Beating Retreat

29 January 2020

Today the news paper is full of mixed feelings for a diehard optimist. It seems that the cup of disappointment runneth over for now. Whatever caused our world to descend into dystopia so swiftly? Where is that gung-ho festive mood of electoral games that once characterised our chaotic but colourful election seasons? When our campaigns used to be about samosas and aloo, promises about roads as smooth as Hema Malini’s cheeks, when politicians would pull each others legs over their manifestoes and their stump speeches!
If one heard the Union MoS Finance, he first named two of the opposition’s leading lights Mr Rahul and Mr Arvind as ‘gaddar’ ( traitor) and then proceeded to call the crowd to chorus after him- Desh Ke Gaddharon Ko, Goli Maaro Salon Ko! This is dogwhistle street style to paint your opponent into a cross hairs for just being an opponent, using the munitions of Patriotism. Then our powerful MHA Mr Shah says to voters- Punch the EVM buttons so firmly that a shock will get generated which will pass on a current to Shaheen Bagh.
Somethings bug me by dropping off the map, not that I had not anticipated them, like the JNU campus thuggery, where even after video and photo identification the ABVP associated protagonists are not in custody, nor has any FIR been filed in the case of their provocative actions. Of course the FIR against Ms Ghosh the Student Union leader is under further investigation. Another issue was that the Republic Day passed off eventless and peacefully across the country and with that the NIA taking over Dy SP D Singh’s case and custody, the entire conspiracy and sensational revelations surrounding the arrest of a JKP officer who was also involved in the Parliamentary Attack case, in Pulwama convoy attack case has simply fizzled out as news.
So I was not really surprised when I read today that the Supreme Court of India has while hearing the case to uphold the conviction of 14 individuals convicted by lower courts including the Gujarat High Court for an incidence of rioting and mob violence which led to the deaths of 23 Muslims in 2002 riots, decided to try a new bail condition, by allowing them to be out on bail pending their appeals, in two towns in MP, provided they did six hours of spiritual and social service in a week! Of course, I am curious to read this order from the SC Judis site,to see whether their lordships will elaborate or spell out what qualified under the definition of ‘spiritual & social service’. If it meant Mahatma Gandhi style service at his ashrams at Phoenix in SA, or Wardha’s Sevagram, it entails cleaning of commons including streets, and lavatories, collecting both garbage and nightsoil! Of course, in these frayed times, it is easy to forget that the intent of justice in a Constitutional set up like ours, is primarily to make the offender repent, to make him or her reform. So will the SC in its further orders direct the appellants to adopt Muslim orphans, to bring them up as their own, while allowing them to pursue their individual faith, and in this penance of rearing and caring, would they repent their actions that took the lives of 23 of their fellow villagers whose fault was simply their faith? Or is the cynical sneer that this reform package is only applicable to Hindu perpetrators a correct one? More conforming to the dominant narrative now that wily nilly Hindu Rashtra has arrived in India? So it would be a larger judicial trend restricted to grant leniency to persons accused or convicted of crimes against Muslims in Gujarat and not a new thrust at judicial reform in criminal justice procedure in India? The name of the village Odes rang a bell, faint one initially before it came to recollection as clear as morning dew- An ACK title ‘Jasma of the Odes’ about a tribal girl of extreme beauty who was cruelly married off by her step mother to a cripple and how the King of Gujarat hears of her beauty and tries to possess her by force and how the Odes rally to her cause and deny the King till Jasma takes her own life by committing Sati! Jasma Odan is a Devi worshipped even today in a 12 century AD temple at Sahasra Linga Talav, Pattan near Baroda.So is not this like an echo from the past? A 12th Century act of villainy now comparing with that of the 21st Century, with an opportunity for transgressors to redeem themselves and not befall to an undying curse as before?

What is the tantalising dream of the Hindutva adherent, if it is not to take the clock back to 1947, to settle once and for all, Partition, in what he/she thinks is the correct way- to cleave through all the settlements in undivided India and cause a clean separation of Muslims from the rest and make them go to what is today Pakistan and Bangladesh. Unlike Demonetisation where the banking system settled in two years after counting all the cash that came back in banned denominations of ₹ 500 and 1000, can one really undertake such a disenfranchisement of people who are current to their localities for centuries? So what is the Hindutva adherent willing to settle for? There is awareness that no Muslim will get deported because India cannot force either Bangladesh or Pakistan to take them now. Mr Modi while saying that India can now destroy Pakistan in weeks has not let us know if there is a plan afoot to create enclaves in Pakistan to receive such Muslims from India identified for the purpose. Now did any reader actually think that J&K would be downgraded to a Union Territory, that Ladakh would be a Union Territory on her own? Did any one think that there would be a Supreme Court judgement on women entry into Sabarimala that would remain unimplementable without much ado? So in #NewIndia there are no guarantees. Any thing can happen.
We are seeing a clear posturing in Delhi Assembly elections, where BJP is baiting openly the minority Muslim community, not just by innuendo or insinuation, directly targeting its political opponents especially with relation to their ties with the Muslim community. Then there is AAP, which does not want to take stand and be counted as ‘pro secular’ party. It signals that it does not want to interfere with the Anti CAA protests including at Shaheen Bagh, while at the same time allowing Mr Kejriwal to talk about how the protests are disrupting traffic and affecting normal life in the NCR. The INC has a clear public posture along with its allies about where its sympathies lie. It is openly anti CAA, it held demonstrations on its own, it offered sympathetic presence and support to AMU, Jamia as well as JNU, while not entering the fray on ground itself. Of course, one still hears from voters, that this issue is about Delhi, how water, electricity and amenities including commutes receive subsidy from AAP and how her schools have improved and her Mohalla Clinics provide succour. Naysayers argue that this is actually an election about the ‘soul of India’, about defending the Constitution of India.
Will voters be polarised around Shaheen Bagh as Mr Amit Shah perceives they would be? From the popular support that Mr Arnab Goswami got after being confronted on board an Indigo flight from Mumbai to Lucknow by comedian Kunal Kamra, from the popular condemnation that met Sharjeel Imam who was arrested and whose parents and uncles have been detained for his ‘break/choke Assam’ remarks, one feels that the narrative remains majoritarian and that India is already a Hindu Rashtra. This appraisal can only be revisited if the INC turns a dark horse at the ballots in the 2nd week of February! So for now, common sense, consensus, civil niceties and cultured conduct are all beating a retreat!