Some time in September last year, an unsolicited and somewhat unexpected mail landed in the inboxes of several hundred Gmail users, much like how matrimonial websites and placement agencies invade our mailboxes. Only, it sought to clarify 'facts on riots in India'.
The subject line of the mail read 'Facts on riots in India to clear all doubts'. While it isn't too difficult to understand what the intent of such a mail is - and that is defending Narendra Modi against accusations of inaction during Gujarat riots - it gave an interesting insight into several flaws in the popular political narrative unfolding in India in the run up to the elections this year.
Lets look at the issues that merit immediate attention and discussion in India on this day - inflation, women's security, corruption and following the Muzaffarnagar riots, issues of social security of the minorities. Ideally, a voter should be offered individual visions of the contesting parties in the mentioned issues and asked to choose which they find the most convincing. However, with Modi's ascension as the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, the country's political narrative has assumed a largely singular direction - it's as if the parties in the poll fray are asking us to decide who is a lesser rioter and hence vote for him.
Narendra Modi. Agencies.
The said mail, which came from an id belonging to one Sagar Roy (presumably a fake one), listed out incidents of communal violence (18 to be precise) that has occurred in the Congress regime since 1974. The list included every incident of violence from the Noakhali massacre and anti-Sikh riots and communal unrest in Surat in 1992, as an offshoot of the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya the same year. Apart from the customary insinuations in troll vocabulary, the mail concluded with the following lines:
"The youths of India say :
We are not interested in excuses like 'Godhra-2002'.
We are only interested in Development, Vision & 'Growth-2022'.
We know 'Where there is Will there is way"
While such extreme enthusiasm is something all political parties in India are guilty of, what is immensely disturbing about this strain of thought is how the Gujarat riots, which took the lives of 1,000 people, has been reduced to being an 'excuse'. And these are political discourses that are fast gathering strength in the run-up to the general elections this year. Vinay Sitapati, in an excellent piece on The Indian Express, points out what this greater rioter versus lesser rioter debate has effectively done:
"In their sloppily argued, partisan bid to pin a larger tragedy on one man, the Congress party and some NGOs have unwittingly made the Gujarat riots seem less horrific than they actually were."
Sitapati argues in his piece that in a bid to paint Narendra Modi as the primary accused in the Gujarat riots case, Modi's opponents are just giving him enough ground to expand his image as a victim of unsubstantiated slander. He points out that it is a fact that Modi couldn't be pinned for instigating the riots and the SIT and the Supreme Court have rightly given him the clean chit in that regard.
However, everyone from the opposition parties to some NGOs, with their bombastic and vacuous rhetoric, seem to be missing the glaring mistakes that Modi's government should be made accountable for. Sitapati cites that the investigations and probes instituted by the Gujarat government led to just 5 percent convictions, whereas ones outsourced to agencies like SIT and the Supreme Court and scrupulously kept away from the Gujarat government's influence, led to a whopping 39 percent convictions - including big names like Maya Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi.
But what has the constant pillorying of Modi as the one responsible and culpable for the Gujarat riots done? It has given him an opportunity to magnify his image as a victim of political elitism and given culprits - with credible proof against them - an opportunity to hide behind him and go scot-free. Calling Modi a 'murderer' doesn't change the fact that there is no legal evidence that he either incited a mob or orchestrated the proceedings of the riots. However, like Sitapati points out, there is enough evidence against the Sangh parivar workers, and other BJP leaders who killed, attacked and raped Muslims. There is evidence that the police refused to act on time. However, in the clamour to paint Modi as a villain, these culprits have been let off, quietly relishing the anonymity lent to them by the spotlight on Narendra Modi.
And Modi's defence - that the SC has given him a clean chit - is impeccable. So, is his allegation he is being victimised for something he is not guilty of - at least legally.
It is difficult to extricate the BJP from the RSS, in fact, Modi's ascent to power in the BJP was reportedly facilitated by the strong backing of the Hindu fundamentalist organisation. The very organisation, whose offshoots played a discernible role in the Gujarat riots. However, that correlation too will be lost in the din of the Congress-BJP trading riots accusations.
No one's going to ask how we can possibly vote for a party and a leader who has made a quiet little place for violence mongers in his coterie. The misfortune of the Indian voter is that - most parties we know, have made place for such atrocities at some point of their evolution.
The issue in Gujarat, like it has been reported several times over, is not so much communal disharmony, as it is the discrepant opportunities and development of the Hindu and the Muslim communities. Sitapati points out how it is still difficult for Muslims to buy property in middle class neighbourhoods in Ahmedabad. There have been several reports on how Muslims are moving into ghettos in Juhapura. Modi's poll pitch being 'development' , it possibly also merits questioning those claims on these grounds.
Given how Modi has been harping on his beginnings as a chai-wallah, the polls this year is already sounding like a battle between the political elite and the 'outsider'. An outsider, who in his own admission, is also being accused of a heinous crime he is not guilty of. However, it was a crime, whose perpetrators are roaming, free, fearless and possibly even emboldened in his fiefdom. What is he doing about it? It is a question the Congress will not ask. Because, possibly, they have a few cover-ups to take care of themselves. The casualty, therefore, is the Indian voter - who will now have to vote on the basis of which half-truth he is willing to believe more.
Read the Indian Express article here.
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