Modi-fication of India
By Ummer Wani
17 November, 2015
Countercurrents.org
The Modi-fication of constitutionally endorsed secular India under the BJP regime is suffocating the various forms of freedoms a citizen is, otherwise, entitled to in a democracy. It is seeable from the hate-speeches that have emanated, time and again, from various BJP leaders, during the last two years of their election-campaigning and government, who are hell-bent in distorting the secular fabric of Indian constitution.
The heat generated by various comments like: “RAAM ZAADA and HARAM ZADA”, “Stop beef eating and live in India or move to Pakistan”, “Now is the time to avenge the Muslims”, etc., made by BJP MLA’s and their sympathizers has started to burn the secular ideas and the “unity in diversity” concept for which India is known from centauries.
The communal-poisoning promoted by ‘fringe elements’showed its fangs, a few days ago, when on a rumor-based information, disseminated by rough-elements, a posse of cops accompanied, illegally, by fanatics motivated by preconception and prejudice, stormed ‘Kerala-House’. The ransacking of the house, which represents the government of Kerala was a huge blow to the Indian federal political structure that is a bulwark, uniting different states of India.
Sporadic and minor communal-violence in India is a historic-inevitable. However, it has attained far-reaching and wide-spread frequencies ever since the BJP took the helms of our country. The situation is crying for PM’s comments, who is silent in this case, that could neutralize the griming of the India. Mr. Modi is known for his skills to play to the masses through his powerful and energized speeches but it seems he has reserved those speeches for just election campaigning and hallow-promise-making.The disturbing figure gets disfigured when anyone criticizing BJP and its policies is called anti-national.
The perturbing figure can be gauged from the resentment shown by authors and academicians who are otherwise known for knitting the secular fabric with their pens and ink. These authors and academician are up in arms against the government who has failed to neutralize the fringe elements that represent a threat to the democracy and legitimate-free-thinking. One after the other writer is giving up the honours bestowed upon them by the previous governments. Among them are poets, writers, journalists and artistic community who have contributed to India’s growth and greening.
The stern picture of India-of-today is further painted black by the international media that is watching the griming of Indian democracy. On the one hand Indian is seen as a power-house of south Asia and on the other hand it has been branded as a caste-ridden, dogmatic and medieval-ideas promoting country. The sudden renovation and re-imposition of a gothic and undemocratic law, related to beef-ban that had been gathering dust has virtually taken India to the age of savagery. Its reimposition has indirectly authorized the religious-fanatics with a power to dictate what one should cook in their homes and what one should not. This illegal-power expressed itself on a vulnerable Muslim man, who was lynched by a mob on beef-rumors. The prevailing state-of-affairs has given a major dent to the communal-harmony, secularism and democracy that India was already struggling to promote at the international level.
Given the current scenario, the country is at the cross-roads where it can either wake up to calls of intelligentsia and restore the communal-harmony or continue with its shocking silence and let the country slip into destruction and death of ‘unity among diversity’. The secular community of the country needs to step in, in unison, with a greater force to avoid the virtual-disintegration that India is heading to. The duty of law abiding and loyal citizens is not to take their country to heaven but to save is from hell. So let’s unite and act to negate the hellish atmosphere and destroy the negative energy in the country.
Ummer Wani is a management graduate from a British university. He hails from Pulwama, Kashmir.