No lesson from poll results! BJP, RSS still rely on communal agendas

An order of the Muzaffarnagar police in Uttar Pradesh asks for a ‘voluntary display’ of the names of owners and workers of eateries along the routes of Kanwar Yatra. The police say it has been done to assist the devotees. The police deny that it has been done to discriminate on the grounds of religion. The order naturally has evoked angry reactions across the spectrum. Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav has requested the judiciary to take suo motu cognizance of the matter to ensure investigation and consequent punishment for those who intend to disrupt social amity. Those who have protested against the police order include Asaduddin Owaisi, Javed Akhtar, Supriya Shrinet, and many others. Most of them see a Nazi design in it to implement social and economic boycotts against Muslims. They liken it to what Hitler did to Jews.

The language of the order and subsequent explanations from the police make clear the intention behind the order. It says that the devotees should not be confused as to who is the vendor. However, the word' voluntary' is the most interesting part of the order. This is the typical style of the Saffron Brigade. They do undemocratic things but hide behind these words. How can a vendor refuse to comply with the police order? Has the police not allowed non-state actors to come in to enforce the order? The same was done in the name of cow protection. We have seen how cow vigilantes unleash violence against Muslims. The protesters are completely right that the order intends to polarise society. The claim of the police has claimed that it has been done to prevent any law and order situation. Does this claim hold any water? Is the police unaware of the fact that the majority of vegetable and fruit vendors belong to the Muslim community? Do the police not know that most of the pilgrimage devotees do not mind purchasing flowers and other offerings from Muslim vendors? We have never seen these centuries-old arrangements create any trouble. The police order is an invitation to the communal elements to create trouble. We have seen this has also been attempted earlier. During the Corona pandemic, cases of boycotts of Muslim vendors by some mischief mongers were done.

The long-term agenda comes into view when we look beyond the immediate motive behind the order. These moves are intended to destroy the social fabric that binds people across religion and ethnicity. We should remember how the colonial masters painstakingly evolved such constructs to divide the masses on the grounds of religion and caste. We know how they created the Urdu and Hindi divide, and Hindustani became Urdu for Muslims and Hindi for Hindus. During the colonial rule, many religious reform movements were launched among Hindus and Muslims to segregate them. In the name of purity, they discarded those practices that transcended religions and sects. We have seen how the people of Mewat were simultaneously following practices from both religions. Historians say how people of Mewat were unable to accept a single religious identity and had to face tremendous problems during the partition. At several Sufi centers, we find vendors from both faiths selling items to be used by the devotees.

The order also needs to be looked into the ongoing marginalization of the minorities under the rule of Yogi Adityanath. He never concealed his hatred towards Muslims. He took measures to isolate and vilify Muslims on one or other pretext. Muslims have been the major target of his bulldozer politics. The electoral successes encouraged him to overtly target the community. Cases of fake encounters also speak volumes about it. In the name of maintaining law and order, police eliminated people even though they were yet to be declared guilty. Is it not unreasonable on the part of the Hindutva brigade that they claim to strengthen the nation by dividing its people? What kind of nation do they want to build when a section of society is ostracized? They are also playing with the ethos of the country. India is perhaps the only country in the world where all faiths have survived and thrived. The list includes Hindus, Jews, Parsees, Muslims, Christians, and Buddhists. Most of them have many sects within them. Indians have accepted every single diversity. The colonial masters ensured that these diversities should lead to hostilities, and they successfully did it. It is a proven fact that the partition was the outcome of the colonial machinations, and both Jinnah and Savarkar were playing in the hands of the British rulers. People have become so divided that there was ‘Hindu Water’ and ‘Muslim Water’ at railway stations. Eminent journalist Kuldip Nayar and many others mention it in their partition memoirs. The colonial masters could easily partition the country because the division of the people on the religious ground was complete. When we look at the history of partition, the recent trends appear ominous.

Does it help the BJP in consolidating its political power? Should it not review its communal policy in the wake of the Lok Sabha poll results? The party lost its seat in Faizabad. The party had put all its energy into building a narrative around Ayodhya Temple. No Prime Minister is known to have devoted such huge time to performing pooja at temples as Modi has. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath devoted huge time to lighting the Ayodhya city. But nothing worked. The BJP lost badly in Uttar Pradesh, the center of the saffron campaign. The Prime Minister too has won his seat in Varanasi with an ordinary margin.

However, the BJP seems to be in denial mode. In its recent review of poll results in UP also, the party has blamed the opposition for building a false narrative around the Constitution. What is wrong with this allegation? The police order in UP only confirms the narrative of the opposition.

(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)