The parliamentary elections for the 18th Lok Sabha are due in India early next year. The Congress is the oldest political party of of the country having greater stakes in the ensuing general elections compared to any other opposition party. Traditionally, the party has always been under the control of the members of the Gandhi-Nehru family and so, naturally, they have greater role and responsibility to gain political power for the party through the said democratic process. Therefore, it is not surprising that the heir apparent Rahul Gandhi and his advisors are leaving no stone unturned to create a favourable opinion among the voters for the party and self within the country and abroad among the Indian Diaspora including all other organizations and individuals, who could be of help in the change of the political regime. Therefore, the Gandhi scion earlier carried out an elaborate ‘Bharat Jodo” yatra within the country and now he is visiting foreign countries with significant NRI presence. He did this earlier too in 2018 with the parliamentary election due in 2019 and is doing again now with the usual narratives of the democracy and secularism in India being under a grave threat, the freedom of expression and speech having been severely stifled, and intolerance and attacks against the minorities, dalits and tribals having phenomenal increase.
Gandhi Scion in the United States
Rahul Gandhi had done it in the past and he did it again, this time in the United States with his usual rhetoric about the democracy and secularism in India being in grave danger under the present government led by Prime Minister Modi. According to him, the Bhartiya Janta Party in governance with the political power and the Hindutva ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh are the biggest threat to the democratic India as well as its secular credentials owing to their constant ill-treatment and attacks on the minorities (Muslim and Christians), suppression of the freedom of expression and ever-growing intolerance in the country. Recently, the Gandhi scion was on a six-days US visit from 30 May 2023 onwards (some sources have reported 10 days) during which he had programs / interactions with the Non-Resident Indians (NRI) community, people associated with various organizations and business, lawmakers, media persons and members of the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) in San Francisco, Washington DC and New York. Some of the more prominent event sites included the Stanford University in Silicon Valley, National Press Club in Washington and Javits Centre in New York.
Earlier in March 2023 too, he had visited the United Kingdom with somewhat similar agenda and likewise venues such as the Cambridge University, the Chatham House in London and the British Parliament the Indian interacting with the Indian Diaspora, members of the political class, private business community leaders and members of the Indian Overseas Congress, besides addressing a press conference organized by the Indian Journalists Association. Needless to mention, both in the UK and US, the Gandhi Family’s close aide, adviser and the IOC head, Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda alias Sam Pitroda constantly accompanied him and coordinated his all-major events and fixtures. The key issues of his narrative in both the countries has been that the freedom of speech has been stifled in India since the BJP government came to power in 2014, the minorities, Dalits and tribals are attacked and victimized, and the crucial institutional framework of democracy viz. the Parliament, a free press, the judiciary these are compromised and high-jacked by the BJP and RSS, but the US and European countries were doing nothing to restore democracy in India.
The crux of the overseas visits & interactions and the underlying objective of the Gandhi scion and his party supporters appears to mobilize the support of the overseas Indian Diaspora and all other overt and covert assistance of foreign governments, institutions and organizations, business, media and individuals that may come handy in bringing down the Modi government during the next parliamentary elections scheduled early next year. To mobilize and garner such support, it’s obvious that the main opposition party and its dynastic leadership do not want any stone to be left unturned within the country and abroad, particularly in the US and Western Europe. According to reports, he even paid a secret visit to the White House in Washington to pursue his political agenda. During his aforesaid visit and exposure at various places on the US soil, true to his nature, temperament and competence, the Gandhi scion created and left behind a trail of controversies with imaginary charges and fears about the Indian democracy and secularism. While most of it was nearly a repeat of what he did in UK recently, some of the key points are briefly enumerated here.
- Continuing his tirade against Prime Minister Modi and BJP, the Gandhi scion mocked them with derision in San Francisco, California, “They can sit with God and explain to him what is going on and our Prime Minister is one such specimen. If Modiji and God sat, he will explain to God how the universe works and God will get confused about what he has created.” Credit also should be given to his organizers who had so carefully planned such interactions that his bizarre narratives and statements were merrily digested by the audience without showing any visible signs of unease.
