Notwithstanding the liberal’s chest beating about India’s soul being crushed under the upsurge of the wave of Hindu nationalism, it was their visceral hatred for Modi phenomenon that had engendered this new India.
Vivekanand Jha Ranchi: India today stands on the cusp of a change; a change brought by the new wave of a majority awakening; an awakening that, until the arrival of Narendra Modi in 2014, in Delhi Durbar, remained non-existent or, if it all all existed, it remained in abeyance. But then what apocalypse actually crystallised that triggered India’s substantial chunk of Hindu majority standing irreconcilably behind Narendra Modi, remains mystifying to the political pundits? Is Modi a magician of the century, a pied piper who, if he so desired to take the multitude towards salvation in his own ways, the people would happily follow him, without even uttering a word of protest?
How could a man who had walked all along the chariot of Lal Krishna Advani, during his famous Rath Yatra, transformed himself into a mass leader of immense potential, remains overwhelmingly confounding to the liberals and secularists, who all along had cherished that their stranglehold over the polity will never come to an end. Much like British Empire, which reveled in an illusion for centuries that sun would never set on the empire, the left liberal secular forces too, in their own hubris, remained immersed in their make believe world that, Nehru-Gandhi family, would be a mask behind which the left liberal secular forces would perpetually rule over the republic. Significantly, to cobble up an expedient permutation and combination, they needed a perfect ruse of secularism to keep majority Hindus eternally docile by undermining their religion in the name of secularism, and emboldening minority Muslim by appeasing their sensitivity-Dr Manmohan Singh’s infamous remark that the minority has the preferential rights over the national resources was the exemplification of minority appeasement policy of the left liberal secular forces in the polity. Ironically, the left liberal secular forces took control of the polity, ever since the dawn of independence when the rulers of the day, in brazen violation of the religious sensitivity of majority Hindus, played havoc with the regeneration of Somnath temple, the ancient sign and symbol of India’s priceless heritage.
The majority Hindus stood crestfallen, yet they remained quiet for the sake of unity and integrity of the nation; they soft-pedaled the state’s apathy towards its own religion for the sake of keeping the flag of constitutional democracy alive. Later when Rajiv Gandhi government blew secularism into smithereens by overturning the Shah Bano case verdict, Hindus watched bemused; they stood shaken, yet they continued with their belief in secularism. Regrettably, even Ram Lala’s temple at Ayodhya, which is held sacrosanct by Hindus since the time immemorial, which later was razed to the ground by Babur and, instead, a mosque was superimposed, continued to be robbed of its sanctity, immeasurably caused Hindus the loss of their honour. Shri Ram, the Maryada Purushottam, Imam-e-Hind as referred to by a Muslim philosopher, whom Hindus, across the length and breadth of India, worshipped reverentially since ages, appeared to be perennially alienated from them, caused the majority Hindus an indescribable pain. Worse still, the minority Muslims unwarranted path of confrontation in claiming Ram Janmabhoomie as Babri Mosque, severely anguished the majority Hindus, for they felt, albeit for the first time that their forefather’s decision to make India a secular nation was a serious mistake; the generous renunciation of their own rights and power in favour of the minority Muslims whom they always considered as their inseparable brothers, were ironically proving themselves as an albatross around their neck; the secularism that empowered the minorities as equal citizens, substantially robbed Hindus of their own exclusive rights to their motherland-When Pakistan chose to make itself as an Islamic nation, India reconciled to accommodate minority Muslims as equal citizens. Godhra train burning was the watershed in Indian politics.
With scores of devotees returning from Ayodhya were burnt alive, inviting the wrath of majority Hindus. While the communal cauldron boiled in Gujarat, the entire national attention was focussed on the unfolding of events there. Significantly, Indian media in the firm grip of lef liberal seculars, left no stone unturned to paint Narendra Modi with black. It was the diabolical propaganda of left liberal seculars that Gujarat riots hit the international headlines as being the deadliest communal riots ever. Regrettably, nation, bewildered by the double standards of secular media, watched bemused when a far cataclysmic tragedy of anti-Sikh pogrom, in the immediate wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination, was so unabashedly soft-pedaled, conveniently given a decent burial, that it hardly made the international news.
