With a surge in surrealistic nationalism having already eclipsed the innate sense of patriotism, the jingoistic rawdism masquerading as pious nationalism, has become the new badge of nationalistic pride for unleashing a new wave of hooliganism in the republic.
Vivekanand Jha, Ranchi: In the classical movie of all times, Pyasa, immortal actor Gurudutt, who played the role of a talented writer who, not only was deprived of the love in his life, but had also unraveled the brute reality of deceit, treachery defining the character of the society. Vijay, who spent his whole life in penury, discovers that how his own brothers were complicit in declaring him dead and then minting money through the publication of his book that fetched them a huge royalty. Vijay, a genius, although presumed dead, yet he was alive and the duality and duplicity of the world lain bared before him: How the real world prevailed underneath the self – manifest outer superficial world that showcased the finesse of the glamour that stood on the corpses of truth and justice. Disillusioned by the superficiality of the world seeking to overwhelm the reality that unequivocally exhibited the brute nakedness of the venality of the society, Vijay questioned coming into existence of India that Mahatma Gandhi and our other freedom fighters had actually envisaged. Smitten by the facades that enveloped the truth prevailing underneath, Vijay evocatively sought to invoke the pride of being the citizens of Hind. The triumph of which was so comprehensively envisaged by Netajee Subhas Chandra Bose when he reverentially saluted the nation with a slogan ‘Jai Hind’. Vijay, overwhelmed by the ongoing treachery, sought to invoke the same pride of nationalism when he gave a clarion call for those loved Hind to come forward and dissipate the atmosphere of gloom and darkness that had enveloped Bharatvarsha in its octopus like grip for centuries, if not millennium.
Swami Vivekananda was the first Indian to have genuinely awakened the dormant spirit of Bharatvarsha. His was the clarion call to sleeping Indians to wake up to the national duty. ‘Jinhay naaz hai Hind par wo kahan hain’, Vivekananda sought to invoke the nationalistic pride of being Indians. Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose, were the other greats who invoked the same nationalistic pride to inspire the physically emaciated and mentally degraded Indians to rise against the British imperialism. Later, Lalbahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee too invoked national pride to mobilise national consciousness in the national interest.
While Lalbahadur Shastri evoked national pride during the war against Pakistan, in 1965, when he had framed a famous slogan, ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan’ to highlight the formidable contribution of Army and Farmers as the pivots around which national strength and pride lay, Indira Gandhi too, invoked the national pride when India liberated East Pakistan, from its Western counterpart, persecutor, and to carve out an independent nation of Bangladesh. Atal Bihari Vajpayee invoked the same nationalistic pride -both during the nuclear test, in 1998, and again during Kargill War in 1999. Hence, ‘ Jinhay naaz hai Hind par wo kahan hai’, became the rallying slogan to mobilise the nation towards the sunlit path of India’s salvation..
Nation, during the decade of Sonia- Manmohan rule, was scorching from corruption all around. People of India needed the desperate relief from an overwhelming corruption all around. It was the Anna Hazare who seized the opportunity to rally the nation around the clarion call of ‘ Jinhay naaz hai Hind par wo kahan hai’. Nation responded to his call; however Anna drastically failed to live up to that task, paving the way for RSS to capitalise on his works. Narendra Modi, a master in real politiking, walked in to capitalise on the mass sentiment and finally succeeded with aplomb. Modi’s coronation was the consequence of nation standing behind him on his call for voting for him by those who evinced pride in their country. ‘ Jinhay naaz hai Hind par wo kahan hai’, Modi had thundered. Nation fell for this gimmick, India voted for Narendra Modi in 2014. However under the cloak of ‘ Jinhay naaz hain Hind par wo kahan hai’, a clever stratagem was adopted to institutionslise the Sangh brand of Hindu nationalism as the perfect replacement for the Nehruvian secularism that nation has been witnessing prior to 2014, ever since the dawn of India’s independence.
