Apoorvanand 
The Bharatiya Janata Party is clearly capable of pushing the country into violent chaos.
On December 19, its members in the parliament systematically created violent scenes and conspired to corner Rahul Gandhi. It has alleged that Rahul Gandhi has made one of its woman MPs feel “uncomfortable.” A first information report has been filed against him. Sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act have also been invoked in it. The BJP MP who has made this allegation is from Nagaland. She is from a tribal community, hence the sections under SC/ST Atrocities Act.
Rahul Gandhi has also been charged with an attempt to murder. To make this allegation look authentic, two BJP MPs were admitted to the intensive care unit amid much fanfare. The small bandage on the forehead of one – Pratap Sarangi – gradually grew into a turban. The head of the hospital issues a statement on the camera that they are under observation and efforts are being made to stabilise their condition.
All this is ridiculous but equally terrifying if we understand the design behind it.
A clever plan
This attack on Rahul Gandhi is well planned and cleverly choreographed. Since Gandhi has been stressing on a caste census for some time, hitting him with the weapon of a serious allegation of him having oppressed a Scheduled Tribe person, that too a woman, will be useful.
Similarly, to discredit his and the opposition’s efforts to constantly draw attention to the violence in Manipur, a state in the Northeast, and to hold the government accountable, an allegation of a woman MP from Nagaland, another state in the Northeast, of causing discomfort to her and making her feel robbed of her dignity could help tackle the BJP’s failure in Manipur.
All this is transparent and the BJP is sure that its biggest supporter and propagandist, the big media of India, will be participating in this brouhaha and will turn this cheap lie into the truth.
Many analysts will adopt a neutral stance in this and will keep saying that since there is an allegation, something must have happened. Explanation will be sought from Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party and they will be made answerable. After all, two old persons have been hospitalised and a woman MP is in tears!
Till a day ago, Union home minister Amit Shah and other BJP officials were on the defensive. They were forced to give clarifications on his arrogant and disparaging remark in the parliament on those who revere Dr B.R. Ambedkar. It was only natural for the opposition to make it an issue. But as is the BJP’s nature, it decided to respond to the opposition’s protest with aggression.
The role of violence
The most effective way to destroy any protest is violence.
BJP has responded to every anti-government protest with violence in the last 10 years. Violence was unleashed on those who attended the event in Bhima Koregaon in December, 2017. Then, critics of the government were held responsible for this violence and were put in jail. In April 2018, Dalits had called for a Bharat Bandh. Then too, Dalit protesters were targeted with violence. Police and other elements were together in this violence. There was no question of booking the attackers. Instead hundreds of Dalits themselves were charged with various offences.
When the 2019 movement started against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the government and the network of the BJP again responded with violence. We saw violence on the protesters in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. Not once but several times. Well-planned attacks were carried out at the Shaheen Bagh protest sites. During the farmers’ movement, we saw attacks on farmers sitting on the dharna at the Tikri and Singhu border, several times. There is no need to remind us of the violent attacks on critics of the government in Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University, Hyderabad University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University.
Violence always leads to confusion and suspicion. Two sides are immediately formed. And the one who makes the first allegation has the upper hand. The other side has to give a clarification.
BJP knows this and executes this to perfection by creating violence during every public movement or opposition protest. The issue on which the protest was taking place disappears from the discussion, only violence remains.
Since the entire major media is pro-BJP and anti-opposition, it always keeps targeting the opposition in the entire debate and goes to any extent to portray it as the source of violence.
A first in parliament
Till now all this used to happen on the streets. Now the BJP has taken this violence to the parliament. Many examples of abusive and indecent behaviour have been seen from the BJP inside the parliament. On December 19, its verbal violence turned into physical violence. We have seen the opposition protesting hundreds of times before this during other governments. Has a ruling party ever opposed protest in this way? The ruling party always acts with more restraint, but the BJP has always done the opposite.
The seriousness of what the BJP did on December 19 needs to be understood. It wants to destroy Rahul Gandhi’s credibility. It wants to take away all the places where he can be effective. This was the reason behind terminating his parliamentary membership last time. This time, too, we have been hearing the BJP asking to take away his position as the leader of opposition. There is a willing Speaker waiting for this demand. This is not just about throttling Rahul Gandhi but has to do with the fact that he is the only opposition leader whose face is recognised by people all over India.The opposition can be disabled only by tarnishing that face.
The media has jumped into this propaganda festival with devilish joy. The challenge before the Congress and the opposition is to educate the public about this disgusting conspiracy of the BJP. But it is equally the duty of everyone who believes in democracy and the right of the opposition to protest to alert the people about this nefarious design of the BJP. The saffron party only wishes to neutralise the opposition and capture state apparatus. By doing so, the BJP is actually depriving the people of their instrument to make government accountable.
Apoorvanand teaches Hindi at the Delhi University.