This blatant partisanship in coverage of news did cause an inner revulsion among the majority Hindus. They wondered in disgust: ‘Is this the secularism for which we majority Hindus made an unparalleled sacrifice?’ worse still, Sonia Gandhi, the de facto Prime Minister of India, in 2008, had made an outrageous remark, dubbing Narendra Modi as ‘Maut ka Saudagar’. Paradoxically, the same Sonia never had any remorse for her husband’s intemperate comment when Rajiv Gandhi had so infamously said, in the wake of his mother’s assassination ‘When a mighty tree falls, earth is bound to shake.’ The majority Hindus had begun to see through the whole scheme of things: The Nehruvian secularism was a facade to promote the political interests of the first family of Congress Party. No wonder majority Hindus awaited opportunity to celebrate their own edification; their own empowering moments. 2014 provided them those glorious moments: A Hindu nationalist rose to power in the name of empowering the politically emasculated majority Hindus.
Narendra Modi’s rise to power was premised on openly espousing for the cause of Hindu nationalism which, as expected, would herald a dawn of a new India, where majority Hindus would no longer feel apologists. Hindus, in the decades of Nehruvian secularism, felt like living as apologists, they lived in phobia of minority Muslims, especially in the wake of the statement of Manmohan Singh’s preposterous observation that ‘ Minority had the preferential rights over the national resources’. Confounded and mighty puzzled, Hindus felt, albeit with a hindsight awakening, that secularism, in all its discriminatory tendencies, alienated them from their rights and powers. No wonder Modi raj, much like the rule of Chandragupta Maurya, in the ancient India, empowered the aboriginals, the majority community. Thus the substantial chunk of majority Hindus frantically believed in what Modi asked of them or expected from them. In fact, the entire nation, foregoing their own valued judgment, went ahead to bang thalis and light wicks, in the wake of the outbreak of COVID 19. Despite the common sense defying the acceptance of the Prime Minister’s whimsicality, yet the nation in collective bonhomie went ahead to follow the Prime Minister’s diktat in letter and spirit. The majority Hindus, despite the naysayers and secularists prognosticating doom for the nation, yet the nation, especially the substantial chunk of Hindus, earnestly believed that Modi is their saviour, their messiah.
No wonder the media, barring few exception like Indian Express, which always maintained anti-establishment stand, found itself being reduced to the cheerleaders and even the spokespersons of the government. Remarkably, even CAA, despite a prolonged agitation by the minority Muslims, failed to stir the nation for the obvious reason: The substantial majority of Hindus no longer have a larger sympathy for the cause of minority Muslims; they felt being used for their patience, sympathy and solidarity with their minority Muslims, for all these decades. Nation appears starkly divided today between the Modi haters and Modi lovers. The numbers of those worshipping Modi as their messiah far outnumbers those that hate him.
This new India worships Modi, irrespective of what he does or does not; this new India believes in him, notwithstanding his omissions and commissions; this new India feels Modi is infallible, because he will preserve the interest of majority Hindus. In hindsight, the trigger for this new India had been the visceral hatred of Modi by the left secular liberals and, therefore, they themselves have been the trigger for the rise of this new India. It is futile to blame others for their own Himalayan guilt of pinning a man down for over a decade and now, when he rose from phoenix to such a higher pedestal.No winder today he is an ubiquitous face; he is invincible, and who made him invincible?
The left liberal seculars. And who is responsible for the rise of this new India, it is once again the left liberal seculars. Hence, the left liberal seculars should not shed the false tears for this degenerating new India. Such is the degree and magnitude of nation’s fixation with Modi phenomenon that even the farmer’s movement, despite its legitimacy, failed to resonate with the masses. In fact, new India knows what is good and what is bad for it; they hardly require, much less, heed the advice of left liberal seculars. Notwithstanding the liberal’s chest beating about India’s soul being crushed under the upsurge of the wave of Hindu nationalism, it was their visceral hatred for Modi phenomenon that had engendered this new India.
Vivekanand Jha is an author and a Public Intellectual.
