In the Northeast, a sense of foreboding

The people of the Northeast resent the encroachments on their faith and social mores. Yet there is no united front to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party’s increasingly oppressive culture

Since the new government came to power last year, there has been a sea change in the way people engage with each other on social media. India seems to have come to a point of rigid political polarisation with no middle ground in sight. The reactions to the killing of Mohammed Akhlaq in Dadri, for alleged possession of beef, are an example: they were vicious and strident. Many Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters try and couch their leanings in eloquent prose, but make it clear that the minorities in this country have been pampered enough by the state and it is high time they learnt to live by the social and religious mores of the Hindu majority. This is a frightening scenario not only for Christians and Muslims, but for many others who follow their indigenous faiths and have never faced any impositions on their food habits by the state.

Patricia Mukhim

A deafening silence

But this is not a discussion on food alone. Last year, when the Narendra Modi government announced that Christmas would also be celebrated as Good Governance Day, it was probably testing the waters to see how much pressure it could bring to bear on Christians. There were muted protests to the announcement, but they were enough for the government to make a wishy-washy statement that it is not compulsory for Christians to work on that day. The move was a subtle way of announcing that the BJP-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) combine would try its best to tighten the screws on all those used to liberal and secular modes of thinking and living. What is increasingly being asserted through social media is that people have to conform to the new normal or pay the price like Akhlaq did.

What is this new normal? It is that Mr. Modi remains silent on all encroachments on our fundamental rights, such as the right to free speech and the right to profess, practise and propagate any religion. Mr. Modi extols the virtues of Mahatma Gandhi, but has remained decisively mute on the murders of Kannada scholar M.M. Kalburgi, rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, and veteran Communist Party of India leader Govind Pansare. This deafening silence indicates that the radical groups involved in these murders have his tacit blessings. Mr. Modi, it appears, has made a pact with the RSS to bring some homogeneity of thought in India. We may not be a fascist country, but have we reached a tipping point? To answer this, we’ll have to ask ourselves: Do we feel safe to express dissent? I’m afraid not.

Poor social indicators

So what does all this mean for the Northeast? How does this region see the new normal? Elections are now approaching in Assam. A year ago, the BJP could have claimed that it would win the largest number of seats in the 126-member Assembly. Even if this still happens, it will not be because people will proactively vote for the party but because there are simply no good alternatives. The Congress under Tarun Gogoi has ruled Assam for 14 years. In this period, the State has seen the lowest levels of social indicators: maternal and infant mortality, for instance, spiralled each time there was a natural calamity. Floods are an annual feature, but the State continues to be taken unawares each time. In other words, this means that there is a huge governance vacuum and no one really cares about what happens beyond the State capital. The Congress is unlikely to return to power unless it manages to sell itself as the party that will protect the Muslim population in Assam. But then this is what the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) is also propounding. So, which party will the people choose and why should they be pushed to make choices on the basis of fear? The Asom Gana Parishad is almost defunct. Some believe that Assam will have a coalition government in 2016, which will not last longer than a year. Others believe that the BJP may even align with the AIUDF to form a government, a toxic combine if it ever emerges.

But the BJP is unlikely to have it too easy. The government’s announcement that Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh will be given citizenship status has riled the people of Assam. Obviously, this is a political gimmick for garnering votes. But by stating upfront that Hindu immigrants will be embraced by the Indian state while being completely silent on the fate of other immigrants, the BJP is playing the Hindu card in a secular country. All these issues have distanced a large section of the moderate and secular constituents in Assam. But, as stated earlier, the problem in Assam is that there are no good options for the electorate as of now. It seems like a lose-lose situation.

And what about the other States of the Northeast? Surprisingly, they are silent observers as of now. While people, by and large, resent the encroachments on their faith and social mores, there is no united front yet from the region to counter the BJP’s increasingly oppressive culture. When Mr. Modi became Prime Minister, this region had high hopes that development would be fast-tracked since he spoke animatedly about moving beyond the jaded ‘Look East Policy’ to the more action-oriented ‘Act East Policy’. But much like the Prime Minister’s silence on other issues, we haven’t heard much on this front either. Except, of course, when he travels to the Northeast.

(Patricia Mukhim is Editor, The Shillong Times.)

Keywords: Narendra Modi, NDA government, Northeast, Assam Assembly elections, BJP, RSS, plurality, Dadri lynching, Good Governance Day, rationalists murders

Source: The Hindu, 9-10-2015