No more pretences: Move over ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’, enter ‘Goli Maro…’

The Delhi riots have failed to dampen the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and anti-National Register of Citizens (NRC) spirits. The Shaheen Bagh protesters are still there. So are similar gatherings across the country which number in many hundreds. Even in the eye of the storm, in Seelampur in North-East Delhi which witnessed mostly Hindutva goons running amok and targeting Muslim houses and members of the community as police stood and watched, a protest sit-in by anti-CAA/NRC women is still on. In the meantime, the death toll in Delhi riots has almost reached 50 with bodies being fished out of the city’s labyrinthine drains. Heart-rending stories of toddlers being orphaned and hope-inspiring ones like how many Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and others helped save someone from the other community have come to the fore.

But still, neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Union Home Minister Amit Shah has condemned the spree of murder, arson and loot that the city witnessed. In a re-run of Gujarat 2002, rioters were allowed a free run while police watched for three to four days and the PM, after everything was over, appealed for calm and peace while not uttering a single word of empathy for the family members of those killed, those whose shops and homes have been burnt. What the Delhi riots have actually proven is that the BJP, as a party, has set aside all its economy and development planks and is singularly bent upon pursuing their communal polarising agenda as it tries to achieve its dream of turning India into a Hindu Rashtra. ‘Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas’ has been totally replaced by ‘Desh Ke Gaddaro Ko, Goli Maro S*** ko’. All pretences have been cast aside.

But then, this is the only line of politics that the BJP practises. Abrogation of Article 370, CAA were brought in at a time when the economy is in doldrums, with highest unemployment in 45 years, low growth of GDP, stagnant farm economy, a stumbling manufacturing sector and a paralysed banking and finance sector. Since the BJP had not anticipated the sea of masses who came across the length and breadth of the country, and not just Muslims but Sikhs, Hindus, liberals, the party was clearly on back foot. But practising hate politics and that of targeting and killing of minority group members clearly does not augur well for a country that is the world’s largest democracy. India’s prestige in the world has been severely dented with foreign governments and even the United Nations raising fingers at the country’s treatment of its minorities. And it is none other than Narendra Modi and Amit Shah who are to be blamed for this.

They not just did not rein in the Kapil Mishras and Anurag Thakurs but Shah himself referred to ‘infiltrators’ as ‘termites’ and asked Delhi’s voters to vote to send electric ‘current’ to Shaheen Bagh. India’s image has taken a severe beating as all prestigious foreign media outlets have pointed their fingers at the possible complicity of the government and police with the rioters. This image will be just as hard to repair as the fabric of inter-religious harmony in India which has been torn to shreds by the fascist and bigoted BJP government.