Lessons to be learnt: Modi govt post-Delhi riots

The riots triggered by pro- and anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in north-eastern Delhi was a warning that protests against the Modi governments would not be tolerated by the Hindu right-wing foot soldiers with or without affiliation to the BJP or RSS.

While the RSS has remained silent, the BJP leaders, including ministers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, have been trying to deflect criticism by launching a counterattack against the Congress.

It is understandable that the BJP will not show any signs of penitence for the sins of commission and omission of its members and its cadre, nor will it have the moral courage to own up responsibility for the abject failure of Delhi police, which falls under the Union Home Ministry, in letting things go out of hand.

Unfortunately, we in India do not value human life. The death of 53 people does not seem to shame either the political leaders or the people at large. Everyone is engaged in blaming their ideological opponents.

The Modi government is not willing to accept that opposition to, and criticism of, CAA does not amount to treachery. Similarly, the opponents of the CAA must realise that they have to contend with the fact that this is a law made by a party which has been passed by parliament, and it can be opposed without expecting the government to drop it any time soon.

And the best way to oppose it is to look for instances where a Muslim from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan is denied citizenship because of CAA and to highlight them. This is a long-drawn battle against a law which is biased but which can be constrained through constant, constitutional opposition.

Those who are opposing CAA might have to move away from the generalised anti-Hindutva rhetoric because this is likely to be counterproductive and instead focus on specific cases which single out Muslims.

The same strategy needs to be adopted over the National Population Register (NPR). Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has shown the way by making it clear that he wants the NPR as it was carried out in 2010. And he did not mention the National Registry of Citizens (NRC). What is needed is a nuanced counter-Hindutva strategy. Loud denunciation is no longer adequate.

Prime Minister Modi won a fresh parliamentary mandate less than a year ago. He will be in power for the next four years, and he will be passing more legislation, which he can, which is both alienating and antagonistic. He needs to be constantly criticised and opposed but nowhere should it be the case that the government cannot function within the legal framework.

The critics and the opposition must never adopt the agitational approach of stalling the government’s functioning on all counts. We must wait till 2024 before we can return to the people and convince them that this party and this leader should not be given the mandate to govern. What would be fatal will to be use the CAA to choke the government.

There are lessons to be learnt from the events leading up to the imposition of Emergency by Indira Gandhi in June 1975. The opposition led by Jayaprakash Narayan, with covert support from the RSS and helped by economic troubles tried to impose a blockade on the government. Indira Gandhi responded by imposing the Emergency.

Modi may not impose the Emergency in the face of a united and fierce opposition, though opposition unity is hypothetical as of now, because of the provisions of the 44th Constitutional Amendment which makes it impossible for the Central government to take a unilateral decision in the matter. But political battles cannot be won on a single issue in a single contest.

Political discourse

The single-plank anti-Hindutva, anti-BJP, anti-Modi, anti-Amit Shah campaign has impover=ished political discourse and it has turned to be to the advantage of the Hindutva proponents, the BJP, Modi and Shah. And they are revelling in it with Modi claiming that he has strengthened his so-called moral fibre because of the constant abuse he gets. The critics are walking into the BJP trap when they allow Hindutva to become the sole point of contention.

This government is faltering on many fronts, including the economic. The vaunted welfare programmes of the government are not half as effective as the prime minister and his colleagues claim. The opposition needs to nail the lies about the numbing statistics that the government puts out day in and day out.

Delhi riots were dangerous and shameful, but critics went overboard when they compared it to Gujarat riots of 2002. Or to call it a state-sponsored pogrom though majority of those killed were Muslims and the property destroyed was again mostly that of the Muslims.

Hindu communalism cannot be fought by mere name-calling. Home Minister Amit Shah in the high level all party meeting he held two days after the riots broke out, appealed to leaders of all political parties to go out and form peace committees to deal with the street violence.

It can readily be said that this was sheer hypocrisy and nothing more. But the fact that he did the right thing in the circumstances. Except for a report in one of the national dailies published from the national capital, there was no serious analysis of the failure of Delhi police to deal with the situation. The reporter spoke to retired police officers who pointed out that the force in Delhi was not prepared or trained to deal with a riot situation.

There is the much more serious problem of deferring to the political masters of the day even when they must do their basic duty of guarding the lives and property of citizens. The behaviour of the Delhi Police at Jamia Millia Islamia, at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and when trouble broke out in north-east Delhi on February 23, their unwillingness and their inability to act was baffling.

(The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi)