The language of political discourse is the biggest casualty after the Sangh Parivar inspired government came power in India. The C grade rhetoric and to convert everything into a street fight of tu tu main main is the art that one can learn in the Sangh. The daily dose of jumlas and distorted versions of history is another art they have become expert in. There is nothing wrong in propagating your views as long as you are democratic and respect the basic principles of democracy which is to respect dissent. But off late the way our electronic media has ‘normalised’ abuses hurled by the Hindutva dons in the studios reflect the mindset that by intimidation, threats and violence they can rule India for ever.
The chelas actually follow the leaders in popular discourse. I had long written how Narendra Modi’s role model is Sanjay Gandhi whose ‘youth brigade’ during emergency period was nothing but that of intimidating the rivals. They were shouting brigade many have completely diluted now but we know about them and none know where they are today but even at the height of her opposition, Indira Gandhi rarely targeted persons in ‘sadakchhap’ language though she would definitely say , ‘ Videshi shaktiya bharat ki ekta akhandta ko todna chahti hai.. that foreign powers are behind the unrest who are not happy with our unity and integrity’ . Rajiv was a novice in the politics and hence a large part of his scripting was done by the advisers who looked as if brought in from Bollywood yet in all he was warm and respectful to opposition though at certain point of time, lost track particularly not able to control the chamchas particularly when they started attacking V P Singh when the latter resigned from the government. K K Tiwari, Kalpnath Rai, Vir Bahadur Singh and many others went overboard to stop his rallies and programmes to please the leader but it boomeranged.
At the height of his opposition to Rajiv Gandhi, his close aid turn foe, V P Singh, never ever uttered foul language to him. That was the quality of Raja of Manda, that he chose not to respond to those dirty slurs. Since Congress was in power most of the time, many its chiller netas had become arrogant and used the dirtiest language to please their bosses but frankly speaking it was not the part of opposition culture. Chandrashekhar was a brilliant speaker, Madhu Dandvate, Surendra Mohan, Madhu Limaye or leaders like Indrajeet Gupta or Somnath Chatterjee or from the Jan Sangh like Atal Vihari Vajpayee never went to that level of discussion when doubting the personal integrity of their opponents and would scold their fellow party-men in targeting leaders in such a way but the way we are witnessing today looks as BJP is unable to respond to the crisis of current time.
Frankly speaking when do people come to fight, shout or even get violent. I have strong opinion that once you lose your argument and have nothing to counter, you tend to get violent. The Hindutva politics has been exposed tooth and nail. They have no vision to give to this nation except the destruction. Their sole aim today is to keep the brahmanical hegemony intact as it is now threatened by political democracy which talks about ‘ Jiski jitnee sankhya bhaari, uski utni saajhidaari’ and ‘vote hamara raj tumhara nahi chalega nahi chalega’ and it is these important dimensions of our system which is threatening the absolute ‘control’ of brahmanism in our life. That is why the temple movement as if we lack Gods and Goddesses or temples in this country. And they have no shame in spending huge amount of tax payers money in these things which will take India nowhere. Except to divert the attention of the people from the real issues but they know that this country is mentally enslaved by the brahmanical orthdoxy and whenever the Bahujan masses are responding as awakened one these issues are played up.
Mass media today has become the biggest threat to Indian democracy and Bahujan Awakening. The shameless way it has normalised violence against Muslims, abuses against Dalit- Adivasis and justified brahmanical falsehood in the name of ‘sanskriti’ is symptom of a tired system waiting to die and trying to keep the control intact through such guerrilla warfare. Our constitution is becoming the biggest hurdle for them. It was the biggest obstacle for them and hence they tried to find ways and means to make it redundant. Remember, the Hindutva people have no respect for our constitution because if they had, they would not have called the Dharm Sansad. What is this Dharmsansad ? Does it reflect India’s diversity and Bahujan masses. How many leaders in the Dharm Sansad are Dalits, Adivasis, Bahujan communities and what is their role in the topmost decision making body of this dharmsansad. Clear enough, these Dharmsansad are brahmanical ploy and methodology to keep their dominance and control over the vast Bahujan masses.
Today is Samvidhaan Diwas or Constitution day, a day when Baba Saheb Ambedkar handed over the completed version of the constitution of India to the Constituent Assembly for approval and it was passed. Remember his prophetic words when he remarked that this constitution has given us political equality but unless we have equality in social and economic life, the constitution would not succeed and the same people who have this constitution so laboriously, would blow it.
But see the irony. The people are still dying of hunger. Violence against Dalits at high. Violence against women make India one of the unsafest countries in the world. Isolation and dislocation of Adivasis is a fact and complete dis-empowerment of Muslims in our socio political life is frightening and absolutely unconstitutional yet who want to get away with this constitution? Who are complaining against it ? The forces who violate our human rights on a daily basis, those who enjoyed socio-economic-political hegemony all the times. Those who still control our natural resources, our business, our media, our cultural spaces, our social organisations, academia and judiciary. Question is why are they afraid and in a hurry when all the organs of the states are at their hands.
And it is clearly the fear of losing the grip of the power. It is not the fight between the political parties. It is basically the basic thought of slipping of power structure and more than that, ceding the cultural spaces, the businesses, the media and academia which is now pushing the Hindutva agenda in the fast-forward mode. They lost political power but they were not worried that much because they were controlling us socio-economically but now when the demand for proportional share everywhere is getting widened, a huge number of people are embracing Buddhism and other revolutionary ideas including being humanists and atheists, the absolute brahmanical monopoly is facing the biggest threat of existence. All this dramas of abuses, jokes, temples, statues are nothing but that fear of losing the grip of complete control over the Bahujan masses.
The one man who we bow today is Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar, whose thoughts and revolutionary ideas have brought this changes. India has a chance to survive and in fact progress which is only possible through respecting the basic spirit of the constitution, choosing the path of modernity, humanism, rational thinking and democratic way of life. Those who wish you to keep engaged in temples, mosques, dharm sansads, personal laws and issues of religion want to take you to dark ages. India must decide now either to follow the path of those who cant tolerate any dissenting view and keep you subjugated to sectarian thoughts or follow the path of our constitutional forefathers who wanted India a democratic, secular, socialist and inclusive republic where each one of flourish and live in complete harmony.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
November 26th, 2018
