As the Sangh and its affiliates continue to push their toxic religious and cultural agenda, irrespective of the domestic and international audiences' deep sense of revulsion, it is clear as daylight that there are two Indias.
As the Sangh and its affiliates continue to push their toxic religious and cultural agenda, irrespective of the domestic and international audiences' deep sense of revulsion, it is clear as daylight that there are two Indias. One completely dystopian, an imaginary society extremely unpleasant which is busy pushing this toxic envelope and the other which is standoffish, in stark contrast, repugnant of the conduct of what one hopes and reckons is a smaller section comprising the lunatic fringe. This cleave is growing and one needs to understand that majoritarianism is not with the fringe, though it is angry at the years of pandering to minorities. Today the attack is against snapdeal for selling leather shoes, tomorrow and day after, it may be for something as ridiculous. Yesterday it was Tipu Jayanti. And this will carry on despite alarm and a sense of trepidation that greets each lunatic strike. In all this somewhere, we are forgetting that the winter session of parliament will be upon us shortly. Bipartisanship is the only way to alleviate the economic woes of this country, all political formations need to be mindful of this.
Christopher Hitchens writing in Hitch-22: A Memoir says, "I suppose that one reason I have always detested religion is its sly tendency to insinuate the idea that the universe is designed with 'you' in mind or, even worse, that there is a divine plan into which one fits whether one knows it or not. This kind of modesty is too arrogant for me." There is a lesson in that for what is happening with what we perceive to be the fringe across the world. Equally it is said that the road to arrogance is paved with the love of self. It is imperative for the BJP to start communicating with opposition parties which have bush whacked them in the last 18 months not allowing any crucial legislation to pass through. After Bihar the dynamics of Indian polity have altered, the new centrifuge is a revivalist opposition and more than that a combined opposition which has seen that if various constituents regroup, they can prove to be more than a handful for a belligerent party in power.
The old secular versus communal debate is also back thanks to the intolerant fringe. Now, nature nature abhors a vacuum, so it is clear that someone will try and occupy the space vacated. Expect a bellicose opposition, united as a cohesive whole which will tear down everything thrown at it by the treasury benches. The Congress has already begun with a clamour that the issuance of FDI norms was illegal since it was not cleared by the Cabinet. Now this a facetious argument, for if the PM finally, at long last, decided to use the executive authority available at his disposal under the Transaction of Business Rules, then so be it, Indian is capital starved and FDI is critical to alleviate our woes. This is something that everyone in India needs to understand, now if one opposes this for the sake of opposition, then nit is bad form and nothing else.
There has to be a dialogue. A constructive dialogue, a reaching out by the treasury to the combined opposition if legislative changes are to be undertaken for the good of India. If this chasm remains, then there is no hope. Feelers need to be sent out by the BJP, arrogance of 282 MPs in the Lok Sabha needs to be kept aside and a new construct needs to be put on the table. The two sides have to talk to each other and not down at one another. The Congress led UPA 2 made the same mistake in 2009 when full of itself with 206 MPs, it displayed an arrogance not seen before as it pursued a dangerous model of welfare economics where it was busy doling out freebies, imperilling the fiscal health of the country. Much like the Congress in 2009, the BJP since May, 2014 has followed the same course. The calculus of numbers resulting in a brain freeze.
Time for a reset. While there is no point in obsessing endlessly with legislation, there are some vital reforms which require only legislation. A meeting ground has to be found through a dialogue. One India, One Tax is a necessity. Parliamentary Affairs ministers are required to manage the floor and facilitate dialogue. It is a broad mix of assurances, concessions, give and take et al that allows smooth functioning of parliament and debate and distillation of ideas. The PM speaks out against intolerance to foreign audiences but chooses to keep quiet at home. This too needs to change and his softer side needs to be visible not just to diasporic Indians. Business has to be transacted in parliament, it cannot be a shouting match between two sides, that has to end.
My own sense is that the opposition revived by the bit in its teeth after the Bihar victory will be even more strident as it bays for the BJPs' blood in the bull pen. The tyranny of numbers in the Rajya Sabha remains and is not going to change in the foreseeable future. The BJP needs to temper its arrogance and show humility and similarly the opposition led by the Congress has to shake off its role as an angry opposition. Of course, this is utopia, if it happens. Show humility is my call to the BJP, you are only getting a taste of the medicine that you dished out over the last decade. Parliament should be allowed to function, brownie points can be won in debates. Intolerance , suppression of dissent and FDI are already poison arrows that will be shot off the opposition's bows. Start talking now, reach out to one another.
(The writer is a Visiting Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, Delhi)
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