At the time of writing this article the communal violence in Delhi may have subsided but it has left in its wake is a trail of hatred that has been festering ever since the RSS indoctrinated Modi led BJP came into power. With a death toll that surpasses 40, most of whom were Muslims and many others injured it has become blatantly clear who will be at the receiving of this carnage in the days and months to come.
With the coming to power of Narendra Modi there is an open license to all the affiliates of RSS combine to indulge in open hate speech against the religious minorities. The current agenda behind the hate speech is to consolidate the communal polarization of the society along lines of religion. Apart from these associates of Hindu right wing patriarch, RSS, who are reported in the media, there are many more indulging in the divisive speech and worsening the communal situation.
During this year the RSS have started feeling emboldened as they know it is ‘their’ Government and they can get away with it. Day in and day out they are becoming more aggressive and vicious in their language. The hate speech against religious minorities has been stepped up. One recalls even before Modi Sarkar assumed the seat of power the divisive activities of ‘BJP associates’ in the form of propaganda of love jihad and GharVapasi were on, and they continued without any respite during this year.
Yogi Adityanath, the Chief minister of Gujrat keeps making very derogatory remarks, He said that in ‘love jihad’ if one Hindu girl is converted then 100 Muslim girls should be converted to Hinduism. The propaganda around love jihad keeps simmering and various small and big leaders keep using it to divide the society. Same Yogi went on to say that Mosques should be converted into den of pigs and that Muslims should not be allowed to come to Hindu holy places.
Now what is happening is a blatant attack by RSS controlled ABVP-BJP to crush the democratic secular voices in India.They have become emboldened to call all those opposing their politics as anti-national and are getting the state support to intimidate the voices for social justice. All those who don’t endorse the ‘RSS promoted Hindutva nationalism’ are being called as anti-national.seeing this as an opportunity to wipe out all the norms and ethos of democratic culture and dissenting voices. It is a matter of shame that the police lack the spine and professionalism to quell this surge in hate, rather can be seen as willing participants partaking in the communal madness.
The argument has been uniformly spoken by the Delhi lawyers taking law in their hands to those indulging in violence, from the ministers and top BJP leaders to those indulging in street violence. The second observation is that JNU students have been demonized through the propaganda as being anti National, and JNU being the den of anti-India activities. One recalls that all this demonization of JNU started with this Government coming to power. The RSS affiliates, VHP etc. have been taking the marches to JNU gate to protest against the anti-National JNU students and faculty.
these arguments show the deeper agenda in a way. The anti-national rhetoric has been created to generate a mass hysteria against those disagreeing with BJP politics. The resorting to violence on this pretext clearly shows that this is a concerted effort to browbeat the practices and ideas which are not in keeping with the RSS-BJP mindset.
On one hand we have this imposition of RSS ideology, on the other students and youth have come forward to defend the mantle of progressive values. The most heartening thing of recent times is that the students of different political persuasions
The national scene is being dominated by the current ‘you must chant Barat Mata ki jai’ to prove your nationalism. This was preceded by the ‘Anti national’ abuse being hurled on all those showing dissent with the present regime. These two major issues have been propped up in the recent times and these are trying to undermine the core issue of the state’s onslaught on University autonomy, from the issues where the state is trying to displace the democratic ethos and from failure to keep the pre-election promises. This is an attempt to prop up a new emotive issue to add to the array of emotive issues already manufactured by the communal forces. This was thrown up by RSS patriarch Mohan Bhagwat when he said early March 2016 that “Now the time has come when we have to tell the new generation to chant ‘*Bharat Mata Ki Jai’* (Hail Mother India).
As the matters stand it is becoming clear that all the wings of RSS are in full action. They are getting all the protection and support from ruling government. The RSS progeny which has come to most prominence is ABVP, which has been in the lime light in different educational campuses. Its direction is to oppose the secular, plural and democratic activities in the campuses as witnessed in Hyderabad Central University, Allahabad University and JNU in particular.
HCU and JNU in particular tell us as to how brazenly ABVP can assert itself on the issues related to pluralism and democracy, with due support from ruling party. Incidents have also revealed the attacks on Dalits and other democratic formations are possible by ABVP as it has the protective cover of the authorities who have been chosen based on their loyalty to Hindutva ideology.
On one hand we have this imposition of RSS ideology, on the other students and youth have come forward to defend the mantle of progressive values. The most heartening thing of recent times is that the students of different political persuasions. This upsurge of youth is a guide to the national movement as a whole reminding for the need that all anti-communal forces to come together at social and political level to oppose the rising tide of authoritarianism in the name ofHindutva.
In that sense there is too much to think about whenever very young members of society receive an instruction that contributes in the increase of violence or that, at least, is not particularly helpful in promoting a culture of peace. Today India is the only country in the world with two genocide alerts in place. One is in its state of Assam, where the government has stripped 1.9 million residents of their citizenship. The second is for Indian-occupied Kashmir, where rape, torture, and the kidnapping of young boys has become the Indian army’s modus operandi. Long ago, the RSS declared Indian Muslims are like the Jews of Nazi Germany, and that they will deal with them as Hitler dealt with the Jews. What they must remember, however, is what happened to Hitler and his ideology.
The writer is an independent analyst, with an interest in regional and international affairs