Present and Future

The disclosure of the NSSO report on unemployment has finally let the cat out of the bag. The report was leaked in February, 2019, and the Niti Ayog declared that it was not final. Now it is found that the information contained in the officially disclosed report is the same as that which was there in the leaked report. So, it is clear that the report was withheld with an eye to the polls. Anything more nefarious is difficult to imagine. But it is not impossible for Narendra Modi to do such things.

It may seem paradoxical that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Narendra Modi have won despite miserable failures as far as the promises made before the 2014 polls are concerned. It may be true that the disunity among the opposition parties has immensely helped Modi. But the fact remains that the BJP has been able to increase its share of votes considerably, although it is stupid to call it the mandate of the entire population.

The Modi-Shah combine, faced with the specter of defeat, had to turn to their own brand of 'nationalism' and communal polarisation for winning the polls. Helped by the social media and thanks to their control of many TV channels, the corporate bourgeoisie relentlessly went on projecting such an image of Narendra Modi that only he can save Hindutva as well as the Indian nation. They have at least partially succeeded in establishing a picture of Modi as a Fuhrer who can restore India's pride and take on both India and Pakistan at the same time. In Germany, there were the Jews, and here there are the Muslims and dalits. The event of Pulwama has definitely helped, and it is not clear whether the event was not allowed to occur.

Emboldened by the success even after many events of lynching of Muslims and dalits, Modi's followers have renewed their activities with fresh vigour. One event is that of shooting a petty Muslim trader in Begusarai of Bihar-the man was shot simply because he was a Muslim. That the people of India have, some protests notwithstanding, in general displayed a nonchalance about such gruesome events is a measure of the success of communal fascists. The roots of this fascism were already there, and under the crafty stewardship of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, they have grown into a huge tree with branches all around. India, with about seven decades of the practice of parliamentary democracy, is now going to bring fascism through the polls. This fascism is different from Indira Gandhi's Emergency in that it is more subtle and has penetrated all arms of the state including the judiciary. What is more dangerous is that a not inconsiderable section of the toiling people have been bewitched or brainwashed by the false image of Modi as the national leader.

Of course, one cannot cheat all the people for all time. False propaganda and false promises cannot always go on escaping the notices of the people indefinitely, and their declining standards of living and shattered expectations must assert sooner or later, because serving the interests of the Ambani s, Adanis, Tatas etc and hanging from the coat-tails of Donald Trump may not accord well with the welfare of the broad masses of the people. Again, the promotion of the original Rashtriya Swayamsevek Sangh (RSS) agenda of 'one language, one religion, one culture' must come to be faced with stiff resistance for the simple reason that the nationalities of the east and the south will not be willing to embrace Hindi at the expense of their own mother tongues, and the agenda of Hindutva will not be complete without. The reaction to the proposed language policy is a manifestation of this attitude. Yet it must be remembered that opposition to this Indian brand of fascism must be cohesive. The many opposition parties, e.g. the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Samajbadi Party (SP) and even the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) do not seem to have realized the danger of communal fascism which, on the economic front, is trying ruthlessly to carry forward the agenda of globalisation and liberalisation. The parliamentary left also does not seem to have appreciated the danger. The opposition in general does not seem to have an alternative economic agenda of development. Without such an agenda, fight against communal fascism is not likely to succeed.    

02.06.2019

Frontier
Vol. 51, No. 50, Jun 16 - 22, 2019