Apropos Dr Oscar Rebello’s comment “The Protest” it has become crystal clear to all that the Modi government is testing the waters in its attempt to polarise communal relations in the country.
The end objective appears to be consolidating Hindutva party rule. The Hindutva right wing “social organisation” the RSS feels its time has finally come and is determined that its present reign be consolidated with the goal of being extended indefinitely as guardians of a renewed old Vedic India.
While there has been a carefully studied silence on the part of PM Modi in the face of repeated provocation by his not so fringe Ministers, the Hindutva pressure cooker seems to be achieving its objective of alienating the minorities. A pressure cooker becomes dangerous when it has no escape valves.
I fear less for the minorities but more for the idea of India that the Constitutional Fathers sought to create.
The BJP Bhakts would do well to guard against the falsehoods being propagated by this False Dharma called Hindutva which is founded not on pride in traditional Indian values but instead on suspicion, mistrust, contempt and eventually hatred of minorities and the tolerant, liberal, pluralistic “raison-d’etre” of India.
Intolerance and right-wing ideology has led to colossal tragedies in governance in world history as Dr Rebello pointed out, not just in Europe but even in Cambodia. States which are built around extreme ideologies are destined to fail. India’s partition in 1947 is only a mild reminder of how provocations of vast numbers of minorities can spin out of control with tragic consequences.
Some 31% of India voted for Modi’s BJP – the vast majority not for its ideology but for Jobs. Taken together there are some 340 million Indians including Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Dalits and Tribals who are opposed to the idea of “Hindutva” supremacy. A similar number are moderate Hindus who do not need to be lectured on Hinduism by the RSS, VHP or Sanathan Sanstha.
It is my earnest wish that this “Mad Cow” disease that has polarised India since PM Modi’s election does not eventually spin out of control. Let us remember that our fate lies not in the stars but in our own hands.
