Death of Politics and Other Memories

I carry vivid memories of 2002Gujarat, how some students of Faculty of Fine Arts also indulged in burning cars and other such acts of vandalism. Remember being startled to realize that the neighborhood uncle was stocking up kerosene for the rioters and everyone was giving whatever weapons they possessed to the army of rioters. Remember mid night meetings in Muslim ghettos where elders would tell the youth that the situation was hopeless request them not to retaliate, just if they can flee with their lives.  

            Remember the newspaper updates we would get, the feeling that Modi will not get away with it. That voiced inside my head that always asked how the vegetable vendor knew six hours in advance that there will be large scale rotting. Godra had just happened, the news was settling in, I was buying vegetables and being told to stock up because there are going to be riots and curfews.  The sinking feeling when Modi came back to power with a tremendous majority. That realization that how we were all wrong; this is exactly what the public wanted…

          This time i see on Facebook how people are threatening to un-friend Modi supporters, the angry censoring of right wing voices by the secularities. I wonder in case Modi becomes the Prime Minister; will my friends un-friend the nation?  Essentially politics is different from history because contestations over realities and contestations over power are two different things.  In fact in many cases historical reality and political reality will stand in conflict. It takes good politics to be able to understand this difference and make political choices.  It also takes acertain clarity to realize that politics is not about ethics (maybe parts ofpolitical science is), but it is about power.  

            I would like to do some stock taking as we run up to the 2014 elections. Since the 2002 riots we have fought two battles with Narendra Modi...the two state elections that have happened since.  We lost both of them badly. In fact during the last state elections we were so half hearted that it cannot even be called a battle. In this period of twelve years Mr Narendra Modi has honed his skills in self projection and mystification. He has also understood that politics is on promises of a future and not on memories of the past.  

It is time we faced that the urban Indian Hindu is largely communal. She/he believes that Muslims are originally intruders and Islam was speared largely through the might of sword. (It is completely another story that this myth was created by right wing fanatics but (even) by very secular historians like Romila Thapar). This myth that masquerades as commonsense is what lends popular legitimacy to the promise of a Hindu Rashtra. I have heard my own aunt tell me that what happened in Gujarat 2002 was bad...but maybe the Muslims deserved it...she is not even on Facebook...what do i do to un-fiend her...and what will it achieve.  

 India seems impatient for change, and Modi seems impatient for power. For all the development talk and recent ranting that favor building toilets over building temples...Modi has put Amit Shah in charge of Uttar Pradesh.  Sine then the communal landscape of the state has been changing, western U.P is now more riot prone it has ever been since partition.  Just like in 2002 Gujarat was the key for Modi, in 2014 Uttar Pradesh has become the key.

            Maybe the impatient India deserves this impatient Narendra Modi. Sometimes i feel that it might be good if Narendra Modi wins.  If we could survive Aurangazebs, Shivajis and Indira Gandhis, I do not see how Narendra Modi will suddenly change the political-cultural fabric of central south Asia. My eight years in Gujarat has convinced me that Modi is a medium grade administrator, incapable of building institutions and absolutely incapable of dealing with non Hinduavta world views. No amount of shouting from roof tops can convince the new Narendra Modi fan that Modi can be no messiah. Maybe only a five year prime ministerial term can do that. Let Modi deal with deeply entrenched IAS, IPS lobbies with an independent judiciary. There is a chance that after five years Narendra Modi will be finished as a politician. Because once he looses Delhi after winning it...it can’t go back and be the chieftain of Gujarat. 

            The thing is that at this moment we are not equipped to fight Modi. His swelling support base does not like logic and reasoning.  Allegedly they are patriotic Indians , allegedly they are very disturbed by the falling Indian rupee...but not one of them will stop buying gold, or cancel a foreign holiday at the time of a national crisis.  Like it or not, this is how it is; and the fundamental lesson in politics is not to deal with how it should be but with how it is.  

           In the mean time, we have miles to go before we sleep. Before the 2018 elections we need to develop a of language favoring cultural and religious heterogeneity without parroting the notions of western secularism. The liberal intelligentsia has to be much more proactive in the world of vernacular cultural expressions. We need to de-neoliberalise ourselves and present a model for the future directions of India. Moreover, we need to ensure that rhetoric of attacking the religious right does not end up sounding like supporting the discredited Congress Party.  

         

Till then we will pretty much do what Modi does....suppress voices that dissent to our world view and layout no models or concrete action plans for the future.