- In San Francisco, he specifically mentioned that the minority communities ‘feel attacked’ in India; although specific minorities were not pointed out but decades long experience with his family and political party suggests that this was in the context of mainly Muslims and Christians too.
- During his interaction with the media and journalists at the National Press Club in Washington, he stated that the Indian Union of Muslim League (IUML) was a completely secular party and that there was nothing non-secular about them. It is for the sake of the readers to make opinion but the fact is MA Jinnah led Muslim League was responsible for the partition of India on independence and the party rechristened them as IUML in India. Currently, its main influence area is the state of Kerala where the Congress has aligned with this party, better known for its radical agenda and communal trouble on many occasions.
- He said that during his Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Indian government used all its strength to stop it but nothing worked on ground and, in fact, the impact of his Yatra only increased. Fact is, although the BJP leaders criticized him at occasions for his controversial statements and association with people during the Yatra but not even one instance was reported where any hindrance was caused by the government or local administration to his movement and programs.
- He also alleged that the Indian Government was “misusing” the country’s agencies (such as CBI, ED) and “threatening” the people (resorting to coercion and fake charges). He accused the ruling BJP of using Sengol (an ancient Hindu symbol of transfer of power) to distract people from issues like the growing unemployment and inflation.
- He stated that he carries the message of love like what Mahatma Gandhi did while the BJP and RSS indulge in the politics of hatred and vendetta, a legacy of Nathuram Godse. Addressing the Diaspora in New York, he also stated that the key architects of the contemporary India were all NRIs with open mind about the world, listing the names of Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Subhash Chandra Bose.
Eyebrows were particularly raised in the context of the Gandhi scion’s scheduled meeting on 4 June 2023 at Javit Centre in New York. The registration form circulated on social media contained names of people and organizations having alleged anti-India antecedents. Reportedly, the list had name of people and mosques such as Tazeem Ansari and Niaz Khan of Masjid Al-WALI/MCNJ North Edison Woodbridge TWP NJ, Jaweed Syed, Habeeb Siddiqui and Mir Quadri of Masjid MCMC South Edison/Piscataway / East Brunswick NJ, Mohammed Aslam and Minhaj Khan of ISCJ/MCGP South Brunswick/ Kendall Park/Princeton NJ, Aquil Mohammed and Nazeer Syed of Masjid Sadar Sayreville/Old Bridge NJ and Shaheen Khateeb and Hashir Qazi of (Darul Islah) Teaneck NJ. Most of these people are said to have problematic antecedents including direct or indirect links with the radical and even terrorist organizations. According to DisinfoLab, an organization associated with information-warfare and psychological-warfare, Minhaj Khan is linked to the anti-India lobbying group Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC). Mohammed Aslam is a member of the Muslim Center of Greater Princeton (MCGP), a close partner of ICNA and Sunita Vishwanath with George Soros who has reportedly committed one billion dollar for his agenda on India and its present leadership. Thus, evidently, various events of Rahul Gandhi in the US had close links to George Soros, IAMC and other Islamist and leftist organizations which are constantly indulged in anti-Hindu and anti-India propaganda.
Although during his recent visits to UK and US, the Congress leader appears to have been vehement in targeting the Central Government, BJP, RSS, and Narendra Modi in particular but, in reality, he has been habitually doing it for the last many years. For instance, the Gandhi scion had accused the BJP and Modi government earlier too in the US for the politics of hatred and violence, and favoring only the top hundred companies in India before an audience at the University of California, Berkley just before the 2019 parliamentary elections. During his visit to Germany and UK in 2018, he compared the RSS with the Muslim Brotherhood (a radical Islamist/ Terrorist Group) and blamed BJP for excluding dalits, tribal and minorities from the development process, alleging that similar exclusion politics had given rise to terrorist group like Islamic State in the past. During the same year, he demanded from the Malaysian soil that demonetization scheme be withdrawn. Similarly, while touring Singapore, he charged the Modi government of divisive politics, and using anger and intimidation to win elections. Reportedly, during his current US visit, he had a secret visit to the White House; as a leader of opposition, one can certainly meet lawmakers/officials in other countries but why should such visit, or liaison be under cover or shrouded with mystery?
