Syed Khalique Ahmed
NEW DELHI, FEB 11
Politics of hate and guns and bullets as a political weapon have failed the Bharatiya Janata Party to wrest the political power in the national capital. The politics of hate and Islamophobia that brought BJP to power at the Centre in two successive Lok Sabha elections, seems to have become a double-edged sword for it as the politics of threat and intimidation against Muslims and Islamophobia have been rejected by the voters in Delhi assembly polls. With Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of Arvind Kejriwal leading in 58 seats at the time of writing of this article indicates that AAP would form the government again in Delhi. Winning of AAP heralds a new brand of politics in India in which voters prefer to go with promises of development and welfare schemes rather than on the past practices of emotional appeals based on religion and caste. This is a positive development in Indian politics.
From Union Minister Anurag Thakur to West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh as also BJP candidate from Model Town assembly constituency Kapil Mishra talked of guns and bullets during run-up to assembly elections. Shaheen Bagh protests led by Muslim women against hostile Citizenship (Amendment) Act had also taken a centerstage in BJP’s electoral campaign will all top party leaders raking it up at every election rally and debate. Thakur in his election speech raised slogans of “Desh ke gaddaron ko” referring to Shaheen Bagh protesters and the crowd had responded to “Goli maro s****n ko”. It was a coincidence that three incidents of bullet firing took place in Delhi after their speeches: Two at Jamia Millia Islamia and one at Shaheen Bagh where protests are going on against CAA. BJP Lok Sabha MP Parvesh Verma, who is son of Delhi’s late chief minister Sahib Singh Verma, had also described Kejriwal as a “terrorist”. In a video, Verma had also said that “If Kejriwal returns to power, Shaheen-Bagh type of people will take over streets. They will enter your houses, rape your sisters and daughters.”
Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javdekar had said that there were proofs of Kejriwal being a “terrorist”. UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath (born as Ajay Mohan Bisht) also used language of threat and intimidation with regard to Muslims to seek votes for BJP candidates in election rallies, with all these leaders inviting actions from Election Commission for violating Model Code of Conduct.
Union Home Minister and former BJP chief Amit Shah had tried to polarise the Delhi voters by saying that the Delhi elections were a contest between two ideologies: One of Shaheen Bagh being supported by Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal and Company and the other of Modi. Trying to further polarise the voters, in one of his public meetings, Amit Shah said that “Shaheen Baghs” are the voters of Kejriwal. He had also asked the voters in his public meetings that “press the EVM button on February 8 with such anger that its current (poll result) shocks Shaheen Bagh”, in an obvious bid to polarise the people on communal lines because majority of the protesters against CAA at Shaheen Bagh happen to be Muslim women. But the current of the EVM button must have reached BJP headquarters this morning and Amit Shah himself might be feeling the biggest political shock of his political career.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was expected to be sober and sophisticated in his use of words, abandoned public decency and called protesters of Shaheen Bagh as “anarchists”, a word which is very close to word “terrorists”.
But all this did not cut any ice with the voters of Delhi. In fact, the voters of Delhi seem have become highly mature. They appear to be tired of communal slogans and divisive languages of the political parties and decided in favour of development and growth of which Kejriwal has emerged to be a visible symbol. The voters of Delhi have busted the fake claim of BJP leaders to be the sole champions of being nationalists and patriots. When the country is facing economic crisis, severe unemployment, cut in salaries across all corporates and rising inflation, BJP tried to deflect attention from these real issues and instead, tried to polarise the osicety for political gains. But the voters badly rejected its policies that have resulted in lakhs of women all over the country sitting on ‘dharna’against the contentions CAA in this chilling winter.
In the last few years, voters in several other states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra have rejected BJP and voted Congress and latter’s political allies to power. In Haryana, BJP lost but managed to form its government with support from Jannayak Janata Party of Dushyant Chautala.
Shaheen Bagh that emerged as the symbol of secularism and multi-cultural identity of India as also the idea of India and a symbol of powerful resistance to fascism and extreme communalism has finally won against the politics of hatred and Islamophobia.
Courtesy: India Tomorrow
