Manipur To Bahraich: Is India Heading Towards Statelessness Under Modi Rule?

Though anti-minority propaganda is the mainstay of the pro-media BJP in India, the immediate goal of the publicity of the Bahraich violence is to influence assembly polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. The BJP has failed to discover any other narrative to win elections. We could see its performance in the last Lok Sabha elections

The Bahraich violence manifests the deep malady India has landed into. The police attempted an encounter, and the mother of the Hindu deceased expressed her frustration in front of a TV camera that the police had not done justice to them by avoiding killing the accused. The media person is provoking the old lady to make some sensational statement. What is the message of these conversations? Is he siding with the victim or trying to create chaos?

Encounters in Uttar Pradesh have become routine, and people have accepted them as an integrated part of the judicial process. The shrinking space for civil rights activism and pro-authoritarianism media has worsened things. Anyone who has been declared an enemy of the State could be killed without following due process of law. The unconstitutionality involved in it does not bother anyone, including the judiciary. We have seen how the Supreme Court's response was delayed and slow.

Minorities are at the receiving end and have to bear most of the injuries in a chaotic state of affairs. The constitutional state formed in India after its freedom from the yoke of slavery is fast withering away. The state is getting transformed into a non-state entity that has scant regard for the rule of law.

Bahraich has witnessed communal riots, and the man who died in the firing was an active participant. However, the media is trying to portray him as a martyr of Muslim fanaticism. The Indian media has abandoned all the protocols for covering communal riots and has become part of Hindutva propaganda. This is not a secret. The coverage of Bahraich only reiterates it. The partisan role of the Chief Minister is obvious when he meets the family of a deceased and does not bother about how it will affect the communal situation in the province. He is happy with his image as a hardcore Hindutva leader.

Though anti-minority propaganda is the mainstay of the pro-media BJP in India, the immediate goal of the publicity of the Bahraich violence is to influence assembly polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. The BJP has failed to discover any other narrative to win elections. We could see its performance in the last Lok Sabha elections. The party could not gain a majority even after overt and covert support of the Election Commission. It also freely used other institutions, such as the ED and the CBI. However, polarisation remained its main poll plank. Prime Minister Modi also did not refrain from using derogatory references to minorities.

Bahraich violence may seem to be another case of communal riot. However, it deserves to be analyzed from a perspective. It is not another case of communal riot. It confirms the disability the state has acquired owing to its myopic worldview. Here, communities are not treated as the stakeholders. They have been declared enemies of the state because of their unconformity with the views of an ideology. The ruling establishment would snatch the rights of its citizens arbitrarily, and no institution would be allowed to interfere. This is what India is witnessing currently. We have not heard of any impartial investigation into Bahraich violence. Earlier, it was done by the media or rights organizations. The BJP has completely neutralized them.

The nation has met with the same situation in Manipur. Bharaich violence is a smaller version of what we have been witnessing in Manipur. The state has completely collapsed, and people have been left to fend for themselves. The project of polarising society is complete. Meitei and Kuki cannot live together. The state remained partial, and the man who led this partiality is there on the throne. The BJP leadership did not change him. What should be the reason? Is it not endorsing his acts? What is common in Manipur and Bahraich violence is the failure of the state to protect its citizens. The issue is not only limited to it; it also extends beyond it. The government starts fighting against the state—the constitution and the institutions. In both cases of violence, the ruling establishment had to act per the provisions of the country. The failure of law and order warranted the immediate removal of the Manipur Chief Minister. The Modi government not only patronized him but tried to defend him also. Modi has been evading the visit of the state and avoiding discussing the issue with the opposition parties.

We witness a pattern of mass violence across the country. Most of them are inspired by the parochialism and organized, and the ruling establishment is siding with the parochialism. Rather, the ruling party has been propagating parochialism. If in Manipur, the ruling party has been with the Meitei communalists, in Bahraich it has thrown its lots with the majority community. Is it not promoting statelessness in a democracy governed by the diktats of the Constitution?

We can see the outcome of this statelessness in India. The allegation of Canada only points to this statelessness. The country has yet to give substantial proof to support its allegations. However, the involvement of the US on this issue merits serious consideration. India is facing such an accusation for the first time in its history of diplomacy that India is using gangsters to eliminate people who oppose the state. The RAW, the premier intelligence agency of the country, has been doing operations in foreign countries but has never been exposed to such a situation. The cases in the US and Canadian courts will reveal much more, and that would be embarrassing. If the allegation of using gangsters to eliminate gets any support from the facts put before the two governments, it would be a great loss of credibility for us. How can a country that swears by the creeds of Gandhi do such things?

(The author is a senior journalist. He has experience of working with leading newspapers and electronic media including Deccan Herald, Sunday Guardian, Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar. He writes on politics, society, environment and economy)