Allegations against Modi Government and Current Status
Although almost all opposition leaders and political parties put forth somewhat similar allegations and narrative against Narendra Modi led NDA government and BJP but such controversies in India and abroad mainly revolve around Rahul Gandhi and the Congress Party because the latter represent the chief opposition and have wide national and global presence and links while the most other political parties are of regional nature with little or no influence outside the country. As the allegations as made by the opposition leaders from time to time mainly relate to democracy, secularism, freedom of expression, intolerance and ill-treatment of the minorities, Dalits and tribals, the author proposes to briefly analyze and discuss status of only these issues in present piece.
1. Status of Democracy in India
Broadly, any democracy would be characterized with the features such as right to choose government through secret ballot, freedom of assembly of people, freedom of religion and speech. association, right to property, right to vote, citizenship, consent of the governed, freedom from unwarranted governmental deprivation of the right to life and liberty, protection of the minority rights, and so on. Although there could be some other aspects to democracy as well but let us take here only the major characteristics of a soundly working or a strong democracy. These could be categorized as a multi-party-political system with political acceptance and tolerance, respect for the basic human rights, election of the government through a fair and transparent exercise of franchise, implementation and respect for the rule of law, democratic governance and citizen participation. Abrahim Lincoln once said – “Democracy is the rule of people, for the people and by the people”. Hence people (citizens) shall have freedom to assembly, choice, speech, economic, academic, press and religion; and that every citizen must have the opportunity to vote for their representatives in the government according to own political views.
According to Rahul Gandhi, the democracy and various democratic institutions in India have been either hijacked & ended or in serious peril owing to the Modi government, BJP and RSS but the defenders of democracy such as the United States and European countries are not doing anything to restore democracy in India. Also it’s not just an Indian battle (left to be fought by people like him), it’s a much more important battle, a battle for a huge part of democratic people on this planet. Now the allegations apart, let’s see if any of the key democratic features are non-functional due to Modi government and his party. Multi-party-political system is not only put in place but also the Congress and other regional opposition parties have freely ventured to unite against Prime Minister Modi and BJP to topple the government and/or defeat them in the forthcoming parliamentary elections in 2024. The chief hindrance and bottleneck in this endeavor is the opposition leaders’ own political ambitions and selfish interests. Out of sheer desperation, some of them are not even ready to accept the federal government and have indulged in unbecoming acts of defying central authority and laws in states where they constitute a ruling party.
The present Indian government came in power with a massive and clear mandate from people through the secret ballot in 2019 with free and active people’s participation. In the context of the rule of law by the state and central governments, BJP ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, etc. are clear winners and far ahead of the opposition ruled Indian states. While the author proposes to give more insights about the freedom of expression and other liberties in the following sections, suffice to mention that the Election Commission in India is a statutory and autonomous body free from any government intervention. The election process is well defined, free and fair, and in fact better in several aspects when compared to the democratic countries of the Western Europe and USA. Yet the ironical part is that almost every opposition party, the Gandhi scion and other Congress leaders in particular, make allegations in every election about the misuse of electronic voting machines and associated (manual) election process in favor of the (ruling) BJP, if the latter party wins but keep a stoic silence when they win elections for the state assemblies such as Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka etc. more recently.
