I voted for BJP in the last elections. I voted for the development plank. I voted for change. I voted for more transparency. I voted against crony capitalism. Like many others, I voted for MODI, I voted for “ache din”.
Well, the elections are around the corner again, and I am not here to nit-pick the issue and support one party over the other. I write this article for a far bigger reason that has been getting me worried. The talk of ‘Hindu victimisation’.
For the confidence that the Modi ads show, you would think Modi and his BJP would need nothing but just scream out their achievements in every rally. But that, as we all know, are just ads, and the lives on ground have become much worse except for those of Ambani and Adani, of course.
So aren’t hearing about vikas now, but the murmur about the Ram temple is getting louder, Sabarimala is a war zone where BJP is playing with fire to reap political benefits, age old names of cities are being changed because they don’t sound “Hindu” enough. What is funny is that if the BJP is to be believed, the situation of Hindus has become worse in the last four years. Then there is the question of if BJP is the so called protector of Hindus, then how did the state of Hinduism in India become so bad in the last 4 years?
What is worrying is not that BJP is reverting to the dirty politics of religion. What has me worried is how it is influencing general masses. How good, educated people are conveniently ignoring these politics and playing into BJP’s hand.
For instance, Sabarimala. We all know that BJP could have helped the believers if they passed an ordinance in parliament against the SC verdict. They didn’t do that, instead they chose to inflame the situation, build up Hindu victim-hood, and convert a temple that stood for peace and secularism into a war zone. This was even bragged by the BJP state president on record; yet, good, knowledgeable people are ready to turn a blind eye to this.
In the Ram temple issue, the verdict was pushed to just before elections, and BJP is positioning itself to reap benefits whatever the verdict maybe. Every day, we are hearing threats regarding this case. People who can very well see through this are closing their eyes and that’s what worries me.
Yogi Adityanath is on a spree to change names of cities which don’t sound ‘Hindu enough’. He was talking about a Ram statue. People who are aware of the bad HDI values of UP are happily providing legitimacy to Yogi’s dreams. They know that a statue can’t feed the poor, yet they are giving chorus to this laughable promise.
While I write this, a BJP leader has a problem with the movie ‘Kedarnath’, because he claims that it promotes love jihad. We all know what happened to the film ‘Padmavat’, when the unrest had reached a point where a school bus was ambushed in the name of supposedly hurt sentiments.
BJP can’t talk about GST, demonetisation, Mallya, Nirav Modi, Rafale, increased unemployment, black money yet stashed abroad, terrorist attacks that increased manifold in Kashmir, foreign policy breakdown in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, price rise, etc. So this close to the election season, you don’t have to be a genius to know that BJP is resorting to the tried and tested plan to divide the country into religions and reap the benefits.
What is saddening and alarming is how general people who can easily understand this game are keeping silent. If we don’t react, if we don’t punish the BJP for this dangerous ploy, if we make them succeed in dividing the country on religious lines, I am sorry, but we may not have any India left for an “agle bar Modi sarkar”.