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Strategic Silence!

Posted in Featured, View Point

Published on July 06, 2017 with No Comments

Indians have had ceded with silence of earlier Prime ministers.  Prime Minister Narasimha Rao & Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did face criticism for their own kind of silence that they were able to maintain not only on crucial issues but throughout their tenure. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was even ridiculed for “policy paralysis” and his critics had co-related the two.  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was never known for this oratory skills and Congress Party even avoided him for various election campaigns.

Things have changed now. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has established himself as an orator who leaves undulating impression. Worldwide wherever, he has gone he has been able to create such a façade for himself that the audience has been made to chant “Modi –Modi”. Somehow the same kind of chanting has only been seen in India in few rallies. Perhaps some of the euphoria so created has been managed and engineered. On the other hand, he has remained silent on crucial issues just like his predecessors. He has remained silent on those issues which haven’t been comfortable for his government or the party.

The secular structure of India is worsening. Perturbed with the situation celebrities, Bollywood star, sports persons, writers came out protesting under a movement “Not in my name”. Indians are disturbed as in the name of protecting cows, people from minority community have been lynched, and in one of the cases reported from Jharkhand, a leader of BJP has been arrested too. The protestors were able to register their point- that it’s now shameful to remain silent. Despite a number of cases, the Prime Minister had maintained silence, and he expressed himself on the issue for the first time only after the protestors came out with rallies in 12 Indian cities. He condemned the incidents of lynching by self styled “gau rakshaks” in different parts of the country and said that killing people in the name of protecting cows was “unacceptable” and went against the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. Whether he was moved by the lynching of Junaid Khan, a 15 year old that was stabbed on a train in Haryana or that he finally could understand the mammoth of the movement. Whatever the case may be his silence and his statement both have been strategic. The two latest cases send a chill down the spine. Young Junaid Khan was returning from Eid Shopping with his cousins and got into an argument with some rowdy men over seating. The arguments turned brutal and acquired sectarian overtones, leading to a brawl in which the Muslim boy was knifed to death. The same day, in an unrelated incident a policeman deployed outside the main mosque in Srinagar, Kashmir was mercilessly beaten to death by a mob after the Friday prayers. If reports from India are to be believed, that attack was so vicious and brutal that the government in Jammu & Kashmir had to pay a hefty amount to get the video removed from the social networking sites and to get the same deleted by the person who recorded the whole attack. The police officer was left to die; the mob consisted of people harboring separatist feelings. There is a suggestion that he was mobbed because they couldn’t tolerate someone from Kashmir being part of the police force.

Prime Minister Modi didn’t issue a statement on the second issue. His silence was an act of ignoring though he was not was not ignorant of the lynching. His expression against the lynching was neither forceful nor could it deter those indulging in it. Two days later another man had to bear the blunt in state of Assam. His rhetoric was good enough to grab the attention of foreign media too. The Washington Post carried a story titled –Modi finally speaks out against lynching’s of ‘beef eaters’ and Independent Online carried an editorial titled – “India a country for Muslims no more”.  Both the headlines and of course the stories, didn’t project India and Prime Minister in a fashion that any Indian would want-as both highlighted the right concern. A leader who is among the first ones to come out for any terror attack taking place anywhere in the world was found lacking for most heinous crimes being committed repetitively in India.

For major terror attacks taking place around the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is among the first ones to issue a statement. He remained silent over the increase in attacks against minorities till the time people joined hands in 12 cities of India to register their anguish. His silence and then the strategic expression that failed to deter those carrying out lynching has only created a sense of fear among not only the minorities but also among Hindus. These incidents are being perceived as well planned deliberate acts to inflict damages on Muslims and Dalits. Indians have begun to understand that these acts under the name of Cow Protection are a run-up to create a Hindu Rashtra. However, those carrying these acts are not bothered of the impression of India that is being generated- A nation that is trying to evolve on the dead bodies of innocents.  A lethal form of spontaneous mass violence is being labeled as “justice” in the name of nation and religion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi can’t remain a mute spectator and maintain strategic silence.

 

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