Thus there is nothing wrong with the Indian democracy and, in fact, the parliamentary institutions have become healthier and stronger under the BJP rule (the only known non-dynastic party) in India. Most of the other Indian political parties are run by the members of the same political family where personal and political interests invariably prevail over the party affairs and all other considerations. The author’s clear opinion is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charismatic personality, unflinching commitment to the nation and a tough stand against corruption has earned him laurel but many enemies too with the majority of the opposition leaders uniting against him despite their own serious ideological differences. For their own survival and constant fear of facing law for their past misdemeanor and corruption, many of them want to get rid of him at any cost. Unlike the previous Congress led UPA regimes marred with numerous scandals and scams involving monumental public money, the current NDA regime led by Narendra Modi has been so far free from any such evil. Having nothing substantive against him, disgruntled politicians are now indulged in disinformation and false accusations about the status of the Indian democracy and secularism.
2. Secularism is Grossly Abused Concept
In the present context, the Secularism is perhaps the most misunderstood and abused concept in the Indian politics. Through the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution of India enacted in 1976 by the Congress Government under Smt Indira Gandhi, the text “Sovereign Democratic Republic” in the Preamble to the Constitution was substituted with “Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic”. By implication, this formally underlines that India is a secular country with socialist ideals. This amendment only formalized this position otherwise without this amendment too, India was a socialist and secular country in practice. While the western concept of secularism lays emphasis on the separation of religion and state, India has not subscribed to this point of view. Instead, secularism in Indian context is interpreted as equal treatment to all religions by the state. In effect, this implies that the state will not interfere with the religious laws and honor such laws in regulating relevant issues of the concerned community.
However, after Independence the successive Congress governments have followed rather a twisted interpretation and version of secularism whereby few minorities, more specifically Muslims, were favored and wooed by enacting laws to offer them special privileges in their social and religious matters and, in turn, garnering their votes to stay in power. To explain it further a few illustrations are cited here. The Constitution provides for a common civil code for all Indian citizens but the Congress government with Jawaharlal Nehru as premier took initiative in 1950s only to enact Hindu Civil Code and putting other Indigenous minority religions also in its ambit but they left Muslims and Christians untouched allowing them to operate under their personal laws like Sharia. Similarly, the successive Congress governments also promoted religious education and institutions of these minorities while exercising tight control over similar Hindu institutions.
Over a period, other national and regional parties too started competing with the Congress by granting them (Muslim and Christian communities) similar concessions to win their support and franchise. To achieve their end objective, they frequently resort to inciting a fear psychosis among the Muslims particularly during the election that they must support them or else the ‘communal BJP’ would come to power and take away their rights and privileges. This discrimination against the spirit of the Constitutional provision has only proved to be divisive rather than uniting various communities in the long term. The position on date is that if any political party, organization or individual supports these discretionary measures favoring the two minorities; they are called secularists in common parlance. On the other hand, if any party, organization or individual bids for equal treatment of all communities, be it a socio-religious matter or any some other state concession for the economic progress, they are straightway branded as communal by the so-called secularists.
Accordingly, many political parties, their leaders, self-proclaimed intellectuals and activists have been exploiting this own created dichotomy of the secularism and communalism mostly on imaginary and false premises. The recent outburst of the Gandhi scion in UK and US about the attack or ill-treatment of minorities is part of the same agenda. In the past too, similar hysteria was created during the General Elections for the 16th Lok Sabha in 2014 that the minorities are not safe if the saffron party (i.e. Bhartiya Janta Party) assumes power at the Centre. The new government led by Mr Narendra Modi, however, came in power not only in 2014 but also with even greater success and higher mandate in 2019 largely on account of their development agenda and equal treatment of all communities while sharing/distributing the fruits of development. So, it is not surprising that the ghost of secularism has started haunting the opposition yet again with the general elections for 18th Lok Sabha now due in early 2024.
