Maharashtra: The slow spread of Hindutva

The change has begun. Maharashtra now has a government that openly identifies with Hindus.

All through the just-concluded Ganesh festival, public buses in Mumbai displayed photographs of PM Narendra Modi and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, as part of a BJP advertisement in Marathi that said: "Our government has come, obstacles in the way of Hindu festivals have vanished." The "obstacles" referred to the restrictions imposed in the last two years by the previous Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government on this most popular festival, in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mumbai's buses are run by the BEST, a public transport undertaking that has a ridership of 2.9 million daily. Would all these passengers have rejoiced that "their" government had finally taken over, and removed all obstacles to Hindu festivals?

While in the opposition, Fadnavis and his party left no opportunity to arouse communal disharmony in Maharashtra. Whether it was the lynching of two sadhus in Palghar in April 2020 (the lynch mob was also Hindu); Bollywood actor Sushant Singh's suicide two months later; the state government's refusal to open temples as long as Covid-19 was raging, or the targeting of Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan – on all these, the BJP carried out a campaign to portray the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government as "anti-Hindu".

But though Fadnavis is now deputy CM, and hence duty bound to uphold the Constitution, he hasn't put a stop to the BJP's special brand of "us vs them" politics. An ugly controversy was sought to be raked up by BJP MLAs a few weeks back over the "beautification" of the grave of Yakub Memon, younger brother of Tiger Memon, the prime accused in the March 12, 1993, Mumbai bomb blasts. Convicted of being part of the blasts conspiracy, Yakub Memon was executed in July 2015 in Nagpur Central Jail. Today, his grave, which lies next to his father's in Mumbai's oldest Muslim graveyard, has a marble boundary. The BJP, whose supporters had just a month back, thought nothing wrong in garlanding those who'd served 14 years in jail for gang-raping and murdering unarmed Muslims, went to town over this "glorification of a terrorist's grave". By allowing it, Uddhav Thackeray had provided further proof of his "anti-Hindu" attitude, they alleged.

That the government had nothing to do with the graveyard, which is run by a private trust, and that families were allowed to embellish their loved ones' graves, were facts they weren't concerned about. With #BulldozeYakubMemorial trending, the graveyard trustees removed the LED lights closest to Memon's grave, even though these lights were part of the overall lighting done every year on the occasion of Shab e Baraat, the night when Muslims pray at the graves of their loved ones.

Interestingly, even as his party members went to town, Fadnavis chose to downplay the issue, probably because he had been CM when Memon was executed. His government had handed over the body to Memon's family, and his police had overseen the funeral, for which more than 10000 mourners had turned up on their own.

More disturbing than these two incidents, however, was the enthusiastic participation of uniformed policemen in processions taken out at the end of the Ganpati festival to immerse the idols. Videos from across Maharashtra, including Mumbai, showed policemen and women dancing along with devotees to the raucous music, which is a hallmark of such processions - except in one instance. In Kolhapur, the words heard most clearly were 'Bharat ka baccha baccha, Jai Sri Ram bolega'; the song spoke of Hindus showing their might to construct a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya.

Such widespread public participation in a religious festival by cops in uniform was bad enough. Worse was the reaction of the state's police chief. All he did was warn his force not to repeat this unprofessional conduct. No disciplinary action was taken.

Fadnavis is the state's home minister, but to be fair to him, the DGP might have reacted the same way even under Uddhav Thackeray. After all, even "secular" governments have rarely taken action against policemen who've displayed their pro-Hindu biases, unless forced to by the courts. What's more revealing, though, is the reaction of citizens. Fadnavis' ads on BEST buses did trouble a few Hindus enough for them to write in their objections. But the videos of police personnel dancing alongside Ganesh devotees drew universal appreciation. After ten days of non-stop duty during the festival, the poor police needed to let their hair down, wrote viewers.

Such empathy between a police force and the community is the goal of all police reform. The question is: would the Maharashtra police bond with such abandon with a minority's religious procession?

(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.