Modi’s Pakistan gambit

By Murtaza Shibli
December 16, 2017

The latest attempt by Indian Prime Minister Modi to galvanise support for the ongoing elections in his home province of Gujarat by raising the Pakistan bogey seems to have failed to lift the sagging morale of his party supporters.

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While it is too early to predict the results, it is certain that Modi’s claim that Pakistan was conspiring with the Congress Party to impact the election results has boomeranged. He is being harangued for his lack of “propriety or even dignity” as he accused former prime minister Manmohan Singh and others for conspiring with Pakistan. This has severely tarnished Modi’s image – a process that can have grave consequences for his future prospects.

In the past, Modi had massively benefitted from his generous use of toxic anti-Pakistan rhetoric not only to polarise the electorate but also to harass and marginalise Muslims. Indian journalist and author Manoj Joshi accuses Modi of increasing “the rhetoric against terrorism and Pakistan to a high, even though actual instances of terrorism – attacks on unarmed civilians – have sharply declined since the attack on Mumbai in November 2008”. Joshi blames him for raising the levels of hysteria using the “so-called surgical strikes against Pakistani positions on the Line of Control at the end of September 2016” and blatantly using it “to harvest votes in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections five months later”.

Commenting in the Indian Express, Pratap Bhanu Mehta has described Modi’s behaviour as alarming, saying Modi has “strung together communal canards and conspiracy theories” marking “a new and dangerous low in Indian politics”. Anjali Mody, writing for the Indian website, Scroll.in, termed Modi’s accusations “at once serious and utterly absurd”. Former PM Manmohan Singh, usually known for his calm demeanour, strongly rejected Modi’s “innuendos and falsehoods” while the Congress parliamentarian and well-known peace activist Mani Shankar Aiyar called him neech or low-life, an expression that has found silent but wide acceptance among the non-Hindutva and secular forces across India. Even Hindutva extremist Shiv Sena, a BJP ally, has accused Modi of resorting to “histrionics” and pulling the ongoing poll campaign for the Gujarat elections to “a new low”. It censored him for digging up “the graves of the Mughal regime” in his campaign.

Historically, in India, there has always been a deep-seated obsession with Pakistan. From student textbooks to soap operas and from Bollywood plots to parliamentary debates, Pakistan is everywhere – prominently or lurking around in the subtext with the sole purpose to undo India. Pakistan is presented as a malignant entity that has not only desecrated the idea of ‘Mother India’ by claiming a part of it but also consistently plotting to provoke Kashmiris to pelt stones or take on the Indian army with rudimentary arms with the sole aim to devour and disintegrate India. This narrative is advanced so religiously that the brutal violence, state-enacted or autonomous vigilantism, mainly against Kashmiris or Muslim minorities is routinely invoked and justified.

Despite success in wars against Pakistan; frustrating Pakistan’s access to Kashmir, Junagarh and Hyderabad – states that wanted to accede to Pakistan; checkmating at Siachen as well as successfully dismembering the country into two parts, India has played the Pakistan card continually and with callous efficacy. The Congress Party used the ‘Partition narrative’ to first justify and then blame under development and its resultant violence on Pakistan. Later, the Pakistani establishment became so potent and omnipresent that any Indian narrative on anything under the sun would seem incomplete without dishing out blame on it.

Hindutva forces started to gain ground in the 1990s as they took the narrative on Pakistan to cosmic frontiers. In 1994, Surat in Gujarat was hit by a bubonic plague which led to a mass public exodus and huge business losses amid hundreds of fatalities. Lal Krishan Advani, a Hindutva ideologue and top BJP leader, who later became the deputy prime minister of India under Atal Bihari Vajpayee blamed Pakistan for the calamity. He publicly claimed that Pakistani intelligence had caused the plague “by infiltrating rats carrying viruses of the disease” to damage India’s image and economy.

The BJP has actively used the hatred against Muslims and Pakistan to enhance its political appeal. A decade after Babri Masjid was destroyed by BJP-supported Hindutva extremists, the BJP continued to whip up anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan sentiment to gain votes. In February 2002, Anand Soondas, from the Indian English daily The Telegraph, reported on the atmosphere of hate generated during a BJP election rally in Ayodhya, the alleged birthplace of Hindu god Lord Ram and home to the erstwhile Babri Masjid. “The sadhus whip up an anti-Pakistan frenzy, making it easy for Rajnath [Singh] to carry on. A seasoned politician, he senses the mood quickly and takes the cue. These elections are the most important in the country, Rajnath says even before cries of Jai Shri Ram die down. Then with a flourish he adds: If there is anyone who will shed tears on the BJP’s victory, it is Pakistan. They want to finish India”.

It is as interesting as it is alarming to note that more than fifteen years later, Rajnath Singh, now the Indian home minister, still speaks in the same tone and tenor. He continues to blame Pakistan for provoking civil unrest in Kashmir and even funding the teenagers who throw stones at the Indian forces in reaction to their brutalities.

The strong public reaction against Modi’s attempt to sway the public by blaming Pakistan could be the beginning of a new hope. Any retreat – electoral or otherwise – by the extremist Hindu forces is an opportunity to enhance the constituency of peace in the region. But for permanent reconciliation, Pakistan must also confront its own demons that sustain the visions of discord and hostility.

Twitter: murtaza_shibli

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