Jai Shree Ram vs Jai Hind

Whether Mamata says Jai Shree Ram or not hardly matters to Bengalis, but they are crucial to the politics of the BJP

It is a sad commentary on the nature of our electoral politics today that campaigns are conducted on the rhetoric of who is a better Hindu and a greater devotee of Ram from amongst politicians desperate for power. And it is ironic that politicians from Gujarat, where the normal greeting is ‘Jai Shree Krishna’ have become devotees of ‘Jai Shree Ram’ in Bengal. It shows, if any evidence is required, the utterly cynical use of Ram for electoral gains that was started by L K Advani back in the 1990s.

At a recent event, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was the target of the use of ‘Jai Shree Ram’ as a weaponised political slogan of Hindutva, retorted with ‘Jai Hind’, and added ‘Joi Bangla’ for good measure as a defiant assertion of cultural and sub-national identity before a religious identity. In fact, nothing could have been more appropriate than to proclaim ‘Jai Hind’, considered a rousing sign of parakram, at a function to mark the birth anniversary of Subhash Chandra Bose. Bose is credited with having chosen ‘Jai Hind’ as salute, slogan and war cry for the Indian National Army (INA).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was on the dais, too, was surprisingly silent. Either he was not aware of the significance of ‘Jai Hind’ or simply let the Hindutva brigade show its bigotry at an event to commemorate Netaji who was totally opposed to Hindu communalism. While Netaji recognised Hinduism as the most important cementing factor among India’s ethnic diversities, he also wrote that the advent of Muslims led to “a new synthesis”. It must be noted that the INA had a large component of Muslims.

By irritating Mamata with shouts of ‘Modi, Modi, Modi’ and ‘Jai Shree Ram’ and forcing her to walk out of a government function, the BJP succeeded in its game- plan of portraying her to Hindus in Bengal as a Muslim appeaser who did not respond warmly to a Hindu greeting.

Such is the deviousness of election campaigning that when faced with a Hindu politician of an opposing party, the BJP has to resort to a “I am more Hindu than you” brand of politics. As to where this kind of politics will lead us is best seen in the ‘Talibanisation’ of Pakistan’s polity. The Taliban have now become the ‘guardians’ of ‘real Islam,’ not the Pakistani Generals who created the Taliban in the first place. It’s a different matter that the Islamic State terrorist group now claims the mantle of being ‘guardians’ of ‘true Islam’ in the region, for they are more violent and more ruthless in killing their enemies, a majority of whom are Muslims of different sects.

The lynch mobs that went around killing Muslims since 2014 have done so hailing ‘Jai Shree Ram’ or making their victims recite ‘Jai Shree Ram’ before striking them down. The Taliban and Islamic State killers, too, hail Allah as they cut off the throats of their enemies. Could there be worse acts of degradation of one’s religion and God? As Gandhiji once wrote: “Religion is outraged when an outrage is perpetrated in its name.”

Whether Mamata says Vande Mataram, Jai Shree Ram or Bharat Mata ki Jai or not hardly matters to the lives and livelihood of Bengalis, but they are crucial to the politics of the BJP. The party, it seems, will go to any extent to brand Mamata as anti-Hindu and a supporter of Muslim migrants who are, in the language of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, ‘termites.’

Identity politics, which begins with an imagined homogeneity of one’s own group (say, a religious group) as distinct from the ‘Other’, has a relentless logic of its own. Soon, it starts to differentiate people within its own community on cultural, regional and linguistic lines so that the loyalty of its followers remains intact and they are kept busy attacking one new enemy after another. It begins to see conspiracies by the ‘Other’ under every roof and bed. And every criticism becomes an act of ‘sedition’ as the ‘Leader’ has to be protected against all attacks, howsoever silly or serious.

This was evident in the bizarre reaction of the government to tweets by two young celebrities, pop icon Rihanna and climate activist Greta Thunberg. In the minds of the government and its bhakts, the Swedish teenager, who had linked a ‘protest tool kit’ to her comment, became the lynchpin of an international conspiracy against the government.

The paranoia has now been taken to a new level, with the Ministry of Home Affairs calling for citizen volunteers to detect ‘anti-nationals’ online. While there is no definition of the term ‘anti-national’ in the Indian Penal Code, or of ‘tukde tukde gang’, ‘urban naxals’, etc., they are clear as daylight Delhi Police which takes its orders directly from the Union Home Minister.

Another, more pernicious, development is the practice of putting stickers on the houses of those who have paid for Ram Mandir construction. This is clearly aimed at marking out those Hindus who refuse to make a donation as ‘enemies’ of the Hindutva project, perhaps to be dealt with later. The comparison it drew to the Nazis, who marked out Jews in 1920s Germany with the Star of David, was apt.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said recently, “Jai Shree Ram is a symbol against appeasement. Youth in Bengal have to knock at the High Court’s door to organise pandals during Durga Puja; children are not able to celebrate Saraswati Puja; people are not allowed to take Shobha Yatra on Ram Navami.”

It is clear what the youth of Bengal will be doing if the BJP comes to power in that state.

(The writer is a former Cabinet Secretariat official)