Who is the next face after Prime Minister Modi?

 

 India’s current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),  rose from the ranks of  the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The RSS is a Hindu-Nationalist Rightwing organisation which spawned the BJP. However, even though the BJP draws its ideology from the RSS,  Modis  tenure as the Gujarat Chief Minister and his subsequent 2014 national election campaign gave the illusion of him being his own man. In his campaign there was no blatant mention of a Hindu agenda or the construction of a Ram Mandir which his party has worked for earlier. Modi spoke of his 56 inch chest, alluding to him being the Alpha Male. The promise was to build an India that Indians could be proud of, an India that would hark back to the ‘glory days’ of yore.

Modi led his party to a resounding victory in the 2014 national elections even though the opposition made much of the Gujarat riots during his tenure as Chief Minister. As India’s 14^th Prime Minister, he hopped across the globe basking in the adulation of the Indian diaspora as his image managers built a profile of global appeal; a form of ‘Halo Effect’ on a much larger scale. During the election he portrayed himself as the THE Indian; with his foreign jaunts he gave a new face to India. The image of Modi playing the Taiko drums in Japan, bear hugging leaders of foreign lands sent a message of arrival to all at home. The RSS had been trying to create an image of a macho Hindu to deal with what they believe was its emasculation over the last hundreds of centuries caused by non-Hindus ruling this land. This need to regain their perceived lost manhood could explain their quasi martial rites and the use of violence or its threat by organisations spawned by it. Modi with his exploits brought a long absent sense of bravado and machismo, revitalising and infusing a sense of purpose into the lives of many people who felt wronged by history.  

The new found post-Modi-victory-virility has percolated to the the tone and depiction of Hindu memes and religious motifs. One of the iconic images of the monkey king Hanumanji, the much loved devotee of the Hindu god Shri Ram, has been of him tearing open his chest to show the image of Shri Ram and his consort Sitaji. However, Hanuman has gotten a makeover, he has been converted into a monkey king with a dark  sinister and hostile look that promises violence . The genteel beatific look that shone through in the countenance of Shri Ram and Laxmanji in their individual pictures or as they stood together has changed. Today they are ripped and look hard and determined, their long hair ruffled but contained.  

The creation of these images and their oozing through society goes hand in hand with the RSS and their cohorts constant desire to undo and rectify the past, to remove the black mark on, what they believe, is an otherwise unblemished history. One outcome is  patriotism morphing into rabid saffron hued nationalism. Is an environment similar to that before the ‘Kristallnacht’ being inadvertently created? 

Which brings us to the choice of  a nationalist Hindu priest - Yogi Adityanath -  as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of  Parliamentary seats (80) out of which the BJP won 71 and is also the state where the disputed Babri Masjid-Ram Janma Bhoomi (birthplace of Lord Ram)is located. The RSS and Hindu nationalists want to build a temple on that spot. Building a temple there has religio-nationalistic overtones. Its construction will, in one swipe, sanctify the birthplace of Shri Ram,  begin to undo the destruction, and the resulting ‘psychological scars’, caused by the Muslim invaders  and simultaneously cock-a-snook at fellow citizens who are Muslims.

When Adityanath was chosen as the new Chief Minister, media houses tripped over themselves to show that he was not rabidly anti-Muslim. They wrote and broadcast stories of how Muslims work as his staff without fear. Strangely these stories never came out when this very same man spewed venom on Muslims over the last many years. 

With a Hindu priest as Chief Minister in Uttar Pradesh, the RSS has an opportunity to make real part of their fantasy. The success of their venture in this state has the potential of  galvanising other BJP led states into further action.  Modi was the image for the aspirational Indian who was given reasons to begin shedding the burden of self-anointed victimhood foisted by history. In this new enterprise, Yogi Adityanath will become the face of the Indian who finally realise their India’s aspirations. Will Yogi Adityanath then become the First Priest and Prime Minister of India as a Hindu state?

Rewriting legal redressal and history

Jayanti Natrajan , from the Congress fold
Is now hot property but then was cold.
What she did as our new environment minister
Would have been smart, if it had come from a school teacher.

The story goes like this the papers say
HCC built an eco-city and so hills were done away
It was easy to see that environmental norms were flouted
What about the tribal? others shouted.

Lavasa's construction came to a grinding halt
Twas no doubt that the HCC was at fault.
So, then began the company's cry of wasted investment
All forgot about the area’s natural and beautiful raiment

Then Jayanti Natrajan; like a knight in shining armour
Gave a way out to these nature harmers.
'All they had to do' after much thought said she
'Was repair the destruction and give a no more flouting written guarantee'.

