Doubling down on the communal propaganda

There needs no evidence to establish the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states and all Sangh Parivar leaders and spokespersons primarily used Islamophobia and hatred towards minorities for nationwide campaigning in the 18th Lok Sabha elections held in April-June this year. It was Prime Minister Modi who shouted that the Congressmen and INDIA bloc would wrest Hindu women’s bridal necklace from them and gift to those who produce more children. Human Rights Watch reported that 110 of the 173 stump speeches he made were Islamophobic. Hindutva leaders, including Amit Shah spoke volubly in Assam, Bengal and Bihar of the huge threat to national security posed by the Muslim infiltrators 'still arriving' from Bangladesh. Hijab, the Uniform Civil Code and Love Jihad took over the campaign. The raging unemployment among crores of young people across the country, or the humiliating situation of India continuing as the world's poorest country and the terrorist attacks in Manipur, or influx of black money destroying the economy did not gain attention in the campaign. From Hindutva forces continuing doubling down on the agenda of hatred in the election in Maharashtra and Jharkhand and also by elections in other states it is clear that they have not learnt lessons from the fiasco of not winning the absolute majority in Lok Sabha polls contrary to their expectation of bagging more than 400 seats.

The Modi-Amit Shah team's declaration that no reservation to be allowed on the basis of religion is a challenge to the Constitution's unequivocal stand that social and educational backwardness is the criteria for reservation. The natural consequence of this is that even the BJP-backed Pasmanda Muslims will not get benefits of reservation because of having a Muslim name. Tribals are a crucial vote bank in Jharkhand. When Jharkhand was formed in 2000 bifurcating Bihar the tribal population was 26.3 percent, and 26.21 percent in the 2011 census. However, according to the 2011 census, of the 17.61 lakh people migrated from Jharkhand to other states 18.66 percent did not return. Regardless of these facts, the Union Home Minister is constantly lying that Bangladeshi immigrants are going to take over the state. The BJP’s constant attempt is to mislead the tribals promising that when it comes to power, all those infiltrators will be evicted. The program is to round up and put in detention camps all the Bengali speaking people who had come to the state before Bangladesh was formed. It has already started in Assam.

Communal hate campaign is happening in religiously secular Kerala; the most serious thing about it is that not just the Hindu extremists but even the leadership and advocates of the ruling secular front are moving in the same direction. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPM leaders seem to be working on a strategy to garner maximum votes of the majority community and the Christian minority in the upcoming assembly elections, compensating the loss of Muslim votes in the parliamentary elections. The Chief Minister, as an example, skillfully sidestepped the controversial interview regarding the gold smuggling and the flow of hawala money to Malappuram district. While releasing a book by Party central committee member P Jayarajan he named a Muslim organization and accused it of trying to take the country back to the days of Caliphs, thus spilling the beans. Repeating the same accusation in Wayand and other to Assembly constituencies, he laid bare his intension. All the Muslim organizations have unanimously demanded the state government to come forward to resolve sympathetically and peacefully the struggle of Christian fishermen living on the disputed waqf land in Munamba. Even as the government is reluctant to resolve the issue, the Hindutva forces are trying to take advantage of the situation by using their MP. The Chief Minister is silent when the Union Minister publicly insulted the Waqf. Instead, he wrote on Facebook that INDIA bloc leader Priyanka Gandhi is seeking Jamaat-e-Islami's support. The target is clear. There is no reason to blame those who suspect of a conspiracy to take advantage of the situation when two minority communities fight. In short, it does not augur well for the future of the country that even those who claim to be ultra-secularists are ready to stoke the flames of communal sentiments to win elections.