Election season is on in India. Disappointing and highly distasteful speeches of PM Narender Modi are laced with the flavor of B-grade Bollywood movies. This decline is significantly much below the average standard expected from the PM of the self-acclaimed largest democracy. After playing hell with the secular façade of Indian constitution in his consecutive two terms stretched over a decade, now, Modi is all set to win the third term quite easily. His apparent victory can only be attributed to the usual toxic hyperbole revolving around Pakistan and the Indian Muslims. It is evident that political firework with ammunition of religious extremism befittingly serves the purpose of diverting attention from tainted performance charts. It is rightly felt by saner quarters in India that current election would be formal undoing of secular democracy.
Replay of Pakistan-specific diatribe in Indian election campaign is not a new phenomenon. Anti-Muslim extremism is the real driving force behind this hateful strategy of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its sister outfits. Orthodox priest draped in a saffron color robe; notorious Yugi Adytia Nath made numerous anti-Muslim derogatory remarks during the current election campaign. Modi and his political accomplices are igniting public sentiments with overplay of anti-Pakistan rhetoric.
An orchestrated war-mongering narrative was fielded in the previous election campaign to project Modi as the savior of Janta. In those days, the BJP regime was confronting the assault of the opposition aiming at the exposure of the Modi-Adani financial scam in procurement of Rafale fighter jets.
Stage-managed Pulwama attack on CRP troops was exploited to trigger the war rhetoric. Subsequent flop surgical strike on uninhabited Balakot hills was projected in a Bollywood-style media campaign to divert the attention from Rafale inquiry.
In between this cunning orchestration of the election campaign, jaw jaw-breaking response of PAF exposed the hollowness of Modi’s artificial bravado. Before this election, the BJP laid extra-ordinary emphasis on spreading religious hatred and the overplay of the Pakistan card.
In this season, Modi started his election march on the drumbeat of religious extremism with extraordinary fanfare during the inaugural ceremony of Ram Temple being built on the ruins of Babri Mosque.
Later on, the Citizenship Amendment Act issue was revived in the media to prove the incredibility of the BJP government. Infamous exposure of RAW-sponsored killings on foreign soil is the latest card being played in elections to charm the voters.
Only a BJP minister like Rajnath Singh can confess the state-sponsored assassination without any sign of guilt or shame. In response to an obviously planted question, Rajnath Singh used the provocative Bollywood dialogue (Ghar Mein Ghus Key Mariengay). This dialogue is echoed repeatedly in election speeches of Modi as well. Election cheapness at this level is an undeniable reflection of deep hatred towards Pakistan.
Modi is charging his political rival Congress for committing the crime of the 1947 partition in collaboration with the Muslim League. According to Modi, the partition leading to the creation of Pakistan was an act of treachery on the part of Nehru and Gandhi. It is enough proof to comprehend the anti-Pakistan mindset of RSS. These open-worded attacks on the founding fathers of India by none other than the top-tier leaders of the ruling party are enough to comprehend the extremist ideological make and type of BJP. This also makes clearer why RSS ideologues profile the assassin of Gandhi as a national hero. BJP has repeatedly projected its ideological alignment with RSS by installing the statues of a killer like Nathu Ram Godse in public places. It is no more a secret that Nathuram Godse and Narayan killed Gandhi for allegedly adopting a pro-Pakistan stance on the issue of distribution of assets. Old flame of Pakistan hatred is still alive in the hearts of ‘Sanghis’ and ‘Mahasabhais’. Modi is nothing but a typical anti-Pakistan fanatic. His fiery low low-standard remarks about Pakistan ring many alarm bells about the rapid transformation of India into an extremist ‘Hindu Rashter’.
The speedy rise of BJP to the throne of India 10 years back and subsequent electoral successes substantiated the predictions made by renowned Indian intellectual Khushwant Singh back. In his famous book titled ‘The End of India’, Khushwant Singh analyzed the horrific 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the 2002 Muslim massacre in Gujrat, and the burning alive of Christian missionary Grahm Stains along with his children. The growing ingress of extremist fanatics in the society and their involvement in heinous communal violence acts compelled Khushwant Singh to predict the end of India 21 years back. He was too accurate in foreseeing the horrific unfolding of RSS-influenced ideology in India.
The dramatic rise and subsequent entrenchment of the BJP in Indian power corridors has become a threat to Indian religious minorities and regional stakeholders including Pakistan. Modi’s out-of-proportion obsession with Pakistan is also an eye-opening disclosure for those handful of critiques who often question or rather blame Islamabad for being unnecessarily India-centric. It is oozing out the other way around in the Indian election campaign. Anti-Pakistan radiations in Modi’s speeches speak volumes about his alignment with the fascist ideology of RSS.
