How long Hindus shall continue to vote for BJP fearing the crystallisation of ‘Bheria’ in front of them?
Vivekanand Jha, Ranchi: In our early childhood days, we would read the story of a boy going to the hills for grazing his cattle. Suddenly the boy thought of a prank for his entertainment: from the top of the hill, he shouted, ‘ Bheria aaya, Bheria aaya bachao’, the villager nearby rushed in alacrity, hearing his cries, to insulate him from the impending danger. Lo and behold! when the villagers came near him, the boy began laughing, the astonished villagers realised to their utter dismay, that how that boy had made a fun of them for his own entertainment.
They returned disappointed. The boy, ever in quest for another fun, repeated his tactic yet again: shouting even loudly he tried to summon his fellow villagers yet again: ‘ Bheria aaya, Bheria aaya bachao’. The villagers again fell seduced by his cries, rushed to the spot to discover that the boy, yet again, had played a crude joke on them. They returned disillusioned. The boy, rejoiced at making fool of the innocent fellow men who, trusting his desperate cries for help, had rushed in to save him. But then as fate had decreed, the boy, to his utter horror, discovered that Bheria(wolf) had materialised in front of him. Shaken, the boy shouted, in the loudest of his voice, ‘Please save me, Bheria is just few fits away from me’. But then none came to his rescue, dismissing his cries of desperation as another prank.
The boy, in the absence of any support of rescue, inevitably fell casualty to his own concoction. BJP’s advent in the national scene in 2014, had an apparent agenda of national regeneration, yet deep down, it was reconciled to play the game of ‘Bheria aaya, Bheria aaya’. Nation, in course of its journey for the last several decades, had tested the bitter pills of Nehruvian secularism. It was, in the guise of Nehruvian secularism, that Gandhi -Nehru family, had sought to fragment Hindus further while consolidating Muslims as a monolithic vote bank. Significantly, Hindus, perhaps the most deprived community in the world, which has no territory of its own; even Jews, the heathen community, has Israel, Hindus have none. This is one story. Regrettably, liberalism has already played havoc with Hindus, with the bifurcation of Islamic Pakistan from united India. Jinnah, the father of Pakistan, while emphasising on his demand for a separate nation on the plea that, ‘ both Hindus and Muslims are separate nations’. Significantly, when Islamic Pakistan was already carved out from united India, why would the truncated India reconcile to make herself as a secular nation, a country for one and all, defies all logic and rationality.
Yet, the broad minded leaders then, led by Mahatma Gandhi, chose India as a ‘ no man’s land’. Ironically, 7 percent of Muslims that chose to stay in India, has almost multiplied to not less than 22 to 25 percent-it is sheer bunkum to deny the obvious and continue to believe the Muslims percentage to be around 18 percent. Significantly, the communal riots smouldering from time to time, is the growing vindication of Muslims’ refusal to be browbeaten into any form of submission. Anti-CAA was the exemplification of Muslim community’s determination to fight back on an issue which they feel discriminated against them. Also,
Ghazwa-e-Hind is the secret mission of Islamists’ dream to convert India into another Islamic republic. No wonder Hindus, despite being an overwhelming majority, have come to be frightened of Islamic design to push India into an anarchy like situation. It is here BJP has stepped in to encash upon the fear psychosis that has come to afflict Hindus. Long back, Sir Stafford Cripps, the architect of Cabinet Mission plan, had famously defined politics as ‘The means of getting money and vote from the poor while protecting each from the other’. BJP, in the wake of its discovery of Cripps’ definition, has struck gold: playing on fear psychosis of Hindus while being an NPA on the governance front, it sought to be the most powerful political party in the country. Unequivocally, BJP also drew a lesson from the story of the boy who would play pranks with his ‘Bheria aaya, Bheria aaya’ syndrome. Further, in its shrewd calculation, BJP has figured out that, while the fellow villagers had bluntly refused to heed the call of that boy, Hindus, irrespective of BJP’s devastating failures, on all fronts, will continue to fall for its call of ‘ Bheria aaya’. Incidentally, Modi’s Ashwamedh Yajna, the preparation of which has been going on a war footing, substantially depends on BJP’s overwhelmingly banking on ‘Bheria aa gaya ‘ syndrome. The latest, hitherto an alien bastion, West Bengal where the electoral frenzy is at a crescendo, BJP appears to have smelt blood.
Especially in the wake of its electoral triumph in 2019 general election when it had bagged 18 out of 42 seats, BJP is leaving no stone unturned to ensure the decimation of Mamata Banerjee at the hustings. No wonder West Bengal’s unique political arithmetic that offers BJP another golden opportunity to apply its time tested tactics of ‘ Bheria aaya’, appears to be paying a rich dividend to it: Apart from ‘Bheria aaya’, BJP is purportedly dangling carrots to the people of West Bengal: The tectonic shift on developmental paradigm.But then the situations are extraordinary today, with pandemic Corina having unleashed tandav across the world, whose implications on India is humongous. Regrettably, the leadership today, being pedestrian, the devastating impacts of Corona is not being perceived, despite the nation being turned into a graveyard. Worse still, the double standard of national leadership, especially that of the Prime Minister was eloquently felt when, the Prime Minister, during his ‘Man ki baat’ and other sermons delivered to his fellow countrymen, inclines to prescribe mask, distance and avoiding a gathering; paradoxically, putting his own pontification to shreds, Prime Minister pats his own back when he revels in a huge gathering of almost half a million people attending his public meeting in West Bengal.
This is a Himalayan misfortune for the nation that, during such catastrophic times, India has been gifted with such a mediocre leadership which, neither has time nor vision, to look beyond ‘Bheria aa gaya’ syndrome. West Bengal, which has almost more than 27 percent of Muslim population, and where the Islamic fundamentalism is visible to a great extent, accompanied by Mamata’s Muslim appeasement policy, is the most fertile ground for the BJP to invoke its clarion call of ‘ Bheria aa gaya’, which apparently has been resonating with a large section of people, might once again prove to be a milching cow for BJP. However, the moot point is: how long the people of India, especially Hindus, which are not less than 78 percent of the population, shall continue to fall prey to ‘ Bheria aa gaya’ syndrome? And if the majority community continues to dread the numerically lesser mortals as their biggest nemesis, the Hindus lose the right of self-respect. Because polarising Hindus on account of ‘ Bheria aa gaya’, while drastically failing on all other fronts, cannot be the smooth sailing for BJP in election after election. Narendra Modi, notwithstanding his taller claims and exhibition of the worst form of narcissism, has singularly failed to provide the leadership vision to the nation when the citizens-both Hindus and Muslims -have been at the receiving end. No wonder it is the high time for the nation to call the bluffs of ‘Bheria aa gaya’ and reassuringly chorus in the voice of unison: ‘ Bheria ko aanay do, we are prepared’. Hence, it is required that nation should ignore the call of ‘ Bheria aa gaya’ to defeat the institutionalised stratagem for BJP to keep on winning the election on this ground.
Vivekanand Jha is an author, academician and a Public Intellectual.
