First Brexit, then Trump. The elections in Netherlands, recently, gave a breather to nationalism. But then the tide of nationalism bestrode the Middle-East. The victim was India. There were symptoms similar to the above victims. Like US and EU who want to be the champion of global trade and global diversification, India tries to imitate the same.
It is already the fastest growing economy of Asia. The third largest oil refiner and the third largest oil consumer. The largest democracy. Modi’s “Make in India” project is one of its kind which seeks foreign investment and infrastructure development sprawling the whole country, transforming “India into a global design and manufacturing hub”. “It represents a complete change of the Government’s mindset – a shift from issuing authority to business partner”. Closing and attacking abattoirs and stopping people from selling beef may be quite a unique strategy for making business partners. And the absurd idea of “Love Jihad” a part of this “new mindset”. BJP’s hardliner attitude is gaining momentum. The recent appointment of Yogi Adityanath in UP is emblematic of the rising Hindu nationalism.
The town of Gorakhpur was embellished in Saffron when Yogi came to deliver a speech. Spewing obnoxious rhetoric; disparaging minorities, egging people to commit acts of utter violence and sheer shame. An abominable show of rank indifference towards religious minorities, the bully pulpit was once again sullied (in India) few days back. Yogi Adityanath, newly appointed chief minister of the largest state of the country, Uttar Pradesh, called for open acts of necrophilia against the Muslim women. Not only this, he did some buffoonish mathematical justice by claiming to kill 100 Muslims for every 1 Hindu killed. Further desecrating the religious values of, what is there a minority (Muslims), he told his supporters that he want to have pigs in mosques. After every of his inane enunciations the boisterous crowd roared in support and excitement. The whole ambiance was symptomatic of the times of WW2. When the Nationalist Socialist party (Nazis) was preparing for pogroms against the Jews. It was a call for a mini-holocaust. It was inhumane and who-so-ever uttered even a single cheer of support for these vile words is either asinine or has a penchant for massacres.
But it is not the first time that our neighbors are indulged in religious bigotry. The incumbent PM Narendra Modi himself was directly involved in the heinous Gujarat Riots where almost 1000 Muslims were slaughtered mercilessly. Fetuses were pulled out of woman and beaten with batons. Recall the Nanjing Massacre. Along these callous tales one should not ignore the fact that besides entertaining the rightist Hindu community in India much remains to be done when it comes to governance and government. UP is suffering from acute poverty. It has the highest infant mortality rate. Youth unemployment, high as well. Almost half of the residents of UP do not have electricity. India needs to create a million new jobs every month to avoid coagulation in the job sector. Its “twin balance sheet problem” is another addition to the array of internal problems. The corporate sector and banks both are mired in financial issues. The Economist reports that the “Around $191bn- worth, or 16.6% of the entire banking system, is now “non-performing”. Investments are being slashed. Add to this the hardliner policies being pursued by the politicos there and the soft image of India blasts into smithereens.
The history of this “firebrand cleric” is full of incidences where he was found guilty of fanning religious hatred and inducing people for arson. The cases against him are still pending. He has been accused of attempted murder and rioting. The CM also had to its name an eleven day stint in jail. It is a shock to see that Modi, who has rebranded himself and vowed to take the Indian economy to new heights, has appointed a rabble-rouser to such an important position. It has been observed and witnessed that “development”, a word which heavily dominates Modi’s political vocabulary of-late, and Nationalism cannot go hand in hand with each other.
This man can prove fatal. According to a senior Indian journalist “He’s the BJP’s tomorrow”. The raison d’être of the existence of this party, a political wing of RSS, is to convert the secular republic into a Hindu state.
If the government fails to deliver what it promised (economic stability and development) than the possibility of playing the strategy of ‘baiting Muslims’ will not take time to translate into a reality. This is a dangerous game, trying to please both; the rightists (through such appointments) and leftists (through projects like Make in India). The strategy can go awry. New York Times very aptly put the Yogi’s selection as a “rebuke to religious minorities”. Will Modi deliver his promise? It remains to be seen. But with a mindset of religious/ethnic intolerance and nationalistic bent India’s goal to surface as an economic power in the region and the world seems quite an uphill task.