"All Indians are Hindus"

First five years of Modi gove-rnment was signified for demonetisation, digital India, GST, Rafael Deal, banning of Triple Talaque and finally counter of Pulwama attack. The overall agenda of this government was a cry for Hindutava and nabal nationalism.

There was hardly any policy for combating poverty, hunger, and unemployment. It was tactically renamed under different programmes. Only introduction of insurance scheme was slightly a fresh one. Its promises under PM Jan Dhan Yojana had lured the poor people of India. It had no serious efforts and initiatives for improvement of agriculture and farmers, industrial development and other economic development. It was only attentive to reformation. Suicidal death of farmers was higher than any time before.

For second term Modi returns and forms Modi 2.0 with absolute majority due to several reasons of this multi-party democracy. Surprisingly, Modi 2.0 has no particular agenda and policy to handle core issues of poverty, hunger, ill-health and unemployment. It is more concerned for a Hindu State and Nationalism. It abolishes 35A/370 of the Constitution aggravating the crisis in Kashmir, re-building of Rama Mandir at Ajodhya and so forth Then it would be brought the NRC Bill with the purpose of making a hell for the 'refugees' in Assam.

The leaders of this government have forgotten that Nationalism is oneness. People constitutionally irrespective of their race and other so-called identities of separation are equal. It has no effort of inclusion of minority (Muslim) under this nationalism and there is no effort to binding them in a brotherhood as Indian. But their effort is to make them separate because of different philosophical (religious) identity as Muslim.

In this term, it is fulfilling the promise of the corporate through privatisation of Railways, and VSNL, etc. But, why and for whose benefits this privatisation of central agencies is? It does not bother to handle the economic slowdown, price hike and unemployment. It helps to make profit to the corporate. Various reports say that ADANI and AMBANI have doubled their profits in last five years.

Now people will have to wait to face a war against Pakistan for the cause of nationalism of Modi 2.0.

In fact, this government is making strong foreign relations by visiting and attending overseas meetings every month. It is fine! But what would be the internal relations of the country? This government and its affiliated political party and its different wings are involved in vandalism to establish a Hindu State.

People of this country expect a healthy living without division and separation. Hungry people need a job because they have the potentiality to work, to earn and to live by their own earning.

Already facing backlash to its divisive citizenship laws, the Modi-Shah regime has been caught unawares by an apparent shift in tactics, by its own parent body, the Rashtriya Swayam-sevak Sangh (RSS) in response to the widespread protests by civil society against CAA-NPR-NRC. Contrary to initial reactions to Mohan Bhagwat's "All Indians are Hindus" remark, ruling party strategists are worried that the sanghchalak may have been signaling subtle criticism of the government's harsh handling of the ongoing agitations.

Within the Sangh Parivar there is an undercurrent of unease over the wisdom of throwing the whole nation into turmoil regardless of repercussions by forcefully pushing through the agenda of alienating large sections of the population as the Modi-Shah regime appears hell-bent on doing. Within the Sangh, new ideas and strategies take time to percolate. Unlike the rapid news cycle of politics and mass media, where the RSS chief's remark that "all 130 crore people of India are Hindus", attracted instant criticism from secular parties, NDA allies and even a few central ministers, the nuances of the sarsanghchalaks's statement are only now sinking in among the front organisations.

Even though there seemed nothing new in what RSS chief Bhagwat said in Hyderabad a couple of weeks ago  repeated RSS dogma on nationhood.

The context and timing of his message are equally important. Firstly, it was not a routine public discourse. He was addressing an audience comprising strictly of RSS swayamsewaks at an instructional oath-taking camp known as sankalpsivir. Secondly, he was speaking at a time of great national churning, when the Modi government's push towards implementing new citizenship norms has evoked unexpectedly strong public resistance.

A translation of what he said is: "The son of mother India, irrespective of what language he speaks, which religion he practices, whether he follows any form of worship or not, is a Hindu. In this regard for Sangh all the 130 crore people of India are Hindu society". Bhagwat categorically stated that the RSS accepts one and all, thinks well of them and desires to take them to a higher level for betterment.

Of late the decline of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is too exposed to be ignored. They have failed to make it in Maharashtra—the cidadel of corporate. Congress has succeeded in vertically spliting the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) by hooking Shiv Sena, the traditional ally of BJP. This vertical split and BJP's isolation will matter a lot in future electoral permutations and combinations. For one thing Modi magic is vanishing. The hindutva brigade has weak ideological foundation and no nation state can be built on this weak political and ideological postulations. It won't be that easy to run the second innings without hassle.

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Frontier
Vol. 52, No. 39, Mar 29 - April 4, 2020