Secularism, in true sense, involves rising above petty religious considerations to ensure the justice and fair play to all citizens. Hence it is of paramount importance in any democratic country that leaders as well as citizens imbibe the true secular values and ethics for an inclusive progress and a better social order. On the contrary, the political leaders, and the Gandhi scion is not an exception, actually indulge in divisive politics for their selfish interests and grabbing power by raising imaginary and untenable fears and barbs against rivals/opponents/. It is high time and need that the minority communities, mainly the Muslims, should also debate and realize that it has been over seventy years since independence and the so-called ‘secular’ parties have fought umpteen elections garnering their support in the name of championing their cause but what has actually been done on ground to improve their security, socio-economic standards and to integrate them with the mainstream over the years. Unfortunately, there are only few sane elements that too prefer to maintain silence while only few radical elements in the community rule the roost with tacit approval of the community.
The Article 44 of the Indian Constitution provides that the State shall endeavor to secure for citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India. The Supreme Court has made a crucial observation that a common civil code will help the cause of national integration by removing disparate loyalties to laws which have conflicting ideologies. The crux of these provisions and observations is that all citizens of India irrespective of the community they belong, should receive equal treatment from the state in every sphere of life. On the contrary, the secular concept of the Congress Party has a long-defined ideology aligned to their political interests that the minorities, especially the Muslims, should be given preference and first charge on the national resources. However, the Modi government has a professed ideology of equal treatment of all communities in education, employment, opportunities and economic development with focus on underprivileged and vulnerable sections of the society such as scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and women for the inclusive development and growth of the nation.
3. Freedom of Expression and Speech Stifled!
The Constitution of India provides to its citizens the Freedom of speech and expression under the Article 19, as one of the six freedoms. Briefly, it provides: Everyone has the right to freedom of speech and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. One could express ideas and opinions freely through speech, writing, and other forms of communication but without deliberately causing harm to others’ character and/or reputation by false or misleading statements. The freedom of press or media is also part of the freedom of expression. However, the same Article also provides certain restraints on rights so conferred so that it may not compromise the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency and morality, incitement to an offence, etc. In addition, certain fundamental duties have also been enshrined in the Constitution, which do not carry any legal sanction but the people are morally obligated to perform these duties as responsible citizens.
Rahul Gandhi made allegations both in the UK and US during public meetings that the Modi Government has been denying right of the freedom of expression and speech. He alleged that his experience as a member of parliament has been quite rough in India where the opposition’s voice is stifled. In fact, he keeps on telling this in public meetings in India and he did the same in abroad. Pointing out at a faulty microphone in British Parliament, he alleged that the microphones in India are in working order but one can’t switch them on and this personally happened to him in the Parliament. He also made a reference to the use of Israeli software Pegasus for his phone tapping. What he did not share was the fact how his own family members, leaders of the Congress and other parties have publicly insulted Narendra Modi as prime minister with all sorts of abusive words on umpteen occasions during the last 9-10 years as also the fact that he refused to give his phone to the investigating authorities for examination in the context of the Pegasus snooping charge.
In fact, following the change of government at the Centre in 2014, the year 2015 was particularly marked with nightmarish events of agitation and movement against the Modi Government by the Congress, other left and left-centric opposition parties and their follower intellectuals, liberals, civil rights activists and students of some central universities on the alleged intolerance and restrictions on the freedom of speech and civil liberty. In all cases, it was a selective dissent viz. they will indulge in nationwide uproar and outrage against one incident, if the affected individual belongs in particular to the Muslim minority community; at the same time, the same torch bearers of democracy, secularism and freedom of expression and speech would maintain stoic silence if similar and far more heinous crime occurs involving dozens of victims of the majority community i.e. Hindus. Ever since the similar charges about growing intolerance and curtailment of the freedom of expression have been constantly levied against the government albeit in a hit and run mode without seriously ever aiming to prove such disdainful averments. The ground reality is that no other government at the Centre has been as transparent, tolerant and welfare oriented in the past decades since independence.
While there is so much exaggerated and fake hue and cry over the freedom of expression and speech by the opposition, and more particularly by the Nehru-Gandhi family and other Congress leaders, let’s briefly review and see how the country has fared under this crucial democratic attribute since independence in August 1947. Late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru is often considered as an epitome of freedom of expression and civil liberty and without any prejudice to him or his ideology, a few well known instances of the suppression or curtailment thereof during his time and, subsequently, by the legacy Congress governments endorsing Nehruvian ideology are briefly enumerated in the following paragraphs.
