Author: Shubhrangshu Roy
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: December 17, 2002
URL: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/comp/articleshow?artid=31492095
Much as I despise Narendra Modi,
I cannot help but be overawed by the BJP's clean sweep of the Gujarat polls
riding on the crest of a Hindutva wave.
Over the next few days, sundry pundits
will scratch their beards and pull their hair to analyse what went into
such a huge mandate for the sangh parivar despite the gruesome happenings
in the state post- Godhra.
Pretenders to political wisdom posing
as poll analysts have reappeared on the idiot box claiming that a huge
last moment mood swing in BJP's favour disrupted their calculations just
about the time the electorate trooped in to vote.
Earlier, these very jokers predicted
there was only a narrow gap between the people's dislike for the BJP and
their new found love for the Congress.
Small wonder, they now admit, no
pre-poll or exit-poll calculation could predict a walkover for the BJP.
They don't tell us what caused that huge mood swing.
I'll tell you what happened.
First, there was never so much of
a doubt that the BJP would win Gujarat. Not in the BJP's mind. And least
of all, not in the electorate's mind.
The doubt, if at all, was how big
the winning margin would be, never mind what the analysts said.
So, the mood swing theory is all
bunkum. Despite all these years of secular whitewash, I am firm in my belief
that the Indian society is inherently polarised.
We come across its many divisive
facets in our day-to-day lives that we largely choose to ignore. Yet, when
we walk out of the air- conditioned comfort of our workplaces, we come
across these divisions of polarised castes and creeds.
That's the base on which the Indian
society has survived so long, withstanding the onslaught of both time and
invading armies, breaking up civilisations into smaller and smaller fragments
where everyone lives for his own.
I won't stand in moral judgement
on whether that's good or bad news for us. But I often take time off to
sit up and take note of how things still remain the same even when to others
they appear to have changed.
That's one reason why we still preserve
in our very little corners of both home and heart, our exclusive identities
as townsfolk and rustics, as employed and self employed, as rich and poor,
as Bengalis and Punjabis, as Brahmins and backwards, as Hindus and Muslims.
And each time any of these of our
various identities is questioned, we stand up to assert ourselves with
all that we can. We've done this once too often before. And we do it in
our everyday lives, betraying our polarised existence within this land
called India, that is Bharat.
If you find it hard to believe what
I am saying is true, just take a peek into our recent history. The coming
into being of India and Pakistan was not because we were divided by race,
but because we were divided by religion.
So it is with what's been happening
in Punjab and Kashmir and Assam these years. Still more recently, the Mandal
agitation of just about a decade ago burned Delhi and the country not because
we were one, but because our very own identities came to be questioned
when the identities of some others were sought to be upheld at the cost
of our own. It's the same story with the elections.
In the Hindi heartland where it
matters most, the elections have never been fought and won on the grounds
that the people were united in race, culture, caste and religion, but because
they were divided by all of these and more.
And still, to uphold our secular
credentials as a nation and belief that we are united in our diverse existence,
a handful of us believe that the verdict of Gujarat holds ominous portents
for a nation that's on the verge of split.
That it's the beginning of a polarisation
that will consume state after state if the forces of fanaticism are not
held in check. Perish that thought.
Gujarat's verdict this December
was the culmination of the belief of its people that their identity was
under threat. In this present case, it was their Hindu identity that came
under attack, first at Godhra, and then, at Akshardham.
And yet we stood silent in our secular
garb lest someone question our own identity. But then we also stood up
in our secular garb and questioned the identity of the Gujarati Hindu when
he retaliated for what happened at Godhra.
Well, now the Gujarati Hindu has
stood up as well to question our secular credentials as we watch helplessly.
Tomorrow it will be the turn of
the Rajasthani Hindu to assert himself. The day after it will be the turn
of the Hindu in Madhya Pradesh. And then, the Hindu in UP. And next, the
Hindu in the rest of India.
This is bound to happen, unless
someone begins to question our several other identities by race, by language,
by caste. It doesn't matter what the secularists say, there is a Hindu
somewhere in an overwhelming majority of us. I may not agree with how the
Hindu asserts himself when he feels cornered. But, for now, I respect his
verdict.
