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Last few months (June 2012) Narendra
Modi has been much in news for his spectacular rise in BJP
hierarchy and his projection as the BJP nominee for the future
Prime Minister. That there is blood on the hands of Modi, carnage
of 2002 Gujarat, cannot be washed off with any amount of pouring
the water of ‘myth of vibrant Gujarat’. Modi-BJP is also labeled
as Fascist by many social scientists-activists. On many a
political debates on TV or other forum, when such charges are
labeled against Modi-BJP pat comes the reply, if Modi is fascist
for Gujarat carnage, what about the Congress-the anti Sikh pogrom
of 1984. Its true murder is a murder, inexcusable, irrespective of
who does it. In that sense Congress is also guilty of letting Anti
Sikh pogrom take place right under its nose, many of its
cadres-leaders instigating the riot, while the police machinery at
best looking the other way round.
But that’s just a part of the story. It’s at the level of
political process that these carnages, Gujarat and Delhi, cannot
be equated and have totally different politics at the back of it.
There are carnages which are a part of deeper political processes,
and there are other carnages which are accidental, revengeful and
‘one go’ affair, where political motives if at all are of
temporary nature. The Delhi massacre falls in the second category.
On 30h January 1984, Indira Gandhi was walking in her compound to
give an interview, and right there her Sikh bodyguards gunned her
down. Indira Gandhi was advised to remove the Sikh body guards in
the wake of operation Blue Star. In This operation by Indian army
Golden Temple was attacked, to evacuate Khalistani militants
hiding there. Mrs. Gandhi refused to remove Sikhs from her team of
body guards rhetorically asking, are we not secular? After her
murder the atmosphere in Delhi got charged, the newly sworn Prime
Minister was glum, being covered by the TV camera, while the
massacre-anti Sikh pogrom started outside. Rajiv Gandhi at this
point uttered that infamous sentence, ‘When a big tree falls, the
Earth shakes’. This was a signal enough for the rioters, the
elements from Congress, those shaken by Indira’s murder and lumpen-elements
to go on with their job. Rajiv Gandhi visited the riot areas on
third day, military was called and peace came in. The process of
justice and reconciliation began, some semblance of rehabilitation
came through, some semblance of justice began but still a number
of those involved in the crime have not been punished. Sonia
Gandhi and Manmohan Singh both expressed regret, remorse in their
own way. This was a ‘one go’ political madness in which Sikhs were
targeted in the wake of the murder of Indira Gandhi. There was no
deeper-long term political agenda. It was a sort of political
insanity, momentary and tragic, painful and horrifying which
tormented the Sikh community, a political accident so to say.
Gujarat is a different cup of tea. From the decade of 1990, with
BJP government coming to power, all the wings of RSS combine, VHP,
Bajrang Dal and their patriarch RSS came to full scale,
unrestrained activity. RSS Chief Rajendra Singh declared that
Gujarat is the ‘Laboratory of Hindu Rashtra’. Different villages
of Gujarat started putting the hoarding outside their villages.
‘Welcome to so and so village of Hindu Rashtra’. Adivasi areas
started seeing the intimidation of Christians; Muslim youth were
attacked for inter-religious marriages. Meanwhile BJP was losing
the grip on the electoral arena and in the forthcoming 2002
assembly elections; the fear was that BJP may lose. Here came the
Godhra, Sabarmati train burning, 58 Kar Sevaks, innocents got
burnt alive. The local administration said it is not pre planned
act. Modi had his own calculations; he instantly declared that it
is premeditated act by local Muslim in collaboration with the
Pakistan’s ISI and International terrorism.
The burnt bodies of Kar Sevaks were taken in a procession on the
instructions of Modi. VHP called for a Bandh and as per Citizens
Tribunal report and the affidavit of Sanjiv Bhatt, Modi instructed
the state administration to sit back and to let the Hindus vent
their anger. Modi did not visit the riot affected areas for weeks,
till another swayamsevak, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,
gathered courage to visit the victims in Shah Alam camp and Modi
accompanied him. The mayhem went on and on for months. Refugee
camps run by the state were wound up, no rehabilitation, relief
and remorse from the state machinery.
The polarization process in the state, the ghettotization of
Muslims is more or less complete by now and Muslims have been
relegated to second class citizenship in the state. While few
affluent Muslim businessmen are turning to Modi for their
survival, the average Muslims are living the life of all round
neglect. Most of those who were alleged to be part of leading the
mobs, got rewarded, re-elected, though some of them are cooling
their heels in the jails under different charges. Gujarat carnage
was one more, and most horrifying in the chain of anti Muslim
violence which began from the Jabalpur one in 1961 and passing
through the other horrific riots of Meerut Malyana, Bhagalpur,
Bhivandi, Mumbai in all of which the anti Muslim one’s. The
percentage of Muslim victims so has been 90%. In many of these the
inquiry commissions have showed the role of organizations
affiliated to RSS or its ideology of Hindu Rashtra.
The carnage of Gujarat is a part of the series of anti Muslim
violence being spearheaded by the divisive ideology of religion
based nationalism. In the same ‘ideological violence’ has come in
anti Christian violence peaking in Kandhmal in August 2008.
The issue of Anti Sikh pogrom, equally condemnable has to be seen
in a different light. While the anti Muslim and anti Christian
violence is guided by the ideological agenda, the anti Sikh
violence was a political accident taken advantage of by Congress.
It passed off leaving bitter social realities. The anti
Muslim-anti Christian violence is the part of slowly developing
agenda of Hindu Rashtra, the goal of RSS in this country. This
agenda of RSS has streaks of authoritarian ideologies. Social
scientists look for analogies for analyzing social-political
phenomenon. In case of Modi, who is part of the RSS agenda at
political level, their inner differences notwithstanding, the
carnage of Gujarat is an expression of Fascism, as politics of
religion based nationalism. Like fascism it targets minorities
(Jews were targeted in Germany). It asserts its supremacy as a
race or religion and harps on the glorious past where the caste
and gender hierarchies were the norms. Translated in contemporary
times it means abolition of democracy, abolition of liberal space,
looking down upon the plural ethos of the nation and turning to
the social stratification of earlier times.
While Fascism word is used very often, what is it exactly? Is it just a dictatorship or is it just massacre of minorities or is
there something more to it? These two are the key ingredients of
fascism. The other major pillar of fascism is an intimidation of
weaker sections through street violence, abolition of democracy
and the creation of hysteria around the infallible leader. Hitler
was one such, who wanted nation based on German (Aryan Race), he
persecuted the Jews and then Communists, He was glorified as the
infallible leader, he usurped all the powers in his hands and did
have an aggressive stance towards not only the ‘others’ in the
country but also the ‘other nations. Hitler was also the favorite
of big capitalists. Is any political leader on Indian political
chess board close to these analogies?
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