This is what they made me do in school
Write a hundred times I wont play the fool.
Would it be the turn of Raja, Kanomozhi and who ever
To be freed after they've promised to fill the national coffer?

But now to another matter we shall digress
After environment and law it is history we will address
Who can forget the attempt to rewrite India’s destiny
That began with Ghazni and ended with Advani.

After the demolition, and destruction of live’s
Advani today is older and wise
His rath yatra that made communalism regular
He tells the world that it was nothing but secular.

L K Advani and footwear

Sitting on pedestal, enroute to his cherished seat
Advani looked down and saw no shoes on his feet
‘How unclean,I put my foot in the mouth frequently’ said he
‘From Babri to Jinnah to kandahar that’s what I leave to posterity’.

There was no glass slipper for he was no Cinderella
But in the crowd there was one kind fella
Who though luckless and ignored by the BJP
Threw L K Advani a slipper for free.

Is 26/11 = 9/11 ?

Mathematics and numbers have been used to explain the inexplicable, to make sense of what isn’t, to provide coordinates for those lost. The recent Mumbai attacks have also spawned a mathematical model – that of equating the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai to the events of 9/11.

This unnecessary ‘me – too’ Indian mentality keeps raising its ugly head at increasingly frequent intervals. The need to show the world (be it with the Chandrayan Lunar Mission) or to transform a city into something else, or to constantly proclaim that Indians have joined the Forbes list indicates that we really have nothing to flaunt in our show-cases. The need to get validation from others or to validate ourselves amongst our own people means that we are still snotty nosed kids.

To even try to equate 9/11 to the 26/11 attacks of Mumbai is to do injustice to India. Unless off course we Indians think that our country has done more than its fair share to destabilise the world, prop up puppet dictators, over throw democratically elected regimes and invade countries. Maybe we haven’t done things on an international scale but as a country we have not fared too badly either.

9/11 was a result of those disaffected by Americas global footprint. There are enough reasons nationally for 26/11 to have occurred - L.K Advani and Babri Masjid, Modi and the Gujarat Pogrom, the ongoing humanitarian disasters of Kashmir and the North East, warped development and economic growth strategies provide enough grist for the mill. (There is now another reason – the Pak army doesn’t want to deal with outlaw Pakistanis helping Bin Laden so they schemed to get the Indian army on alert which would mean that they would have to shift their focus from the Afghanistan border to the Indian one)

As has been seen in the past the media plays the role of whipping up sentiments, they are almost as good as Goebble. In some ways they are better, they not only provide information that gives rise to these sentiments but are also kind enough to provide a vent for them. After the 26/11 attacks print and electronic media have gone out of their way to make hay – besides interviewing all and sundry media have begun initiatives like ‘Citizens Against Terror’, ‘Declare war on Terror’, online polls and debates ranging from new anti-terror laws to ‘How can India maintain unity in its fight against terror?'. While others use 26/11 to suggest draconian laws and put forth their ideas of the need for higher levels of nationalism.

What the media has been doing is that it is feeding off public outcry, the greater the outcry the more the media gives in. Thus instead of creating informed debates and generating information that provides solutions to a frustrated public who could then make informed demands, the media provides crumbs and manufactures events, debates and crisis.

But it is not only the media, intelligent people like Ratan Tata, Bajaj and heads of various chambers of commerce have also shown scant regard for the situation. They have all used different words for an anti-terror law and ‘stronger leadership’. This does not come as a surprise when Tata has been quoted as saying that those not investing in Gujarat are fools. He then put his money where his mouth was – albeit because of the situation in Singur.

Post 26/11 there is a sense of shame tinged with helplessness, a feeling echoed by Bajaj who said “This is a shame on our government that they cannot provide citizens with the basic security. We are tired of hearing Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Malegaon, Delhi and the commercial capital. This is not acceptable.” And to overcome this feeling people are demanding that India attack Pakistan, others promise not to vote or pay taxes, while others are willing to give up privacy for the notion of safety.

It would not be incorrect to club the current swell of sentiment to that felt after the Babri Masjid, Gujarat pogroms, or when industries are set up without due process.

Suggestions on how to make India a safe place are coming thick and fast, demands for better equipment, more respect and pay for the armed forces, an overhaul of the intelligence system are being bandied around. Maybe an apology from L K Advani for the Babri Masjid demolition and from Narendra Modi for the Gujarat pogroms would reduce some of the reasons given by those bent on causing pain, suffering and upheaval.