“The run-up to the polls used to be packed with campaigns and debates. It was delightful to watch, as it was a celebration. It used to be full of colour, even when there was literally one-party rule for decades. Now, the run-up to polls comprises anything and everything that is foul. There is hardly anything to celebrate or worth cheering for. I just wish – we somehow as a society – sail through this unpalatable bitterness over the next 12 weeks.”
I recalled this lament by Yashwant Deshmukh, a political analyst and founder-director of C-Voter, just when the Election Commission was announcing the dates of the much-awaited Lok Sabha elections. Deshmukh anticipates, and with some dread, that the election campaign would produce “unpalatable bitterness”. Deshmukh is not counted among those who are known for their anti-government stance. What he is saying is felt by many people in this country, but making it public can earn you the ire of the government supporters who are quite vocal these days. The government, which has the army, police, and everything to defend itself from the people, now has the benefit of this voluntary army of supporters who are also people like us, who immediately get offended by any criticism of the government.
Since Deshmukh is not counted among the anti-government journalists, his words should be given some consideration. Otherwise, just because you are anti-government, anything you say, no matter how factual it is, loses all value. See, for example, the treatment of journalist Ashlin Mathew’s question during the Election Commission’s press conference, on the eve of the announcement of the Lok Sabha poll schedule. She asked the chief election commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, that while he quickly reprimanded or censured opposition leaders for their inappropriate language, he seldom put on notice the leaders of the ruling party for their foul speech. These leaders include the Prime Minister or the Home Minister. The Election Commission hardly questions them for their objectionable language.
Also read: 80% of Anti-Muslim Hate Speech in 2023 Was Delivered in BJP-Ruled States: Report
The Election Commissioner did not even consider this question worthy of being answered. But everyone, including people like Deshmukh, would definitely agree that she was asking a legitimate question. Yet her question was ignored and was later trashed by social media users because they found out that she works for the National Herald, which is a newspaper associated with the Congress Party.
Deshmukh is an impartial observer. Not only is he not a critic of the government, but he also has the ability to see the ‘positives’ in its policies. Therefore, his words should not be ignored like those of Ashlin Mathew.
He also remembers the election campaigns of those times when the country was ruled by only one party, the Congress party. According to him, at that time, there was no cheapness and vulgarity which Deshmukh was complaining about in the context of today’s election campaign. In the last 10 years, the level of language used during election campaigns has fallen so much, that it has been filled with so much bitterness and hatred that it is difficult to tolerate it for even 12 weeks.
How did this happen? A lady politely asked Deshmukh. He answered that it happened because some people wanted to win at any cost and those who got defeated turned into sore losers. According to him, both are equally responsible for this situation.
This ‘equivalencing’ will make him look impartial, but he knows somewhere deep in his heart that he is evading the truth. Another reader remarked that Deshmukh knows about the forces which keep instilling bitterness among the citizens 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Knowing this, how can one talk about only 12 weeks of foulness or bitterness? It should not remain confined to 12 weeks. The hatred and bitterness that the media has spread will remain among the people of the country for years, he said.
In response to this sarcastic comment, Deshmukh posted a picture of a Rs 2 coin. This is how he wanted to discredit the question. But by retorting thus, Deshmukh did exactly what he was complaining against. There was sarcasm in the question, but is there no substance in it? Shouldn’t he, being a senior public communicator, have answered it despite its sarcasm? But he chose to ridicule it.
But the gist of what others wrote in response to Deshmukh’s comment is that in the last 10 years, every nook and corner of this country has been filled with hatred and violence. Hardly a day goes by when some such incident does not happen, arousing more bitterness and more hatred. Hatred has been spread day and night through TV and other media.
The fact that TV channels are spreading bitterness and hatred is evident from the fact that the News Broadcasting Standards Authority itself has repeatedly had to impose penalties on major TV channels for spreading hatred. And this is not a matter of any one channel.
Another reader wrote that Deshmukh knew how and why this evil had filled every pore of this society and who was responsible for it. The media is busy praising the man responsible for it.
Deshmukh is rightly worried about enduring these 12 weeks of the election campaign when there will be rain muck and filth. But one has to think that when these 12 weeks are weighing so heavily on nice people like Deshmukh, then what kind of experience it has been for the Muslims and Christians of this country having to spend all 12 months every year for the last 10 years wading through this filth.
The Hindu Sena, one of Hindutva organisations which filed the intervention application in the case seeking a probe into hate speeches by Muslim leaders. Photo: Facebook/HinduSenuOfficial
TV channels and other media platforms propagate hatred against Muslims day and night, and Muslims bear it. Muslims are openly abused on all social media platforms, and hateful comments are made against Islam, and this is justified in the name of free expression. Songs promoting violence against Muslims are openly played in processions during Hindu festivals. Big meetings are held in different cities in which speeches are given and slogans are raised inciting Hindus to kill Muslims. Hindu religious leaders make derogatory remarks against Muslims in their satsangs, and thousands of their devotees clap and laugh at them.
Then there is the Hindi film industry. Movies are being produced which instil hatred against Muslims. Also against those who are considered to be standing with the Muslims. The most recent and most brazen example is the movie JNU: Jahangir National University.
The leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, including the Prime Minister and other senior leaders, keep making hateful statements against Muslims, sometimes openly and sometimes covertly. As the elections approach, the number of such speeches increases manifold. There is a competition among the BJP leaders: who can spread this hatred with how much cleverness and viciousness.
Also read: More Than 100 Sitting MPs and MLAs Have Declared Cases of Hate Speech, Most From BJP
These speeches by the BJP are defended as a strategy to unite Hindus in the elections, and it is said that they do not actually believe in it, but by doing this, they give their voters a cause to rally around them, hence they have a necessity to do it. Two years ago, the Delhi high court said that if such speeches are given while smiling, they should not be considered hate propaganda.
Along with the fact that Muslims and Christians are assaulted with this foul and hateful language every single day, elections are a special season when this hatred flourishes. Muslims brace for the election season when it is considered fair to produce, use anti-Muslim hatred as a tool to stitch together a Hindu vote bank.
Muslims and, to some extent, Christians have been facing this hatred for the last 10 years. Have Sikhs been spared? How have Muslims and Sikhs and Christians been sailing through this sea of hatred? Has Yashwant Deshmukh ever asked this question?
With all this on my mind, I was talking to my young friends in Chandigarh. One of them shared her experience. Some of her classmates were partying together. One of them happened to be a Muslim. He was told that since they, the Muslims, eat beef, Hindus have a right to urinate on their mosques. It shocked my Muslim friend. He just could not understand how his friends could do this to him. He is yet to recover from this trauma.
Almost every Muslim has such stories. Of similar experiences with their friends, those who are part of WhatsApp groups of their schools, colleges, residential colonies, offices. Where Hindu members feel free to make Islamophobic posts knowing well that Muslims would also be reading them. How are they maintaining their sanity in the face of all this bitterness and hatred?
Deshmukh is worried about the bile produced in the election campaign. But he knows that elections are not just for forming the government. Every election also forms the public. It creates or forges a shared public sentiment. When hatred of others, in the case of India, of Muslims, becomes the basis of forging a Hindu public sentiment, will it suffice to worry only about these 12 weeks?
Apoorvanand is an academic and an author.
