Modi & Shah baiting the opposition and want the Congress to hit the street

There’s a very strong strain of thought gaining ground around India:

That India’s various opposition parties, led by the Congress, should dive headfirst into the citizens’ protests against the triple BJP whammy of CAA, NRC and NPR.

So far, it has largely been India’s students, Muslims and women who have spoken up against the unconstitutional provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act, the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register. The first Act allows fast track citizenship on religious grounds, only to Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, the second has been a disaster when implemented in Assam and the third now appears to be an insidious precursor for dividing India on religious grounds, something that the Sangh Parivar, headed by the RSS, has always been in favour of.

Apart from students, the largest protests have come from Muslims and they have paid the heaviest price, especially in Uttar Pradesh. Report after report suggests death by police brutality, torture, destruction of Muslim homes, unlawful arrest and even allegations of the rape of minor boys. The women of Shaheen Bagh of Delhi held peaceful protests for days and nights, to try and emphasise their identity as Indians and rights to India. The Left has supported the movement and in Bengal, so have Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress.

Now those who have relentlessly blamed the Congress and other political parties for the rise of the BJP, now wants them to jump into these protests. I have to disagree. While they must strongly oppose this triumvirate of Hindu majoritarianism, getting onto the streets with the citizens of India will only play into the hands of the BJP.

As you hear Narendra Modi and Amit Shah baiting the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, you should realise that this is what they want. And the minute you bite that bait, the war is lost. The BJP will flip the protests to their advantage and centre everything around their emotive, if fake, “nationalism” card. They have already spun their lies and used all means at their disposal to spread their false narrative of history. Instead, given the gross incompetence and floundering inabilities of this government, there is plenty that the opposition can focus on.

Starting with the economy. The great Mr Modi and his band of cohorts are not just incapable – which they are of course – they are also clueless. From their first lacklustre budget presented by the late Arun Jaitley in 2014 and right up to Modi’s demonic demonetisation, they have led the economy to destruction.

Everyone knows this, even those who are too scared to speak out or so caught up in the support they once gave that they are stuck in a pit of their own digging. The BJP also knows this, because their only answers are to look for diversions or try and deny all data even if it comes from government agencies. No economic advice is taken seriously and if the advisor does not fit the Modi scheme of blind self-aggrandisement, it’s a quick farewell.

The BJP strategy is now to save Modi at all cost and use Amit Shah as the front line of attack. This leads to a few amusing, piquant conjectures. The most obvious and popular is that Modi’s time is up, and Shah is his successor. This viewpoint segues to the conclusion that Modi, who was sold to India and the world as a great visionary and doer, is actually a useless narcissistic puppet, pumped up by the Father Organisation to use his speaking skills to fool the people.

The overall picture is of a party led by two men, one self-obsessed, the other intolerant of the law. Where does that leave the Union Cabinet and indeed the rest of the BJP? Are they as disastrously incompetent or as brutally fascist? Do none of them have voices? Or have they sacrificed their political careers for a claim to power, fame and perhaps, like all who sell their souls, money?

The crises in India, constitutional, legal, secular, judicial, religious, political, economic, cannot be allowed to continue the way they are. If the BJP is on a downward spiral to destroy everything we hold dear, obviously the opposition has to step in. But by wisdom and stealth. Not by giving in to the Devil quoting scriptures.

(Views expressed are the author’s own)