IIn July 2016, when seven people were tied to a car and flogged by cow vigilantes in Una, Gujarat, politicians formed a line to Mota Samadhiyala village and hospitals to meet the victims and their families. The Gujarat assembly elections were just 17 months away. Congress’s Rahul Gandhi reached the village first, followed by Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal. Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mayawati later met the victims at a hospital in Ahmedabad. Trinamool Congress’s Mamata Banerjee termed it an ‘organised crime’. Kejriwal said, ‘Yes, we are doing politics but only to get justice.
Reduction till October 2022. Ten people in plain clothes were publicly thrashed by policemen in Gujarat’s Undhela village for allegedly throwing stones at a Garba event. Video clips of the incident go viral just as Una had. It’s been six days since the incident. Most politicians remain adamant. Rahul Gandhi did not consider it appropriate to react on this, let alone the visit to the village. Kejriwal on Saturday landed on his way to Dahod, about 200 km away, to address the tribals in Ahmedabad. He promised all Gujaratis to undertake a “free journey” to the Ram temple in Ayodhya. You seemed ignorant of the incident of open whipping the coordinator. Undhela is about 45 km from Ahmedabad. Mamta Banerjee is also silent, although her party has filed a complaint With the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Elections are to be held in Gujarat in the next two months.
So, what is the difference between the reactions of our politicians to the Una and Undhela incidents? easy. The victims in Una were Dalits, and the floggers in Undhela were Muslims.
Remember Lakhimpur Kheri gang rape incident Which two Dalit girls were found hanging from a tree? Opposition leaders tweeted their condolences and condemned the Yogi Adityanath government’s failure to protect women and the deteriorating law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh. Compare this with his reaction to the Hathras gang rape incident two years ago. After the death of Dalit rape victim, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Jayant Chaudhary, TMC MPs, senior leaders of Samajwadi Party – all lined up for Hathras. In that case, the accused were Hindu men of ‘upper caste’; The accused in Lakhimpur Kheri are Muslims.
Muslims ‘know’ what the opposition is doing
The response of opposition leaders to the release of the Bilkis Bano rape convicts has been almost incomplete – a tweet, a statement, or a press conference here and there, condemning the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leaders and then all about it to forget. Arvind Kejriwal and his colleagues in AAP did not even bother to react. How would you explain the opposition leaders not making a point of the release of the gang rape and multiple murder convicts in Gujarat, who will vote in two months? don’t they care 2.14 crore women voters In Gujarat?
Of course, opposition leaders care. Simply because they would prefer to keep a politically safe distance from Muslims, whether they are victims like Undel or accused of Lakhimpur Kheri. Look at the silence of the political class about Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) patriarch Mohan Bhagwat’s much publicized demand for a comprehensive population control policy to address the religion-based imbalance. Barring Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi, opposition leaders have kept quiet. Justifying Kejriwal’s silence on anything related to Muslims, an AAP leader told me: “You have to play differently on synthetic and dirt tracks. BJP wants us to play on its synthetic track (Hindutva), but we will bring it on its dirt track (development issues).
“But are you not considering the possibility of Muslims separating from you?” I asked
“Not at all. They understand what we are doing and why,” came the reply. AAP leaders can’t be wrong. During the 2020 Delhi Assembly election, Kejriwal was criticized for his silence on the Shaheen Bagh protests. AAP won Muslim majority seats like Okhla, Matia Mahal, Ballimaran.
Opposition leaders’ assessment is simple: the more effort is made to polarize Hindu voters, the more it counter-polarizes Muslims who will vote for any party seen as a major challenger to the BJP. Is. Therefore, opposition leaders may leave Muslims to concentrate and concentrate on developing their own Hindu identity. It has merits as an election strategy. The last Delhi election result also validated it again. BJP leaders privately admitted that the Congress gave them a tough time in the 2017 Gujarat election as it did not fall into their ‘trap’ (Hindu vs Muslim debate). To that extent, opposition parties may feel vindictive.
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listen carefully to the Bhagwat
But is this a sustainable political strategy in the long term? Gandhi and Kejriwal should have listened more carefully to Mohan Bhagwat’s Dussehra speech. “The propaganda spread against the Sangh out of ignorance, lies, malice, fear and selfishness has now lost its influence. This is because the geographical and social reach of the Sangh has increased considerably. It has increased in strength. It is a strange truth that even the truth needs strength to be heard in this world. His message can be summed up in four words: The RSS has finally arrived. Twenty-seven years after its inception, the Sangh does not shy away from showing its power and reach. The RSS chief said, “Now that the Sangh is getting the affection and trust of the people and is also getting stronger, the concept of Hindu Rashtra is being taken seriously.”
He was not boasting. Hindu, Hindutva, Hindu Rashtra are major themes in the political discourse of India. RSS is getting a lot of traction. Even Muslim intellectuals and leaders have started talking to the RSS chief, whatever the outcome. It is Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders who are talking about welfare of pasmanda, triple talaq etc, while so called ‘secular’ leaders are running away from anything and everything with Muslims. His politics and ideology of stealing have only strengthened the Sangh and the BJP. That’s why Gandhi and Kejriwal in the opposition camp needed to listen carefully to Bhagwat.
Muslim-neutral politics and ideology is no match for Hindutva. As the AAP leader said above, the opposition may be playing well on the ‘dirt track’, but it is only good for cross country running. If they intend to take on an Olympian – read the BJP in today’s context – they should start getting used to the ‘synthetic’ track. Otherwise, Kejriwal will have to sacrifice many Rajendra Pal Gautam. Delhi minister had to resign, apparently due to his participation in a Buddhist conversion program where people made a vow that they would not believe in or pray to Hindu gods. But it is one of the 22 vows that BR Ambedkar took while converting to Buddhism. In Gujarat, posters were put up describing Kejriwal as ‘anti-Hindu’ and he was shown in a cap. So Gautam had to leave. Imagine what would happen if Kejriwal had to campaign in a Dalit-dominated constituency and his opponents put up posters calling him anti-Ambedkar!
Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Likes)