Politic: What’s Democracy Without Equality?

Let’s begin with a warning in national interest: Ordinary citizens are not allowed to throw shoes at anyone, no matter how motivated they feel because of an illusionary divine diktat. No excuse, not even injured religious feelings, will save them from the clutches of law.

Political scientists have often talked of two Indias – rich and poor. One India wallowing in power and wealth; the other writhing in pain and poverty. Another misfortune has taken the land of Buddha and Gandhi in its grip: One, dancing in protection and privilege because of blind loyalty to the rulers’ ideology; the other grappling with fear and persecution because of their faith and convictions. The rule of law has been flawlessly customised to suit this dichotomy.

Boys and girls, uncles and aunties, don’t feel inspired by the advocate who threw a shoe at the Chief Justice of India. If this man was let off even as he violated the sanctity of the Supreme Court, don’t presume you can repeat the act at least in lower courts. You are a fool if you think you will be merrily articulating your philosophy before TV cameras the next morning. You will rather be nursing your wounds inside a dark prison, cursing the moment when you lost your cool to indulge in the indiscretion of taking the law in your hands.

Imagine what would have happened if that lawyer was a Muslim, or a secular activist having unflinching faith in constitutional principles. He would be writhing in pain with broken bones, not giving sermons to a curious, not outraged, nation. The howling remonstrations by the prime minister, his Cabinet colleagues, chief ministers and TV anchors would have portrayed a devastating national crisis, frightening enough to sink the assailant into irreversible depression.

Does that mean legal consequences befall differently upon different sets of citizens in Amrit Kaal? It appears every citizen is no more the equal beneficiary of the majesty of the Constitution. If your name is Umar Khalid or Ali Khan Mahmudabad, the system may show its uglier face. They are doubtless different species that do not enjoy the privileges of a Nishikant Dubey who can brazenly accuse the Chief Justice of India of creating situations for civil war. Where you speak from matters more than what you speak. If you are Narendra Modi or Adityanath or Himanta Biswa Sarma, you can freely misuse religion in election speeches to mobilise support. If you are a lesser mortal from the opposition camp, be very careful.

Can you imagine Muslims regularly organising “dharma sansads," the kind we have seen in which genocides are called for, or running vigilante groups to threaten and harass Hindus?  Can you imagine a group of Muslim youths masquerading in the streets of Lucknow to monitor cases of “love jihad”? Can you imagine a Muslim chief minister declaring that Hindu activists will be sent directly to the hell if they muster the courage to protest? Can India remain aloof if a Muslim chief minister uses the bulldozer exactly the same way some Hindu chief ministers do?

Bigots would argue India is a "Hindu country" and Muslims can’t be provided the same privileges. No, India is a secular country where every citizen is guaranteed equality by the Constitution. Democracy rests on the sacred, inviolable concept of equality. Are we already dealing with a sinister plan to destroy the constitutional scheme? Is the attack on the judiciary an imperative because no judge should muster the courage to create hurdles through constitutional principles in the process of establishing the Hindu Rashtra without formally discarding the Constitution? Most of the problems will be solved if the media asks these questions, compelling the government to answer them. But the conversation has stopped. As poet Jaun Eliya lamented, “Bas ek hi haadsa to hai aur wo ye ki aaj tak/ baat nahin kahi gaee, baat nahin suni gaee (the one tragedy is that till today, the words have not been said and the words have not been heard).”

Jobs or 'infiltrators'?

Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Tejashwi Yadav has raised a political storm by promising a government job to every family. While the BJP chose to heap scorn on him by reigniting the land-for-job controversy, the sycophantic media took out calculators to expose the unfeasibility of the promise. The promise indisputably looks irrational but Tejashwi dragged the focus back to jobs, the greatest crisis Bihar has been grappling with. He had built robust credentials as a leader committed to addressing the unemployment problem by giving five lakh jobs during his brief stint in power. Even if he can’t give government jobs to every family, he will do a great service to Bihar by forcing the political discourse to revolve around such critical concerns like education, unemployment and healthcare.

It’s better to discuss jobs than diverting people’s attention by raising fake issues like “infiltration”. Has the mainstream media done any calculation on the number of “infiltrators” in Bihar and who is responsible for such “large scale” infiltration? By screaming about “infiltrators”, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are advertising their own incompetence. Subtle and crude attempts to create religious polarisation have not worked in Bihar as yet. Tejashwi has not committed a crime by giving unprecedented hype to jobs.

That this promise cannot be fully achieved is unlikely to discredit him. The prime minister himself is a merchant of false promises. Who has forgotten his alluring promise of giving Rs 15 lakh to everybody after the black money stashed in foreign banks is brought back? After winning, he stopped talking about black money, closing the option of distribution of money among the people. Tejashwi’s promise is not that weird. If he gives even a few lakh jobs, it will be a step in the right direction.

Mayawati's politics

Politics has indestructible ties with pawns and puppets. Nothing exemplifies this enigmatic phenomenon better than the helplessness of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati. Swinging between self-induced political coma and choreographed political performance, Mayawati has inflicted grievous injuries on the cause of Dalit empowerment. What’s a tragedy is that her actions are not born out of her own strategies. There are implicit and tangible signs of her capitulation to the BJP which has used the BSP to suit its electoral convenience. This trend is noticeable for a decade now, even as she earlier used crass opportunism to her own advantage.

The rally in Lucknow on October 9, which happens to be her mentor Kanshiram’s death anniversary, appeared meticulously designed as a BJP scheme to prevent Dalit voters from shifting towards the Congress-SP alliance, rather than a harbinger of BSP revival. Mayawati failed to conceal her true intent as she targeted the Samajwadi Party, not the BJP which rules both Uttar Pradesh and the country. She picked the flimsiest of reasons – the Adityanath government’s maintenance of monuments built by her, instead of analysing the BJP’s pathetic record in Dalit empowerment.

To express gratitude to the BJP government for proper use of the entry fee collected at monuments at a time when the entire country is agitated about the disrespect shown to the Dalit Chief Justice of India is political mismanagement at best. She was not alarmed that a Dalit man allegedly takes Rahul Gandhi’s name before breathing his last when goons claiming to be the chief minister’s supporters lynched him in Rae Bareli. Official figures show atrocities against Dalits increased in BJP-ruled states but that didn’t trouble Mayawati. She has recklessly handled Akash Anand, her nephew who will lead the BSP in future, indicating that his strong positioning against the BJP was not acceptable to her. Her recent compromises, driven more by personal compulsions rather than political tact, are bound to erode her credibility.

The national media highlighted the massive crowd at her rally, projecting it as her captive vote-bank that Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi can’t lure away by their social justice thrust. That’s a wrong assessment because Akhilesh Yadv has demonstrated commitment to pichhda-Dalit-alpsankhyak (PDA) welfare while Rahul has presented a new Congress through his obsessive focus on social justice. The BJP, and Mayawati, know the Muslims will not trust the BSP now and the entire struggle is to save the core Dalit vote. The crowd can’t be the barometer to read the Dalit mind. They will come to Mayawati’s rallies because they yearn for such an exclusive political universe. But they know their political interest and concerns no more occupy this space. Unlike Mayawati, they have no personal compulsions to become the BJP’s pawn or puppet. They have shown this by voting for Congress-SP alliance in the last parliamentary election. Mayawati’s deceptive politics will push them deeper into Congress embrace all over the country.

Sanjay K. Jha is a political commentator.

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