Books banned on the ground of creating disharmony and falsification of facts such as Cease-Fire by Agha Babar (1950), Chandramohini (1952), Marka-e-Somnath by Maulana Muhammad Sadiq Hussain Inc (1952), Rama Retold by Aubrey Menen (1955), The Dark Urge by Robert W. Taylor (1955), Captive Kashmir by Aziz Beg (1958), The Heart of India by Alexander Campbell (1959), The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis (1960), The Lotus and the Robot by Arthur Koestler (1960), Nine Hours to Rama by Stanley Wolpert (1962), Ayesha by Kurt Frischler (1963), Unarmed Victory by Bertrand Russell (1963), An Area of Darkness by VS Naipaul (1964). These are some books banned during the period when Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister of India; a large number of books and published material have also been banned by the earlier Congress governments at the Centre. As against this chequered history of the Congress, the Modi government is not known for banning even one book during the last nine years.
A few other well-known restrictions on the freedom of expression and right to dissent during the Nehruvian era briefly include: (1) import of any newspaper that supposedly undermined friendly relations with any state was banned; (2) import of any (perceived) obscene drawing or painting was banned; (3) Historian Dharampal was arrested and imprisoned in Tihar jail along with two associates Narendra Datta and Roop Narayan for criticizing Nehru post-1962 Indo-China War; (4) President Rajendra Prasad’s speech was barred from distribution; (5) Draconian Press (Objectionable Matter) Act, 1951 was passed; (6) Sharat Babu’s play ‘Mahesh’ and Tagore’s plays ‘Gora’ and ‘Bishorjon’ were banned; (7) Balraj Sahni’s play ‘Jadu Ji Kursi’ was banned; (8) and Harmonium and Western Pop Music were banned on All India Radio; Poet Mazrooh Sultanpuri was jailed for two years for criticizing Nehru as Hitler in a poem on the charges of sedition; 1st elected Communist government in Kerala was dismissed by the Nehru government in 1959.
Films banned on such grounds as being amoral, depicting double standards, bold story line, sexually explicit scenes, depiction of violence and riots, showing the plight of refugees, overt political overtones, Sino-Indian War, unacceptable psychological motivation, and so on; Dilip Kumar’s Jugnu in 1947, Protima Dasgupta’s Jharna in1948, Mrinal Sen’s Neel Akasher Neechey in 1959, IS Johar’s Nastik in 1954, Bhul Na Jana in 1962, Gokul Shankar in 1963. In the post Nehruvian era too, Film Aandhi was banned in 1975 on the pretext that it was based on Indira Gandhi’s family life, Kissa Kursi Ka banned in 1977 for somewhat same reason, and Amu initially denied permission in 1984 for being based on 1984 anti-Sikh riots but later allowed after many severe cuts. More recently, film The Kerala Story depicting how ISIS terrorists trap young girls through love-jihad was banned by Mamta Banejee led TMC government in the state of West Bengal in May 2023. As against this, despite opposition in a section of public against few films such as ‘Padmavat’, their release and screening have not been stopped by the Modi government at centre or any other state BJP governments.
During the Nehru regime, a weekly journal “Cross Roads” by Romesh Thapar was banned by the Madras State for publishing critical views on Nehruvian policy. Thapar petitioned the Supreme Court against the ban which delivered a landmark judgment on 26 May 1950 in his favor, the first of this kind on freedom of speech and public order. Following this, the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951 was passed at the behest of Jawaharlal Nehru to overcome judicial decisions in fulfillment of the government’s perceived policies and programs for the sake of the stated “abuse of freedom of speech and expression”. Subsequently, his daughter and late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi made many arbitrary changes in the Constitution through the 42nd Amendment during Emergency in 1975 which almost changed the nature and spirit of the Indian Constitution. Late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi too used massive parliamentary mandate to enact legislation in Shahbano case to overthrow the Supreme Court judgment in pursuance of the appeasement of Muslim clergy and radical elements. With this own gory history, leaders of the Congress and allied opposition parties continue a tirade against the Modi government that they are out to destroy Constitution and stifle freedom of expression and speech.
