for the TMC. If
however, the election is close, who will come to Banerjee’s rescue besides the
Congress?
But as of now, the traditional schisms, cynically provoked to
suit, between Tribals, Adivasis, Dalits, Scheduled Castes, other backward
castes (OBCs), the upper castes, has also begun to heal. BJP won most of the
scheduled caste and reserved seats for the Lok Sabha election in West Bengal in
2019. Can TMC reverse the tide?
The deliberately engendered mistrust, even the so called lack
of ‘identity politics’ bragged about by
Bengali Communists, has been pushed aside. All Hindus in West Bengal are now in
fear of being swamped by Islamists and see Narendra Modi as a saviour.
Protectors of Islamic belligerence such as the Congress Party
are almost wiped out. Without electoral success, the minorities have shifted
focus towards disruption and violence. There is rioting, arson, demonstrations,
lawlessness, murders, terrorism, sharia excesses, and offensive rants against
Hindus across the board.
Even Maoist threats form only a subset to this Islamic
excess. As does Khalistani separatism, and side shows like the Punjab ‘Farmer’
Protests.
There is, despite severe economic dislocation occasioned by
the Covid pandemic, a determination to push back. The unabashedly Hindu NDA
government in the centre and in the states is refreshing for not being
financially corrupt. It is also staunchly nationalist. It is working on
infrastructure, welfare, and defence preparedness at a frenetic pace. The
voting public is pleased.
But what does an opposition party do henceforth, when the
perceptually authentic majoritarian party is ensconced very comfortably in
power?
The Prime Minister promotes Hinduism personally by observing
all major Hindu festivals and rituals, visiting most revered temples, in
country and abroad. Once there, he does not just pose for photos. He prays as
an unabashed and credible practicing Hindu. Narendra Modi performed all the
dawn rituals and inaugurated the rebuilding of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya that
had been blocked for over a century. That spectacle, broadcast nationally and
internationally, has restored Hindu pride. This may have undone the sacrilege
in Hindu eyes done by Mughal Emperor Babur’s general. But Emperor Aurangzeb’s
latter day desecrations remain unfinished business.
For the first time there is a seriousness about pursuing the
case for extracting the Aurangzeb built Gyan Vapi Mosque from the revered Kashi
Vishwanath temple complex at Varanasi. Ditto for the Shahi Edgah Masjid
nestling offensively at the Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura.
The dramatic progress made on the renovations and clearance
of encroachments leading to the ghats from the Kashi Viswanath temple complex
is also a matter of immense Hindu pride. Many ancient if small temples have
emerged from under the encroachments. A 50 feet wide corridor to the ghats,
along with a number of new public buildings for visitors and pilgrims is nearly
done. Reinforcements, embankments, repairs to the ancient ghats, roof top
Ganga-view galleries, are ongoing.
The word ‘Secularism’ in the Indian context has never meant a
separation of Church and State. Here it has been used to boost the minorities
at the expense of the majority, misusing the Indian Constitution to justify it.
The minorities in turn have extracted out of turn privileges and become
belligerent because of the abject political dependence on their backing.
This particular Faustian pact has run its course. Initially,
for the Nehru and Indira Gandhi decades, it resulted in majority governments,
with all opposition reduced to the margins. This was not just because of the
minorities. In addition, the lower castes voted for the Congress Party, run by
upper caste men and women. This changed in the late Sixties and Seventies with
the Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayaprakash Narayan movements. After that, the lower
castes developed their own leaders and a significant number of regional parties
joined the fray.
This, of course, fragmented the monolithic vote. After the
assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984, there was one last Congress government
with an absolute majority. After that, there were only coalitions.
This changed after 30 years with the coming of Narendra Modi
to the Centre with a majority in 2014.
Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress is a one-woman
supremo. She has clawed her way to power in the face of Communist intimidation
for two absolute majority terms. But her career is also illustrative of how the
broader polity has progressed. She too was originally part of the Congress
Party. She was a union minister in PV Narasimha Rao’s government, and again in
the Vajpayee administration after she broke away from Congress.
Back in West Bengal, she ousted the Communists by an
opportunistic anti- industrialisation agitation. It was an outdoing of the
Communists at their own game. But she never recovered her economic credibility,
and West Bengal as an investment destination has languished. There are no jobs,
only doles, if that. Mamata Banerjee’s national ambitions will also turn to
dust after she loses her power base to the BJP. Besides, she has no political
successors to speak of.
So, if the TMC loses decisively on May 2nd, it is
the last bastion fallen. After this, orphaned as they are, the minorities may
need to evolve a new form of political jihad. They will have to masquerade as
Modi bhakts. This Trojan Horse strategy might work for a few. Some may even be sincere. What will not work
after May 2nd is confronting the majority.
(1,399 words)
For: The Sunday Guardian
April 15, 2021
Gautam Mukherjee
