I sincerely hope that my fears are unfounded. Over the last two days I have heard some accounts of clashes and isolated acts of violence being spoken of in hushed voices, some of it from friends who work in the journalistic space, others from minor news publications. I ignored them mainly because I foresaw a certain amount of panic and despair that some people would feel once this historic inevitability came to pass. I even ignored the BJPs gut reactions to the Section 377, live-in relationships, and related subjects because one always hopes that as they sensitized to the nuanced and plural voice of the country, it can consider changing its policies. However, this is a first-hand account from a friend of mine, Prayag, which I am quoting with his permission: Yesterday a friend and I were walking through the JNU campus at night when we witnessed some plainclothes policemen harassing a biker. At this point we made some anti-Modi comments aloud while walking by. Not a crime, yes? The policemen immediately accosted us, harassed us, and threatened us with made-up charges. This, for MAKING SOME COMMENTS. This brings to mind an observation I had made earlier: as the Narendra-Modi-led government takes power, it would promote independent actors to behave in a jingoistic way. The government at the centre certainly is not responsible for these acts, but will receive flak for them nonetheless. I do not believe that the incident I quote above is the product of state policy and, from my first guess, it did not breach the law. I understand the working boundaries that one needs to have to be successful in politics. When the Godhra incident happened, Modi was barely in office. At the time, all he had to do was comply with bigger designs and/or the brewing violence, and he, possibly happily, did. The BJP, which takes big cues from the far more narrow RSS, had a certain pressure on them to go soft on certain quarters. Now this is no longer the case. Both the BJP and Narendra Modi, who is now the prime minister by a clean majority has a free hand. This situation, unencumbered by coalition politics or even a concrete opposition, makes each card the BJP now plays very high-octane. Unlike other governments in the recent past, they can no longer fall back on blaming another party for significantly obstructing their moves. Many good things can be done, if the ruling party so wishes. They can now go ahead and issue statements that realistically take stock of the fears and insecurities amongst various citizens, and at the same time they can convey a message that such oppressive or divisive behaviour will not be tolerated. Modi, who is a seasoned politician, has changed his slant with changing scope of his politics. While this can be a cause of fear and distrust, I am looking at him and his government, this time, with hope that the slant will change to a more empathetic one, in the interest of the duty that he now commands. I will look forward to, amongst other things, how the new government addresses concerns of those who feel that their civil liberties are now more at threat than they were before. There are other specific areas of the development that I would see the BJP take certain positions on, but for the moment I am concerned with what our citizens think of our governments tolerance. It may seem trivial, but an explicit stand on this is key for the BJP-led government.for a good run in the coming years. I wonder how it will go.
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 16:16:53 +0000
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