4. Intolerance: Attack on Minorities, Dalits and Tribals
The Jinn of intolerance and current narrative of attack on minorities, dalits and tribals was set loose by the opposition in 2015 following the formation of the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A few isolated communal incidents such as a lynching case in Uttar Pradesh linked with the cow slaughter and the assassination of a left-leaning scholar-writer by unknown assailants in Karnataka was the immediate spark. The narrative of growing intolerance under changed regime was floated by the Congress and Left parties and soon escalated in a sort of movement against the Modi regime after a section of media, left-leaning liberal-intellectuals, some writers and cine artists like Nasiruddin Shah and Amir Khan joined it resorting to a wide criticism and adverse publicity. Although the movement subsided after few months but the narrative was retained as anti-Modi government plank by the Congress and other opposition parties, who conveniently still use it time and again in the context of minorities, mainly Muslims, and Dalits (scheduled castes) and tribal (scheduled tribes) population.
The net outcome of the two isolated cases quoted above suo moto ascribed to right-wing activists without any evidence was the maximum adverse publicity and flak from detractors to the nation and Modi regime. This author had identified a number of concurrent cases where the victims were Hindus with heinous acts of crime by the members of the minority community or insurgents/terrorists but none of these political parties, biased media and so-called intellectual-liberals ever made even a reference to these incidents; clearly a case of double standards owing to selfish interests. As for the issue of cow slaughter, approximately 40% Indians (most of them are Hindus) are vegetarian and even non-vegetarian Hindus do not endorse the killing of cows. Even Article 48 of Indian Constitution has mandated the prohibition of the slaughter of cows, calves, and other milch and draught cattle and the Supreme Court too in a landmark judgment in October 2005 had upheld the constitutional validity of anti-cow slaughter laws enacted by the states in India. In such case, using some isolated case(s) of crime related to cow slaughter to discredit the state and its government through a narrative of intolerance is grossly unfair to the nation and people.
The Constitution has provided for the special protection and reservation in certain jobs to the identified socially and economically backward castes/communities listed as the scheduled castes. Now the opponents and critics have purportedly started using the term “dalit” with misinformation that they are discriminated and harassed by the present Modi regime. Tribal communities have always been an integral part of Indian culture since ages and many of them such as Birsa Munda played an important role in the freedom struggle too. According to 2011 census, approximately 8.6% population is represented by the Indian tribal communities. In successive Central annual budget of the present government as also all along during the Amrit Kaal (upto 2047), several schemes have been implemented and planned for the sustained socio-economic and cultural development of the tribal communities. The tribal hero Birsa Munda’s birth anniversary on 15 November has been declared as the Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas. On the other hand, if the status of tribals, particularly in the Northeast, is carefully reviewed after independence under the successive Congress and allied governments, one would easily decipher how the tribal population was constantly neglected for the decades. Consequently, several unique markers of the tribal identity were threatened not only due to socio-economic neglect but also to a large scale conversions dangerously impacting demography owing to misinformation by the interested religious groups, which among other things have had adverse impact on their culture, languages and dialects too.