But then the journey of the nation between 2014 and 2019, had its own interesting twists and turns. The very definition of ‘ Jinhay naaz hai Hind par wo kahan hai’ has undergone a metamorphosis. Now, ‘ Jinhay naaz hai Hind par wo kahan hai’, where ‘Modi’ was expediently substituted for ‘ Hind’. The summum bonum of ‘Hind’ was equated with that of ‘Modi’. The ever accentuating number of trolls, let loose by BJP IT cell, were leaving no stone unturned in their Machiavellian endeavours to treat ‘Modi’ synonymous with ‘ Hind’ or even ‘ Modi’ at a higher pedestal than ‘ Hind’ itself. In fact, over last seventy years, since independence, only the sycophant of Indira Gandhi, Devendra Baruah, had equated Indira with India, and vice versa. Devendra Badyah, for this blatant kowtowing, was promoted to the position of Congress President and subsequently accommodated as Governor, before falling from grace-losing the trust and faith of the then empress.
Where Indira Gandhi had drastically failed, Narendra Modi has so spectacularly succeeded. Narendra Modi proved far shrewder than Morarji Bhai. In fact, the biggest factor that proved to be undoing for Morarji Bhai government, was his carrying on a witch hunt for Indira Gandhi, resulting in her return to power. Modi, to his wisdom, never unleashed any vengeance against Sonia or Rahul, but gradually did everything subtly to take the spotlight away from the family. He was conscious throughout about the sympathy factor that arose in the wake of persecution unleashed by Desai against her government. Worse still, the overwhelming focus built upon creating frenzy around Hindu nationalism, while fastidiously carving out an image of the saviour of Hindus, Modi craftily lent himself a larger than life image. Such was the focus on his male machismo that everyone appeared dwarfed before him, even the nation as such. Such has been the lubrication of propaganda machinery of BJP and, that too, of such a high magnitude that today what Prime Minister asks the nation to clap in unison, to bang thalis to scare away Corona, and to light wicks by way of a national solidarity, nation surrenders its value judgment to the Prime Minister, presuming it was in the supreme interest of the nation. Alas, wishes were horses! Indeed Corona could have been scared away, it would have obeyed the stentorian command of the ruler whose Man ki Baat so overwhelmingly finds endorsement across the board. But then Corona is no Casablanca, it is the impudent child who has refused to take the command of its ward who has even dwarfed even the mighty nation, for his persona supersedes that of nation today.
It is the high time the nation returns to its senses; it is the high time the citizens who love India should be reawakened to the gravest danger confronting the polity today is that of an individual towering over the nation, where the interest of the individual is so dangerously sought to be aligned with that of the national interest. Modi’s invocation in 2014 to the fellow citizens ‘Jinhay naaz hai Hind par wo Kahan hai’, is now being conveniently put to the back burner, as BJP IT cell is leaving no stone unturned to end the previous invocation in the revised form, ‘ Jinhay naaz hai Modi par wo kahan hai’. This dangerous trend of individual cult following seeking to overwhelm the nation, must be given a decent burial forthwith, for no individual of whatsoever standing, whether it was Indira Gandhi in the past decades, or Modi in present, should be allowed to become bigger than the nation. No wonder then Mother India, in the guise of Guru Dutt Sahab’s lip sync with Rafi Sahab’s immortal song, is one again reminding the sons and daughters of India to return to the original invocation: ‘ Jinhay naaz hain Hind par wo kahan hai,’. Let the nation awake from its self- induced intoxication of cheering Prime Minister for all his actions and omissions. Mother India is desperately calling her sons and daughters to differentiate between Hind and an individual. No wonder ‘ Jinhay naaz hai Hind par wo kahan hai’ , is radically different from ‘ Jinhay naaz hain Modi par wo kahan hai’. Hence, the bluff of mixing up of both need to called up now, in right earnest. Or else, the nation confronts the problem of being swamped by the ever lengthening shadow of an individual who is looking bigger than the nation, with all wings of government in his command and singing hosannas for him.
