In India, a win for communalism
Modi’s convincing victory tells us that communal politics, all that they stand for are alive, well in ‘secular’ India.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had, as most polls have predicted, raced to victory in the state of Gujarat — leading on a vast majority of the provincial assembly’s 182 seats as results from that crucial electoral exercise began to pour in. Most significant of all is the ‘hat-trick’ recorded by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has claimed his seat in his home constituency of Mani Nagar with a whopping margin of some 56,000 votes. According to the BJP, Modi’s third term as chief minister makes him a prime candidate to take to post of future prime minister — when, as the party predicts — it wins India’s next general election due in 2014.
The results from Gujarat and Modi’s own win are being seen as a first suggestion of what may happen about a year down the line. Modi is confident his party will fare well in other states as well and certainly, a string of recent by-poll results for the Congress have not been encouraging. Whether things can turn around is yet to be seen in the volatile world of India’s politics where small factors can trigger big changes. It is, of course, far too early to say what will happen when polling time at the national level comes around.
But what Modi’s convincing victory does tell us is that communal politics and all that they stand for are alive and well in ‘secular’ India. It is clear that despite the terrible part played by his party in riots directed against Muslims in Gujarat in the past — and his own controversial stance on such affairs — Modi retains a huge following.
This is clearly alarming. It suggests that more than six decades after the violent events of the Partition, India has not been able to create the communal harmony that Jawaharlal Nehru had dreamed of and written so eloquently about in his many pieces of writing. Gujarat is clearly still a long way from this vision. So, too, perhaps, is the rest of India with Modi representing all that is dangerous about a nation where many tensions between communities still live on.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 21st, 2012.
The results from Gujarat and Modi’s own win are being seen as a first suggestion of what may happen about a year down the line. Modi is confident his party will fare well in other states as well and certainly, a string of recent by-poll results for the Congress have not been encouraging. Whether things can turn around is yet to be seen in the volatile world of India’s politics where small factors can trigger big changes. It is, of course, far too early to say what will happen when polling time at the national level comes around.
But what Modi’s convincing victory does tell us is that communal politics and all that they stand for are alive and well in ‘secular’ India. It is clear that despite the terrible part played by his party in riots directed against Muslims in Gujarat in the past — and his own controversial stance on such affairs — Modi retains a huge following.
This is clearly alarming. It suggests that more than six decades after the violent events of the Partition, India has not been able to create the communal harmony that Jawaharlal Nehru had dreamed of and written so eloquently about in his many pieces of writing. Gujarat is clearly still a long way from this vision. So, too, perhaps, is the rest of India with Modi representing all that is dangerous about a nation where many tensions between communities still live on.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 21st, 2012.