muzaffarnagar – The Metrognome

Is the PM waiting to comment on communal killings on one of his foreign jaunts? Nothing else explains his silence.

by Humra Quraishi

It is an appalling state of affairs in India at the moment.

The Prime Minister spoke eloquently about cleanliness last year, and even posed for a series of pictures to put himself in the media glare with his Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan. The movement is, since then (ironically enough) gathering dust. Just like everything else – there is no cleanliness left in this country any more. And the onus is on PM Modi to start the drive again.

I refer not to the physical filth in the country, but to the moral rot setting in by degrees against minorities. The PM needs to weed out and clean his own ministers who are accused of playing prominent roles in making light of these serious attacks. Take for instance Dr Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (Independent charge) for Tourism and Culture. For the last several weeks, this physician-turned-politician has been airing obnoxious views on our TV sets. Last week an innocent man was killed in Dr Sharma’s Greater Noida constituency and he termed the killing as a haadsa (accident).

Is this the next step in communal politics? Brand a communal incident as an accident, so that it dilutes or sabotages the investigations? And who will put a stop to these horrific killings in the name of religious sanctity? When will PM Modi break his silence?

We often discount our own terror at these incidents, and tell ourselves that these are stray incidents. But I have been wondering about tourists coming to our lands. Apart from the regular occurrence of rapes, which tourist will feel safe moving around freely in these same areas? Will these communally-charged mobs be lynched for eating mutton or beef in these same areas where Indians are killed for the same offence?

Mr Modi, when will you start branding these mobs as ‘terrorists’?

This is a militant form of Hindutva that all of us will have to grapple with in the coming days. It started from the killing and terrorising of the Muslim population in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. The faces of terror in that incident were known well before the actual findings were made public. But these faces continue to be feted in the public arena, nobody has called them out for spreading terror. One of them is now a Minister – Sanjeev Balyan is the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing!

And yet, there is no official statement or even a one-line comment from the PMO. Or is Mr Modi waiting to say something on the matter when he is on one of his many foreign trips?

Break your silence, Mr PM. It is now or never.

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

Same same, but different

These elections have the potential to be a turning point in our country’s history, but what if nothing changes later?

by Humra Quraishi

These elections and their results could well prove to be the proverbial turning point in the history of our country. Of course, it’s far too early to predict if the so-called ‘Modi wave’ will actually bring the BJP to power, or if it’s just a lot of hype. But one thing is clear – we are doomed if we are to be ruled by the likes of Narendra Modi and his aide, Amit Shah.

Modi has become quite restrained in his utterances, but Amit Shah is going all out, especially with his latest hate speech in Muzaffarnagar. Was his speech a hint of things to come – are we to expect more killings, more displacements of hapless innocents from their homes?

Just last evening, I had a heated argument with some others, when I said that under Modi, we cannot expect even a semblance of stability. Who is to say that tremendous upheavals will not take place under his stewardship?

No, this is not a question of the welfare of majority communities, or the safety of minorities. Have you ever wondered that with the BJP, the RSS will follow? There is little need for me to elaborate on the kind of functioning of the RSS, which has often been intolerant of ‘others’. The turbulence I speak of started with LK Advani’s rath yatra, which started a series of events that led to the eventual destruction of the Babri Masjid, on December 6, 1992. Ever since that day, the poison of communalism has been steadily seeping into our psyche.

That is not to say that the Congress or Samajwadi Party can fare any better – if they had done what responsible political parties should do, then we wouldn’t have a situation like the one in Muzaffarnagar. The Congress had completely betrayed people’s expectations, and have been insensitive and unfair.

And in this bleak scenario, one is maybe forced to put its faith in AAP, which at least debuted in a stunning fashion this year. I have been interacting with several citizens during the campaigning phase, and here in Delhi, a high percentage of the population seems supportive of AAP. These citizens include people who are daily wagers and those from the lower middle class segments, and all of them are fed up of the ‘uselessness’ of the Congress and the BJP. Several told me that they would rather see the topi show its prowess this time around.

And while we are seemingly obsessed with the negatives of the AAP and Arvind Kejriwal, we are failing to see that the AAP has actually managed to rattle two biggies – the Congress and the BJP – and is being spoken of as the Number 3 option this election. That’s a huge achievement for a party so young.

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

(Pictures courtesy www.indiatvnews.com, www.ndtv.com)