Islamophobia at its peak
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As the third phase of the 18th Lok Sabha elections, scheduled to be held in seven phases, was completed yesterday, the votes in 283 constituencies out of 543 seats were cast. It is widely expected that the fate of the world's largest democracy will be finally decided when the remaining four phases of voting are completed by June 1. The general assessment is that the answer to the crucial question of whether India should constitutionally become a Hindu Rashtra and Ram Rajya will be known by the evening of June 4. Just before the start of the election process, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's guarantee was that the said goal would definitely be achieved by winning more than 400 seats. But right after the first phase of polling, there started signs of jitters in Modi and his senior colleagues. By the end of the third phase, some hysteria is becoming evident among the saffron leaders. The picture that can be seen in the whole country is that Modi and his friends are attacking the Congress and the INDIA front, which was ridiculed as a weak and opportunistic alliance, violating even the election rules. And that is by concentrating on one point above all others: that the Congress is going to hand over all the wealth of the great nation of India to the community of infiltrators and progenitors; that the reservation quotas of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been decided to be divided among Muslims and that Congress is speaking the language of Muslim League and Pakistan.
What is being heard not only in the Hindi heartland but also in Bengal and Karnataka are the cries that 'BJP does not want the Muslim vote bank, let the Congress take it'. Indeed, the 15-17 per cent Muslim minority has some consolation and hope in these cries of the rulers of this country. The realisation of the community that despite the saffron front doing everything possible to trample, marginalize and make irrelevant in the two rounds of governance, they remain the biggest challenge in the country even at the crucial stage of the third round, should give hope and confidence to the community. This is a clear reflection of the fact that the Hindutva faction is haunted by the sense that it cannot move forward by excluding and sidelining Muslims. The ruling party is worried that Congress and the INDIA front's campaign, which centres round the single pillar of caste census, may shake their base. But to say it openly will have a very negative effect on the Hindu vote bank. Then, there is no alternative but to keep Islamophobia as a burning issue as much as possible and find a way to escape. As for the opposition front, nowhere does it issue a Muslim card or raise its voice for minority rights. Even Muslim candidates are very rare. Instead, the secular front upholds secularism, democracy and a constitution founded on those pillars. Secondly, what they focus on are price rise, the decline in the prices of agricultural products and unemployment, which have deeply affected all Indians, regardless of caste, religion, party politics.
All the opinion polls reveal the sighs of the disaffected common man. When placed against this, the Ram Temple consecration ceremony, and Rahul Gandhi and Nehru family missing it have not mattered to the people, even in UP. Although some visit and return from Ayodhya as part of Sangh Parivar excursions, only 23 per cent of Hindus see the construction of the Ram Temple as Modi's greatest achievement. However, 46 per cent have assessed that unemployment is the biggest problem in the country. On the other hand, those who accuse the Congress of not embracing Sanatana Dharma are not made to bow their heads in front of the worst moral scandal the country has ever seen in which the responsible leaders and candidates of the NDA are involved in thousands of videos that spread across the country. What would be their response if they are asked if this is Sanatana Dharma? One would ask what Ram Rajya can be upheld by those who cannot observe even the basic decency of allowing their sisters to live with minimum dignity and honour. Although this is the reality, the resources raised by the thousands of crores obtained through electoral bonds and the unstinting cooperation of the corporates may be able to subvert the will of the people to some extent; even the judiciary can be influenced. What is really to be feared is this possibility of subversion. But fascism can never alter the fate of India by defeating the strong will of the common citizens, whether majority or minority. In any case, the people of India are those who have given an irrefutable verdict against the Emergency, a fact which those who were put behind bars in those days can never afford to forget.
