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NEWS & LETTERS,
January-February 2003
Gujarat elections, ominous sign for India
India--In what is perhaps one of the darkest chapters of
Indian history, the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), led by Narendra Modi, the man
many are calling India’s Slobodan Milosevic, resumed its seat of power in the
state of Gujarat. The BJP’s campaign shamelessly fanned the flames of
hatred and violence in the wake of the vicious pogrom against Muslims in which
2,000 were brutally massacred in retaliation for the attack on Hindu pilgrims
last February that killed 57. The fact that the BJP won a clear majority of
parliamentary seats in Gujarat gives unprecedented strength to the bloody
Hindutva (Hindu supremacist) movement in India. This victory comes as a major
setback to human rights activists who have worked ceaselessly to expose the
complicity of Narendra Modi and his state apparatus in the ethnic cleansing of
Gujarati Muslims. The great tragedy is that the main opposition party, the
Congress, ignored these findings and instead campaigned against the BJP on a
"soft Hindutva" platform--this in the state that is the birthplace of
Mahatma Gandhi, whose legacy of compassion and tolerance has been much maligned
by Hindutva’s followers. Furthermore, the left and center parties failed to
work out a unified platform, leaving an ideological void easily filled by the
politics of hate. There are serious economic issues at the center of
Gujarat’s crisis. Since the 1980s, Gujarat has experienced a large-scale
deindustrialization, leaving in its wake a destitute population. Tension has
heightened between Dalit and Muslim populations, both at the lowest rungs of
society. The BJP has made use of these tensions, while left and center parties
have ignored them. The BJP, which also rules the national coalition
government in Delhi, has done everything it can to intensify the nuclear
conflict with Pakistan. Most recently, in response to President Musharraf’s
chilling revelation that Pakistan was "ready" for an
"unconventional war" in its latest 10-month stand-off with India, the
Indian government set up a Nuclear Command Authority to push forward its own
nuclear program. Gujarat is the BJP’s first electoral victory since
1998. It suffered a set of devastating losses in state elections last year. Now,
the leaders of the BJP see Gujarat as a mandate to use violence against and open
scapegoating of Muslims and minorities as a campaign tactic for several upcoming
state elections and the national elections scheduled for late 2004. At their
most recent National Executive meeting, they called the Gujarat victory "a
turning point in India's history." They know what Gujarat means. When will
we? There are still many commentators in India who talk
complacently of the strength of India’s democracy. Meanwhile, the Hindutva
movement has surreptitiously and quietly infiltrated all levels of civil
society, especially the schools, creating for itself a material and ideological
base, rooted in an insecure middle class. Most recently, Narendra Modi’s visit to Mumbai
(Bombay) was met by a protest of women, artists, and other activists who issued
this statement: "Dressed in black, we denounce the opportunistic misuse of
[the] electoral processes and mourn the tragic loss of our democracy. Each time
we are supportive or silent in the face of any oppression and discrimination of
any minority (based on class, caste, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, health
status and ability) we ally ourselves with the likes of Modi, Sharon, Bush and
Hitler." --Maya Jhansi |
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