India's 'secular' parties fail to stand up against Hindutva forces

From Uttarakhand to Assam, political apathy enables the Sangh parivar’s campaign against minorities.

Rajya Sabha MP and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader John Brittas was the first to take up membership of Deepak Kumar (Mohammed Deepak)’s gym in Kotdwar, Uttarakhand. Brittas is unlikely to use this membership, but it was his way of standing in solidarity with the young bodybuilder who has been targeted by the police, threatened by Hindutva groups, and mocked by the CM.

Deepak’s life and livelihood remain in danger after he sprang to the rescue of an elderly Muslim shopkeeper harassed by the Bajrang Dal, an affiliate of the Sangh parivar, on Republic Day.

The MP from Kerala is also the only politician who has travelled to Kotdwar to meet Deepak. It’s not a long journey; it takes just three and a half hours to drive from Delhi. With Parliament in session, any other MP could have done so, including the Congress’ Deepender Hooda, who spoke to Deepak on the phone and promised to raise his predicament in Parliament.

Indeed, a delegation of MPs could have gone to Kotdwar. Imagine the impact this would have had, not just on Deepak, or the shopkeeper being targeted, but on all Muslims of Uttarakhand. The state has, over the last few years, seen a systematic campaign to drive Muslims out, in keeping with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s interpretation of ‘Devbhoomi’, the term often used to describe Uttarakhand.

A visit by an all-party delegation would have sent a strong message of hope across India; not only for the Muslims, who face newer humiliations every day in BJP-ruled states, but for all those anguished by the systematic destruction of communal harmony by the ruling BJP.

Following Brittas, about 15 Supreme Court lawyers have also taken out memberships for Deepak’s gym, which they are unlikely to use. Many ordinary citizens have also offered to support Deepak. But from politicians whose parties swear by secularism, there has hardly been any support on the ground.

Even the Congress in Uttarakhand has not gone beyond issuing statements. Assembly polls are due next year, and Congress leader and former chief minister Harish Rawat is making ‘Uttarakhandiyat’ his main poll plank. Does supporting a Hindu whose life is in danger for protecting his Muslim neighbour against a Hindutva mob go against Uttarakhand’s culture?

The irony is that the shrine of Baba Siddhabali in Kotdwar is frequented by both Muslims and Hindus. But such composite worship is intolerable for the Bajrang Dal, whose members wanted the name ‘Baba’ removed from the Muslim’s shop. Surely Rawat can draw attention to the shrine’s multi-faith tradition, and point out that by naming his shop ‘Baba’, the Muslim was showing his reverence for the deity? Or is Rawat scared of the usual orchestrated ‘Hindu backlash’?

A similar apathy by all political parties is evident in Assam. Though elections are due there — or is it because of that? — none bothered to act when Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma declared his intent to torment ‘Miyas’ (Bengali-speaking Muslims) and instigated citizens to do the same.

Former IAS officer Harsh Mander was the only one to file a police complaint against Sarma, knowing the risks involved. Mander has consistently exposed the injustice perpetrated by the Assam government against its Bengali-speaking Muslim residents. Sarma responded to Mander’s complaint on expected lines, by saying he would file a hundred cases against Mander.

It was only after the AI video of Sarma shooting at two Muslims went viral that the Congress, the state’s main opposition party, and Asaduddin Owaisi, filed FIRs, and the Left parties approached the Supreme Court.

The story is depressingly the same elsewhere. In Maharashtra, where BJP minister Nitesh Rane has made it a habit to bait Muslims, those who’ve approached the police and the courts have been young lawyers and activists, all of them Muslim.

BJP leader Kirit Somaiya travels across the state, pressuring the authorities to stop loudspeakers in mosques, to drive away ‘Bangladeshi’ hawkers, and to cancel the birth certificates of alleged Rohingyas and Bangladeshis. No opposition party questions his motivated actions, nor have any of them asked the government to make public the findings of the SIT set up in Malegaon to probe the so-called fake birth certificate scam. Its report was submitted last August; Somaiya’s silence on it suggests it did not substantiate his wild allegations. That hasn’t stopped him, though, simply because no party has challenged him.

There’s no doubt that the backing of the State machinery enables the Sangh parivar to go about tormenting minorities. But no small role is played in this by the absence of resistance on the ground by opposition party workers. History won’t judge them kindly.

Jyoti Punwani is a senior journalist.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.