No Muslim in Modi Cabinet

Sourish Ghosh

Modi is probably the first Prime Minister of India who has delivered so many hate speeches during election campaigns? Now as he begins his third term as a Prime Minister; it is not surprising that there is no Muslim representation in his 71-member cabinet. The saffron Troll Army and cadres are justifying it on the grounds that Muslims do not support Modi so they should not expect a representation. But Modi as a Prime Minister of India should have been inclusive as constitutionally, he is the Prime Minister of every individual of this country and he should have dissociated himself from being a mere leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Even the RashtriyaSwayamsevakSangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat has been critical of his approach and reminded him of ‘raj dharma’ which once Atal Bihari Vajpayee did during the Gujarat riots in 2002. This is also an RSS strategy to clean its image and distance itself from Modi’s whataboutery. The Muslims in India especially under Modi is a potential example of Homo Sacer in the Agambenian state of exception.

Giorgio Agamben, an Italian philosopher, has theorised the relationship between the sovereign and the subject as two sides of the puzzle. On one side, there is the functioning of democratic politics which necessarily has assumed the issue of rights based on liberal consensus. On the other side there lies the incessant production of naked life to its minimum essentials; a “spectral lump” devoid of all rights, but who at the same time has to be located in the interstices of the juridical. Agamben excavates ancient Roman law to find the figure of Homo Sacer (‘sacer’ here means both sacred and cursed: the Latin sacirificium/sacr/sacer). Borrowing the concept from Pompeius Festus, Agamben theorises the Homo Sacer as the epitome of extreme marginality, one who cannot be sacrificed to the gods, as his death is of no value to them, but who can be killed with indemnity because he enjoys no legal protection. Homo Sacer is located exterior with respect to human order and annihilation of such life does not mean homicide as killing here does not involve law, it does not indicate lawlessness. So, they can be tormented, jeered, criticised (remember Tablighi Jamaat issue during the pandemic), and even killed at will (remember Mohammad Akhlaq and others) and there will be no shock and awe or cry for justice. This is the state of exception that the BJP government has created in India which advertently seeks to create a model of ethnic democracy which will be similar to that of Israel where the enemy can be demonstrated and their disparagement will only consolidate the majority.

Although there has been resistance and protest from within the Muslim communities (especially during the Anti-NRC and CAA movement) and also from certain sections of intellectuals and left parties but majority of the opposition have either demonstrated lukewarm protest or tried to maintain a balance as they were concerned about their majority vote bank which the BJP had manage to polarise and even rally behind its propaganda. Modi is making his intention clear in his third term as he took this historic decision of not keeping any Muslim representatives in the cabinet. Actually, he wanted to send a message to the Muslim community that he would not be lenient against his dissenters and would continue to play this polarisation game.

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 2, Jul 7 - 13, 2024