Patna: The villagers, busy with harvesting wheat crops this Rabi season and away from the glitter of the cities and the cacophonous debates on news channels, are amusingly flummoxed by Narendra Modi’s relentless bombardment of words against Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav, and Rahul Gandhi for relishing their meals of fish and meat.
They are largely unable to figure out why the prime minister has been using bitter words against Tejashwi and others for eating non-vegetarian food.
“I don’t know what to say. Why is he angry at fish and meat eaters? Anda-machhali khana paap hai kya, bhai? (Is eating eggs and fishes a sin, brother?)” asked an agriculturist cum fisherman, carrying his sack full of fish on a boat in the Ganga. The fisherman was among others carrying their wares from Nakta diara in the north of the Ganga to the retailers at the fish marts in Patna.
Recently, Tejashwi and Vikash-sheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahni shared a video clip of eating fishes, roti and chilly together in a helicopter. The prime minister picked up the video to castigate Tejashwi for doing “mansahaar (eating non-vegetarian food)” during the spell of Navaratra — nine nights of prayers for Goddess Kali/ Durga.
He didn’t stop at Tejashwi. Campaigning for his third term in office, at Udhampur (Jammu and Kashmir) and at Gaya and Aurangabad in Bihar, Modi launched vitriolic attack on Lalu Yadav and Rahul Gandhi for cooking mutton and eating it at Misa Bharti’s home at Pandara Park, New Delhi, in August, coinciding with the auspicious month of savan last year.
“Why is the prime minister using his famed skill with oratory on fish and meat?” a senior journalist said. “It’s not that he is speaking only on meat and fishes. He is describing Congress’s manifesto as a reflection of Muslim League and using the words like Mughalia saltnat and shahzad-e to communalise the air and polarise the voters on the Hindu-Muslim lines.”
Asked if it will work for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), they said, “It might work. If one repeats the same thing again and again it does have an impact on the gullible people, he is doing it for votes.”
Several political observers, however, feel that Modi has resorted to an “overdose” of communalism in a bid to cover-up his glaring failures on the issues of employment, price-rise, farm distress, corruption and poverty. They cite CSDS-Lokniti’s survey which has 62% respondents describing unemployment as the biggest issue and holding the central government responsible for it. Price-rise and corruption too are above the Ram temple which has gone down to sixth position in the table, with only 8% voters supporting it. Barely 2% voters have spoken for Hindutva in the CSDS-Lokniti survey carried out in collaboration with The Hindu.
Also read: Fish, Mutton Campaign for Modi, Only to Duck Mention of His 10-Year Record?
The former diplomat, author and columnist Pavan Varma in his column for Dainik Bhaskar, a Hindi daily, wrote, “The continued chanting of the Hindu-Muslim raga has gradually lost its appeal. The strategy to polarise the voters in the name of religion has, over the time, turned hackneyed and boring. After initial excitement with the Ram temple, the people are anxious as to what the government is doing on the issues of employment, price-rise, education, health and growing disparity.”
Overdose of communalism
Irrespective of the electoral results, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is likely to go down in history as an episode in which the Hindutva party indulged in an overdose of communalism. The election observers remember Modi presenting himself as an architect of the Gujarat model and vikas (development), offering panacea for unemployment, all pervading corruption and scams, price-rise, farmers’ distress, diminishing value of rupees against dollars and insecurity against Pakistan and China ahead of 2014 elections.
Leading a spirited campaign against the Manmohan Singh government under virulent attack from the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement, the Gujarat chief minister became the prime minister in 2014. Though the BJP played up the Hindutva card vociferously, the campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections was not wholly communal in nature. The terrorist attack on the Army convoy at Pulwama, followed by the “surgical” strike at Balakot in Pakistan and dramatic display of Captain Abhinandan Varthaman’s release on the TV screens generated the sentiment of nationalism among the voters, who largely, thought that the country was “safe” in Modi’s hands.
But the prime minister appears be making polarisation his main plank for the 2024 elections. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax Department have stepped up the tirade against opposition leaders, even after the announcement of the elections. The investigating agencies have arrested two chief ministers, Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren, among other opposition leaders and have seized bank accounts of the Congress. But they are silent on as many as 24 ministers of the Modi cabinet facing the charges of dacoity, attempt to murder and other heinous crimes.
Lalu and Modi
Lalu, too, is known for attacking his opponents in a no-holds-barred manner. But the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) boss’s jibes are punctuated with boldness, audacity, wit, satire, deep compassion for the poor and the minorities, kindness, humour and jokes. It doesn’t hurt. For instance, he recently questioned the prime minister’s faith in Hinduism for the latter’s failure to get the hair on his head and beard shaved after his mother’s death. It fuelled laughter in the audience. On many occasions, even his biggest opponents, A.B. Vajpayee and L.K. Advani were seen laughing their guts out when Lalu spoke in the Parliament. His barbs that “Nitish Kumar had teeth in his stomach” and Ram Vilas Paswan was a “mausam vaigyanik (weather scientist)” teased his opponents rather than hurting them.
On the other hand, Modi’s speeches clearly lack wit, humour, kindness and compassion. The minorities feel hurt and frightened when he targets the Mughals for “destroying the temples” hundreds of years ago but keeping mum on the lynch mobs and policemen perpetrating cruelty on them and the administration bulldozing their homes and places of worship with immunity.
Amidst Modi’s claim of “chaar sau paar (beyond 400 seats)”, Lalu’s assertion that “Bhajpa ka saafaya ho jaayega (BJP will be wiped out)”, the longing to live in peace and harmony, too, can be noticed in the eyes of a vast number of people residing the countryside.
Nalin Verma is a senior journalist, author, media educator and independent researcher in folklore.
