The Incompatibility of the RSS-BJP’s Agenda with the Idea of India: A Zero-Hour Prognosis

In 2019, when the BJP won with a thumping majority more than ever before, the minorities of the country, especially religious minorities, were not only disappointed but deeply distressed. While they pondered upon their prospects, followers of the hardcore right-wing who are sycophants of the Hindutva ideology were celebrating and contemplated on making their idea of Hindu-Rashtra a reality. 

The prospects before the Balakot air strikes simmered a rising rage towards the BJP for their handling of the economy (CSDS data – the Hindu newspaper), the environment, and the whole of internal affairs of the country (while the Indian mainstream media lauded the attack as against terrorists and boasts of destroying the Jaish-e-Muhammed camps along with terrorists, Reuters, the Hindu Daily, and other international publications showed that the bombing took place at a secluded place in Pakistan).

Indeed the move was an offensive but calling it an all-out offensive doesn’t bode well with what truth is. The attack altogether seemed like a theatric drama rehearsed to bring back the lost audience and it did fetch good results (the 2019 electoral mandate). The timing of the attack is highly suspicious and the opposition camp sensed dampening support although they decided to stick to ground realities rather than the cinematic fantasies that the BJP was trying to market. In the end, the BJP’s gamble won and once again proved that a majority of Indian populace can easily be persuaded by theatric fantasies if the spice of communalism is added to it.  

The RSS-BJP is a party known to fetch good dividends with the communalistic agenda which was rooted by L.K Advani in 1992 by the Babari demolition. The aftermaths saw countrywide communal riots in which more than 2000 people died and the majority of them Muslims. As a result of this, the country’s elections for the first time saw the BJP’s tally crossing 50 seats which were previously restricted to single digits below five. So, if the BJP is a communally polarizing entity evil then why is the majority of the Indian populace supporting them?  

It is this question that makes us look back at what Ambedkar said about India that democracy is a dressing for India whose soil is autocratic. And it still echoes today. In 2002, the BJP played another major game but this time in Gujarat under Narendra Modi who was the chief minister of the state (he has been given clean chit by Gujarat high court recently, but Teesta Setalvad, an activist and Rana Ayoobi, a journalist have proven that his hands are not clean).

The flashpoint was the burning of a train compartment in which Hindu pilgrims were traveling. After the burning and deaths of 59 pilgrims, the Muslims were blamed by both the State Government and their followers (there is enough evidence today to conclude that Muslims had nothing to do with the incident). A night before the carnage some of the houses of Godhra were found to be marked and all of them belonged to Muslims. The carnage would go down in history as one of the most brutal pogroms (premeditated riots are known as pogroms, and there is enough evidence which points to it being one) in the history of not only India but globally.

One of the survivors of the carnage, Bilkis Bano lost her two children, a three-year-old and two-day-old infant who were killed by the Hindutva hooligans who lost humanity to the carnal pleasure and all in the name of religion. She was raped and left for dead by the arsonists. The culprits thinking that she was dead went away only for her to tell her story later to the world. All 13 members of her family were killed in the riots. The present BJP Government of Gujarat was told by the Supreme Court to give her 50 lakh compensation and a government job in 2018 after 16 years of a court battle.

Imagine how long has she fought to force herself to relive those moments which destroyed her life, shattered her dreams, annihilated her hopes – can any amount of money or compensation in any form heal her trauma?

The pogrom went on for hours and police arrived only when the sun rose after 2000 people died, most of them Muslims (shocked by the striking similarity of victims?). The accounts of the pogrom are so notorious that its detailed account would send chills across the spine that I don’t want to discuss here. The aftermaths helped the BJP in the upcoming elections and firmed up the party as an indomitable force in the political arena of not only the state but also the country.

Now, the Sangh bigots might not like any of the truths that I have mentioned. Their sycophancy towards Sangh ideologues and the Modi-Shah duo won’t allow them to accept my words. Although it is untenable a task to convince bigots while they come up with logical fallacies to distract the audiences hearing them, it is worth looking into history to find another notorious riot, the Anti-Sikh riots of 1984.

To seek revenge for Indira’s death upon Sikhs what the congress did under Rajiv Gandhi was highly condemnable. Besides one thing that rankles me is, it is understandable for a son to feel vengeful upon his mother’s death but why did Congress take part in that pogrom?

This was a turning point for political analysts to assess how much Congress has become obsessed with that one family which has resulted in Congress’s present slump in the electoral arena of India. It is well known that after that, Congress has not indulged in such acts of communal polarization which prompts political analysts to conclude that the 1984 episode was an act of vengeance rather than a vile and wicked game that the RSS-BJP plays so often for electoral gains. 

Ambedkar knew India and analyzed it with his great intellect to conclude some bitter truths about India. He predicted this whole scenario well before independence and yet a man who has proven his mettle was derided even by the Congress who projected themselves as the symbol of the idea of India. 

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and the Other Giants of Indian Freedom Struggle: A Brief Look

The father of our nation, the champion of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi is a pre-requisite recipe when we talk about the Indian freedom struggle. Along with him, there is Subash Chandra Bose whom Gandhi referred to as the ‘greatest patriot’ and then comes the villain of Sangh Parivar’s version of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru but it is rather a pity that no amount of name-calling or image rupture can harm the legacy of Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India.

Nehru was a visionary and an exceptional statesman when it comes to how India dealt in foreign affairs in his days. He did his level best to make his statesmanship work in internal affairs but it was not as successful as the former.

