Jayant Sinha, ‘hard work’ again getting the better of Harvard?

Thank you, Jayant Sinha. You have finally cleared the air and have helped confirm to the world at large that lynching human beings is part of BJP’s electoral strategy. You tried to defend the indefensible by first arguing that there was nothing unusual in garlanding murder convicts whose sentence had been suspended and who were out on bail. You then argued that all the murder convicts were after all your constituents. Finally, you explained that you did not agree with the verdict given by the fast-track court in convicting eleven people for killing Alimuddin Ansari on suspicion that he was carrying beef in his car.

Since when have union ministers started publicly voicing their displeasure with court verdicts? Since when have you started garlanding convicts and claim that you were honouring the due process of law? And since you clearly are concerned about your constituents, why didn’t you, Jayant Sinha, even bother to meet the family of the deceased, leave alone help them? Were they not your constituents ?

Your silence in answering the disturbing questions speaks volumes. It may have shocked people who are civilised, liberal and consider lynching human beings as barbaric and vigilante justice medieval or even primitive. But then we have known for a long time that regressive ideas appeal to the BJP and its parent body, the RSS. In their cynical pursuit of power, they did not think twice before demolishing a place of worship (Babri Masjid) or engineering communal violence and genocide in Gujarat (2002). It did not matter because the strategies paid off in terms of political dividend.

Public memory is short but not so short that we will forget what your leader, Narendra Modi, told an interviewer in the run up to the general election of 2014. He declared that the genocide in Gujarat did shock him just as the death of a puppy run over by a car cannot help but shock people. Your public defence of your shocking conduct, Jayant Sinha, reminds us of your leader, who no doubt would have approved your action. Who knows, he may even have applauded you?

You can argue, Jayant Sinha, that garlanding people, even if they are murder convicts, is such an innocuous, harmless act. You are right. The act of garlanding others cannot be alarming. What is alarming are the political implications. One doubts if you would have bothered to make a public exhibition of honouring the convicts, had the next general election not been round the corner. These men clearly are valuable because they can influence electoral outcomes. That is why we see one BJP leader after another courting the ‘Yoddhas’ or warriors. That is why your colleague in the cabinet, Giriraj Singh, called on rioters in jail. The writing on the wall is that the BJP is actively preparing for a wave of violence, rallying the warriors, for the elections round the corner.

The narrow win in Gujarat and the inability to form a government in Karnataka despite trying out every trick in the book, seem to have unnerved the BJP. It clearly is not as invincible as it likes to imagine. BJP leaders and the Prime Minister may have sensed the public mood which is turning increasingly hostile. The Prime Minister cannot be oblivious to the real health of the economy. The Indian rupee is sliding against the dollar. Our forex reserves are dipping fast. Some of the debt ridden public sector banks are close to bust. Why else is the LIC being pushed to open its purse strings to pump money in a sinking ship like the IDBI! Farmers’ distress, deteriorating job market and traders’ declining profits are now old stories.

So, Modi is no longer ‘Vikas’ or the poster boy of development who could transform peoples’ lives with his economic plans. All his catch phrases like ‘Make In India’ and ‘Skill India’ now irritate the voter who had voted for Modi and not the BJP,driven by dreams of overnight transformation of his life. It is not a rosy scene for the BJP even politically. Out of the three Hindi speaking states, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh going to polls before the next parliamentary polls, the BJP appears certain to lose power in at least Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. It is complicating the chess board for the 2019 elections.

The 2019 parliamentary battle is no longer a cake walk for the BJP. It is rather an uphill task. So, what to do to win the second term for Modi? The easiest path to victory is riding the hate wave like in 2002 in Gujarat. The apparently innocent act of garlanding murder convicts is the signal that the road to 2019 will be bloody and full of hate. Can love ever be an adequate response?