Does our prime minister feel Hinduism is so fragile that it requires protection by abusive trolls and violent gangs?
An illustrious member of the Hindutva ideological fraternity proudly declared after getting out of jail: “Dharm ka kaam jari rahega.” The gentleman from the Hindu Raksha Dal, facing several criminal charges, was arrested for distributing swords to Hindus in Ghaziabad for protection against the imaginary threat from Muslims. His reassuring words – that he will continue to fight for Hindu religion, must have comforted the Almighty. We have, after all, now got religious soldiers who can lynch poor Muslims in the name of Ram and cow protection. Like Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan or Iran, Hindu bigots are now earning global fame.
This happened at a time when citizens visiting the World Book Fair in Delhi saw hoardings splashed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inspiring messages on the importance of education. The message was clear: the nation will grow if citizens read. Modi didn’t say wayward youths, with filthy abuses on the tongue and swords in hand, are essential for the nation-building process. If Hindus indeed needed protection from Muslim marauders in today’s India, the Modi government would have banished book fairs and ordered stalls to sell swords, knives and trishuls to supplement the security establishment that is unable to protect Indian citizens. Does our prime minister feel that Hinduism is so fragile that it requires protection by abusive trolls and violent gangs?
Even elected representatives need not offer their free services to protect Hinduism. A video circulating on social media this week showed a BJP legislator spewing venom on Salman Khan, calling him a thief, a dacoit and a traitor because he loved only Muslims and Pakistan. The MLA, a self-styled protector of Hinduism, said the actor should be hanged to death. When people pointed out that Salman Khan was close to Modi, the MLA, who has been granted ministerial status by the Uttar Pradesh government, promptly changed the target, naming Shah Rukh Khan instead. These leaders must thank Muslims for giving enough stars for recklessly choosing the target. Shah Rukh, if not Salman. Mohd Siraj, if not Mohd Sami. These protectors of Hindu religion can freely distribute death sentences like chocolates as the custodians of law choose to look away.
The MLA in question, Raghuraj Singh, will obviously not get any punishment. But will Modi, who sent his pious messages for the Book Fair, send a few books to his MLA to drum some sense into his crooked mind? At least a small copy of the Constitution that can teach him about religious freedom and equality?
But that’s difficult because there are countless MLAs and MPs in BJP whose brains are wired exactly the same way as the petty thug who distributes swords or the leader who brands Muslims as traitors. In that case, Modi will have to send a copy of the Constitution to the National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval, who is instigating young Hindu boys to get ready for revenge. Revenge against whom, Modi should at least ask the NSA to elaborate. Perish the thought. That will open a Pandora’s box. What if Doval asks a counter question: Is behaving like the head priest of the country in tune with the constitutional duty of the prime minister?
Fleeting images rarely leave lasting impressions. Who remembers that Brazilian model whose photograph in Haryana’s electoral rolls created ripples last year? If anybody thought that image will trigger unrest in India and leave scars at least on the face of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, you can pity their naïveté. The Indian mindscape is now splattered with the enchanting images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi standing atop an open vehicle in garish attire, holding a damru in both hands as the rhythmic sounds of drumbeats rent the air.
Rulers know public memory is scandalously short. Does anyone remember the horrific visuals of dead bodies popping out of the sand on the riverside in Uttar Pradesh during the pandemic? Haven’t the disturbing images of men, women and children walking hundreds of miles to reach home from those years flown down the waters of forgetfulness? Even the impact of that humiliating sight – Indians tied in chains being sent back home from the United States, was so ephemeral.
Corrupt officials and thugs had faith in this undeniable trait when they used one photograph as evidence for multiple Skill India events happening in different states to loot India’s taxpayers’ money. The Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) report on the Skill India Mission has exposed the elaborate network of corruption in the Modi regime, exposing the truth of the hypocritical chants of “na khaunga na khane dunga.”
The CAG found that the same photograph was used as evidence for events in Katni in Madhya Pradesh, Kollam in Kerala and Mumbai in Maharashtra, indicating a massive fraud in the skill training programme. Several instances were found in different schemes where the same photograph was zoomed or cropped for obfuscation. Fake bank accounts, addresses and names of thousands of beneficiaries were used to facilitate the plunder. Companies given contracts were either not registered or didn’t have the credentials for the job-profile. Placement and trainer details were not furnished, fake claims about companies’ profiles were made by the ministries and fictional data were generated to loot the funds worth more than Rs 10,000 crore.
The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) was launched in 2015 as the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to meet industry demand for skilled manpower. What’s worse is that ministries defended the firms in communication with the CAG, insisting that wrong photographs and statistical details were caused by technical glitches, network issues and log-in complexities.
Even the responses by the ministries were examined and the CAG expressed deep dissatisfaction in most cases. How can the same photograph be uploaded for an event in Gaya in Bihar and Baharaich in Uttar Pradesh? How can a photograph used for a programme in Maharashtra be zoomed or cropped to be used again as evidence for a function in Rajasthan? If the ministry said a company chosen for a training contract had a huge online presence, the CAG found its employee strength ranging from 2 to 10, with barely 143 followers on LinkedIn. Such companies with no infrastructure issued certificates to 30,000 to 40,000 candidates in seven-eight states.
The report showed complicity of government officials, clear intent to loot, poor or no monitoring mechanism and apathy towards transparency and accountability. Records showed one official going for inspection on the same day to Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. This is physically impossible; even non-biological entities with divine powers and their devotees can’t do this in one day.
The government defended itself by invariably arguing that payments were made through DBT (direct benefit transfer), without explaining violation of due process and poor monitoring. This was the modus operandi of loot in the fodder scam of Bihar for which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) created such a storm. Will the prime minister order a fair enquiry into this far bigger scam?
True cultural consciousness won’t fall for kitsch. But a regime that didn’t understand the tragic history of Jallianwala Bagh cannot be expected to appreciate the magnificent heritage of Kashi. Congress leader Ajay Rai rightly said: “They want to turn Kashi into a mall in the name of Kashi-Vishwanath corridor. The rich heritage, thousands years old, has been destroyed; hundreds of temples have been demolished. The Manikarnika ghat, which had invaluable religious and cultural significance, has been demolished. The statue of Ahilyabai Holkar was pulled down. Yogi-Modi are naastik (atheist) and their irreligious ways are driven by the sole intention of benefitting Gujarati contractors.”
The irony is that the Modi Government is being condemned for demolishing temples. Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav also said nobody demolished more temples in India than the BJP governments. That charge must hurt the BJP that continues to shape political narratives by invoking the Muslim invaders who demolished temples. But the Muslim invaders, unlike Modi, didn’t have any control over the media which can’t show the truth that hundreds of temples from Uttar Pradesh to Gujarat were indeed demolished under Modi. Political parties as well as the people of Varanasi believe the ancient cultural heritage required preservation, not restructuring. Even many religious heads, including some Shankaracharyas, insisted that what was happening in the name of beautification was an attack on the soul of Kashi.
But the local MP is obsessed with a different model of development. The problem is that he is bigger than “a local MP” and nobody is bigger than him in the executive hierarchy. Who? The same man who envisaged the Central Vista that gave the national capital a new parliament building, government offices and residential complexes for top functionaries. Though the opposition Congress described the Central Vista as a “vanity project”, they failed to realise that the scope of vanity was much bigger.
Sanjay K. Jha is a political commentator.