The extreme case of double standards of certain political parties and their supporters & sympathizers in India is that they underplay the anti-Sikh riots and massacre of 1984 leading to the death of thousands of Sikhs and Godhra incident in Gujarat but rake the issue of the Gujarat riots of 2002 time and again wherein casualties of the minority community outnumbered the majority one in a communal backlash. They avoid even making a reference to the lakhs of Hindu and Sikh killings and exodus from the Kashmir Valley on 1990s but they fight for the illegal cause of the thousands of Rohingya Muslims and settlements thereof in various parts of India and for this even plead a case in the Supreme Court. They seldom talk about the plight of the tribal population of the north-eastern states forced to leave their traditional homes by the illegal Bangladeshis settlers but oppose the Citizens Amendment Act and National Citizens Register (NRC) citing it against the rights of the particular minority community. Recently, they raised much hue and cry in the accidental killing of Atiq Ahmad (a Muslim) on 15 April, a dreaded mafia don and gangster with more than a hundred cases of murder, kidnapping and extortion, giving it a communal colour but not a single voice was raised by the same politicians when another gangster Anil Dujana (a Hindu) was gunned down by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on 5 May 2023 in an encounter. Such is the strange paradox and hypocrisy of these politicians, many of them including the Gandhi scion aspire to lead the nation someday as prime minister of a ruling party.
Volumes could be written on the instances, their repercussions and fall out, and consequent controversies and fake narratives projected nationally and internationally by the political leaders, biased media and left-leaning liberal-intellectuals in the name of the suppression of the freedom of expression and speech, and growing intolerance in India. The ground reality and status of the aforesaid class is entirely different and opposite. The last two Presidents of India have been chosen by the Modi government from the scheduled caste (Dalit) and scheduled tribe population. The Modi government has paid special attention and focus on these classes with many new schemes and commensurate resource allocation for their sustained development and progress. The commitment of the government for the tribal welfare and development could be learnt from the very fact that Prime Minister Modi has personally visited north-eastern states dozens of time during his tenure, which otherwise remained a largely ignored region by the previous governments. Though the government has not assigned any special status or new favor to the Muslim community but they too are enjoying the fruits of development and progress equally with other communities.
Epilogue
For his US visit, many detractors of the Gandhi scion have blamed him for associating and taking assistance from the groups, organizations and individuals who are directly linked to India’s sworn enemy Pakistan and also with people and organizations that are well known “threat” to the Indian democracy. For instance, the Disinfo Lab reportedly claimed in a series of tweets that meeting of Rahul Gandhi with non-resident Indians at the Javits Centre in New York is organized by individuals associated with the Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami and Muslim Brotherhood-linked fronts, which are funded and propagated by the Pakistan ISI. They also claimed that one of his organizers viz. Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) is a radical Islamic organization. Not only this, he was also seen associating with the likes of Minhaj Khan, Sunita Vishwanath, the latter with George Soros links, better known for their anti-India stand and activities. These are only some of the individuals and organizations which is certainly a cause of concern and discomfort for every patriotic Indian. The entire world has only recently seen how the Hindenburg Research report, with alleged Soros connection, on the Adani Group disrupted the Indian financial sector with the opposition parties seeking to topple Modi Government while the committee constituted by the Supreme Court later did not find any alleged irregularities by the Adani Group.
The very idea of seeking foreign assistance or intervention for the change of political regime at home appears quite ludicrous and scandalous, against the very concept of nation and patriotism. It’s, however, obvious that the Gandhi scion is an unofficial head of the Congress Party and, except for his own conscience, no other person can influence or ask him to amend. As for his rhetoric on the democracy, intolerance, freedom of expression and speech, etc., the very fact that he can criticize and abuse India and its prime minister at will on the foreign soil itself vindicates the fallacy of his averments. At home too, he has been constantly addressing Prime Minister Modi as “Chor” (thief) without an iota of evidence or lead. The author also recalls ignominies and abuses freely sprung on Prime Minister Modi in the past by the members of the Gandhi family and other political opponents using such expletives as the mass murderer, poisonous person, liar and fraud, Maut ka Saudager, nali ka kida (despicable vermin), scorpion, illiterate, poisonous snake, Hitler, Bhasmasur (a demon), chowkidar chor hai, biggest Gunda, Butcher of Gujarat, Jallad, Neech (mean person), chaiwalah (tea vendor), and so on. One wonders what more freedom of expression and speech as well as tolerance from Modi and his government is expected by such political leaders, their allied media persons and intellectuals/liberals in India and abroad.
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