It has become a great irony that outside Gujarat Vajpayee’s
BJP woos Muslims, but inside the state, it boos them, thanks
to the ‘Modi’fied version of Hindutva now deployed
in Narendra Modi’s state.
After the communal carnage
in the state, Muslims are being denied a variety of rights
and prerogatives that they have by virtue of being citizens
of India such as life insurance, telephone or mobile connections,
housing and business loans from banks and other financial
institutions.
The biggest exponent of
this Hindutva version, the former Pracharak (preacher)
of the RSS and chief minister of the state brazenly says
that his party does not need votes of minorities.
Gujarat was famous for
many a thing, but now it is known as the Pokharan of the
RSS. In Pokharan, the government of India had tested its
nuclear power and in Gujarat, the government of BJP, the
RSS clan, has tested its communal power.
In a sanguinary disposition,
chief minister Narendra Modi had given a fillip to anti-Muslim
sentiments during the recent communal riots in the state.
Now in the coming elections of the Parliament the BJP
is all set to reap the crop of seeds it planted.
There is a clear dichotomy
between Muslims and Hindus of the state after almost a
year long carnage and genocide in the state. Though BJP’s
‘India Shining’ is a catchy slogan, much in
the same mould as Indira Gandhi’s ‘Gharibi
hatao’, in rest of India, Gujarat is not shining.
The BJP has a basically
three-pronged election strategy which has been chalked
out by its high-profile general secretary Pramod Mahajan
in his hi-tech election office at 7, Safdarjung Road.
The strategy is – ‘India Shining’, BSP
(which stands for Bijli, Sarak & Paani or Electricity,
Roads and Water) and ‘Modi’fied Hindutva.
’India Shining’
is primarily aimed at the middle-class. What of the ‘others’,
the 70 per cent of Indians who live in the rural areas,
who are generally out of sync with the technology revolution
that is taking place in the country? For them it is-the
BSP factor. These are basic issues, the same BSP which
led to the Congress party’s rout in Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan and Chattisgarh legislative assembly polls.
However, the main election
plank is ‘Modi’fied Hindutva. It is a two
fold strategy: firstly, not to let anti-Muslim sentiments
douse, especially in Gujarat; and, secondly, to present
the ‘real’ picture of the Gujarat genocide
especially before the Indian diaspora. Its purpose is
very clear to take vote inside the country, and notes
(money) from outside the country.
In this regard, chief minister
Narendra Modi has roped in a non–resident Indian
(NRI) to write a book on the Gujarat riots so that he
may be able to present the ‘real’ and ‘true’
picture. A BJP whiz kid and the protégé
of Narendra Modi is assisting the NRI. Lurid photographs
of the Godhara train torching incident and its macabre
details will be presented in the book so as to ‘enable’
readers to know that anti-Muslim riots were spontaneous
and in reaction to the Godhara incident.
But Narendra Modi has forgotten
the unspeakable cruelty inflicted by his cronies upon
the innocent Muslim population. Several Muslim men, women
and children were kicked straight into the goalmouth of
death. Gujarat still has sporadic outbreaks of communal
tension, and Modi is busy in windy electoral oratory full
of mock patriotism. Muslim bashing is the only criterion
of patriotism in Gujarat.
Vajpayee, a poet, may sing,
‘jang nahin hone denge’ (we will never allow
a war), but he never sings, ‘danga nahin hone denge
(we will never allow riots).’
This correspondent recently
visited Mumbai, a neighboring metropolitan city of Surat
and Vadodara in Gujarat, where Muslims told me about the
religious discriminatory treatment they were getting in
the state.
Jamal Ahmed Khan of Ahmedabad
said that he had applied for the new mobile connection
as he had lost his old one during the riots. He is still
awaiting the connection. This correspondent verified it
from a source of the Orange mobile company in Mumbai (Orange
is Hutch in Gujarat). An Orange official said the Local
Intelligence Unit (LIU) of Gujarat has asked the Hutchwallahs
to go through with three tier inquiry of every Muslim
applicant, not for others.
Firstly, to ask them for
the proof of residence and identity. Second, ask them
to get their documents and photographs attested by a Gazetted
officer, and thirdly, personally visit the mentioned residence
and conduct an inquiry. The LIU has also directed the
mobile company to provide the itemized details of calls
and SMS’s of every Muslim client who lives in a
sensitive and riot-prone area.
Similarly, Muslims are
being denied life insurance policies. Though several Muslims
find life insurance to be anti-Shariah, there are some
who go for insurance, at least for their businesses. Javed
Patel, from Ahmedabad, is the person who wanted his life
to be insured, but a Life Insurance Corporation agent
refused to do so.
Patel was denied life insurance
because he is a Muslim, and insurance companies cannot
take risk by insuring Muslims as they can be killed any
time or their shops and business establishments can be
torched any time.
Muslims are not getting
loans as well as a matter of policy. Banks and financial
institutions are apprehensive. They think that Muslim
debtors could abscond from the city if communal riots
break out again.
This is the grass root
reality of Gujarat which is going into election of the
Parliament. Polling will take place on 20th April for
26 seats. Several Muslims are displaced and they are yet
to be rehabilitated. Voter lists have not been reviewed
since the election of the Legislative Assembly in 2002.
Hence, the lists are incomplete, fake and forged in many
cases.
But chief minister Narendra
Modi is unfazed. He has been included in the team of election
strategists, and travels throughout the country with overblown
grandiosity.
He is surrounded by jubilant
faces and refuses to see the ashen faces of Gujarat. He
has recently visited Madhya Pradesh, where his ‘younger
sister’ Uma Bharti is the chief minister. As soon
as he reached there, the state was given a taste of the
‘Modi’fied Hindutva.
The city of Ujjain was
declared a ‘meatless’ city where meat cannot
be sold and the government has taken up cudgels against
the secular tradition of the Indian classical music.
The BJP government is planning
to change the name of Ustad Allauddin Khan Music Academy
of Maihar. Why? Because Ustad Allauddin Khan, the greatest
sarod maestro, was a Muslim and was born in undivided
Bengal a part of which has now become Bangladesh. By the
cultural minister of the state the Ustad was referred
as ‘Bangladeshi’.
The BJP’s well-orchestrated
campaign, its poll managers feel, will bring the party
back to power. They feel that ‘India Shining’,
BSP, and ‘Modi’fied Hindutva will play a vital
role in the much hyped campaign. They know that religion,
caste, language and regionalism, the very factors that
had led to the growth of the constituents of the ruling
National Democratic Alliance (NDA), still have relevance,
and thus, they will give a clear mandate to Vajpayee.