Subash Chandra Bose was a fiery revolutionary who went onto form the Indian National Army (INA) and believed more in a militarized form of struggle to achieve independence. Some historians consider him to be a glue between Hindus and Muslims as he was quite popular in both communities which makes them deduce that if Bose hadn’t died in the air crash, the partition of India wouldn’t have happened.

But it is clear that Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar was far ahead of them in intellect and perpetual wisdom with a keen sense of sincerity. As the Father of Constitution, he has proven his mettle as a visionary not just for the idea of India but for the idea of making India great. His sincerity is admirable when he resigned in 1951 from the post of the Law Minister of India due to his frustration of not being able to bring in changes that he worked for years owing to the lack of basic foundational powers that he was given. 

Baba Saheb (as Ambedkar is lovingly called by his followers) never gave up. He continued his struggle for the empowerment of the socially downtrodden populace of India which in the end made him give up Hinduism and accept Buddhism. It is quite notable that Baba Saheb was not a very great admirer of Gandhi although he had good relations with the latter.

It is quite notable when Baba Saheb countered Gandhi’s views of the emancipation of Dalits by the latter calling them, Harijans (Children of God). Baba Saheb was known to have argued that just by changing the way the community is known won’t help in emancipating them but rather what the community needs is to become socially, politically and economically empowered within their original name ‘Dalit’ so that the community realizes who they are and identify with the real-life scenario of who they are.

Gandhi’s intent might have been good but his idea lacked the realism and vision of Ambedkar. Gandhi’s idea would have only resulted in lower caste people living in a fantasy rather than facing reality.

Baba Saheb’s vision of communal electorates would have stopped the partition of India if it was implemented as Jinnah’s Muslim League was very much in league with this idea. It is quite clear when Jinnah came with the two-nation theory earlier proposed by V. D. Savarkar (the Hindutva ideologue of RSS), he never intended it to become a reality but he was using it as a tool to threaten the Congress and the Hindu majority in giving the Muslim League or Muslims empowerment in the Indian political, social and economic scenario as he was afraid of Majoritarian oppression of Muslims.

While Ambedkar saw this fear as a reality, he saw the Majoritarian oppression as an imminent threat to all the minorities living in India. But, what happened is Gandhi’s fast unto death against the communal electorate system which he saw as separating the general populace communally forced Ambedkar to withdraw the proposal when all the parties involved supported it and the Britishers agreed. This, as history tells us, was a bad idea.

Later, Jinnah’s reluctance and disappointment were quite evident when the two-nation theory became a reality as he was reported to have said, ‘and we ended up getting a moth-eaten Pakistan’.  

The Present Day 

As we come to the present day, Ambedkar’s fears seem to have become a reality with the Majoritarian agenda of Sangh Parivar vigorously being pursued by the present government at the Centre. Section 144a has been imposed in UP, the most populous state, amid widespread violence and Internet shutdown. At least a 100 have died, and thousands are detained in the widespread protests that have shocked the country after the Central Government came out with a proposed act called Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The National Register for Citizens (NRC), which is an amendment of the Census Act, seems to be another boiling pot for the country as it wants citizens to prove their citizenship based on certified documents that the Government finds to be acceptable. The Government has not yet specified what the ‘certified documents’ are, as most of the documents including passports, Aaadhar, and Voter ID do not fall under the Government’s jurisdiction of ‘certified documents’.

Then the Government goes onto saying that ‘there’s nothing to worry about for real Indians as genuine citizens have nothing to fear’. It is quite perplexing who ‘real Indians’ are and what ‘genuine citizens’ mean as both the CAA and the NRC are communal with an explicit agenda of ‘Hindu Rashtra’. For an organization and party like the RSS and BJP, which idolizes Golwalker, the Hindutva Icon, who wrote in his essay an appreciation of Hitler’s Nazism and that India should learn from Hitler’s ethnic cleansing, it’s quite evident what they are up to at the centre.

The Central Government has also been running a third campaign for the preparation of the National Population Register (NPR). This is to be prepared by the States and sent to the Centre so that the latter can start the NRC. While the Kerala Government and West Bengal Government have openly stated that they won’t continue the NPR, the former IAS officer, Kannan Gopinathan, who resigned due to the autocratic style of governance that the Central Government showed in Kashmir, clearly mentions the link between the three (CAA, NRC, NPR).

By articles 5 and 11, states cannot refrain from a central matter like citizenship in which states do not have a say. In a time when the Supreme Court is playing a balancing act, it is to be seen how the states will go ahead in their opposition to the three. 

As the government continues their theatrics, thinking that they are the foxes of the jungle, they seem to have highly overestimated their intellect. The recent protests rose from the cradles of higher education in India, and it has spread all across the country with the youth’s knowledge and energy fuelling it. By reverting to violence, the Indian State has called upon condemnation from numerous international bodies.

Education is a prime driving force of holistic development and for a Government that doesn’t like to be questioned, they seem to have forgotten that education rather than fomenting societal evils like communalism which stems from ignorance will find its arch-nemesis in secularism backed by knowledge. The Central Government seems to have been outfoxed in their own game by antonymous ideologies.

The youth don’t seem to be repeating the idiom of ‘my great India’ (Mera Bharat Mahan) like the Andh-Bhakts (‘blind followers’, as the bigot followers of RSS-BJP, are fondly known among the general populace of India) but rather dream of making India rise from its current state of ‘Darkness of Ignorance’ to the ‘Light of Knowledge’ to make India great in future.

This is an outcry of Ambedkar’s visionary ideals and the path ahead towards this goal can be found by rediscovering the legend called Ambedkar. With this dawn, let us emancipate ourselves from the RSS agenda by remembering Baba Saheb’s words, 

“Be Educated, Be Organized, and Be Agitated!” – Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.