The Bharatiya Janata Party\u2019s (BJP) bags are packed for 2019 and the party leaders know it.<\/p>\n
The telling signs of failure are everywhere.<\/p>\n
To begin with, it\u2019s in the cacophony of sold out news channels when a debate is more of a shouting match and guest panelists are shouted upon and shamed for holding opposing views.<\/p>\n
One hears it in the vitriolic tweets when Twitter trolls viciously attack you the minute you put up a critical post. The word \u201canti national\u201d is too chewed a term for the BJP, and thus a new word is now doing the rounds \u2013 \u201curban Naxals\u201d.<\/p>\n
So who are the urban Naxals? As per the BJP\u2019s perceptions, any thinking, well-read, critical person, the conscientious citizens must be urban Naxals.<\/p>\n
There are serious charges against Sadhvi Pragya, Lt Col Shrikant Purohit and Swami Aseemanand in the Malegaon Blasts case, and then there are terror outfits like the Sanatan Sanstha with their supporters\u2019 alleged links to Gauri Lankesh\u2019s murder. Members of various fringe Hindu radical groups \u2013 apparently linked to the Sanatan Sanstha \u2013 were believed to be planning to carry out attacks in Mumbai, Pune, Satara, Solapur and Sangli.<\/p>\n
But instead of cracking down on the actual enemy of the State, the government needs an imagined foe so they end up framing concocted charges against dissenters \u2013 professors and intellectuals \u2013 and in doing this, the government has not only done a disservice to civil society, but has discredited itself as a credible government that safeguards the pillars of the Constitution.<\/p>\n
An interviewer in an online portal recently asked a filmmaker (the questions were placed tongue-in-cheek) to define \u201curban Naxals\u201d. Was it anti-Indian, anti-Hindu, anti-humanity, intellectuals or feminists? That makes us wondering who are not on the list? According to the filmmaker (who claims that journalists like Ravish Kumar should not go out in public lest they get lynched) if one needs to save one\u2019s skin one must speak in favour and shower praises on the government.<\/p>\n
One look at the interview proves that not only the filmmaker in question desperately tries to be on the right side of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he seems to have completely lost his marbles.<\/p>\n
After stirring the communal cauldron for years, the BJP has now trained its guns on the intellectuals of the country.<\/p>\n
BJP needs to realize that they have been elected for a five year period. And that does not make them custodians or zamindars of this land. Serfdom has long been abolished. The real owners of this land are the farmers, peasants, tillers, adivasis and the toiling middle class of the country.<\/p>\n
A few hours ago a student got arrested as she allegedly shouted slogans and used the word \u2018fascist\u2019. Tamil Nadu BJP president Soundararajan filed a complaint against a 28 year old woman after she allegedly shouted \u201cfascist BJP government down, down\u2019\u2019. This is just one of the chilling and glaring examples of highhandedness of the party in power.<\/p>\n
After shaming the seculars by calling them \u2018sickular\u2019, Muslims as \u2018jihadi\u2019, the BJP has started a new game of shaming activists and intellectuals by calling them tukde tukde<\/em> gang, break India gang, award wapsi and the likes, the motive being that India would regress into a dark abyss of ignorance, superstitions and irrationality.<\/p>\n A few months ago the government was on a discrediting spree of our freedom fighters right from Mahatma Gandhi to Jawaharlal Nehru, then they travelled further back in time by defiling the Mughals. In doing that they ensured that there was no space left in their new narrative for a just and able Muslim ruler.<\/p>\n This brings us back to the issue of the government\u2019s move that destroyed startups and small businesses of the country. The leaders turn the other way when people are lynched across the country, maintains silence on the alarming situation of women and the girl child but pretends to empathise with “suffering Muslim women\u201d.<\/p>\n After tearing the country apart on communal lines and discourses ably aided by \u201ctheir\u201d media channels, the BJP is running out of ideas and looking for new ploys and games that would engage the public till the general elections.<\/p>\n If you oppose the present regime or PM Modi you are a jihadi, anti Hindu, anti national and now, urban Naxal.<\/p>\n After this worrisome trend, perhaps it\u2019s time one needs to amplify one\u2019s voice and call out to the real \u2018tukde tukde<\/em> gang\u2019. After all what does one call people who polarise the country on communal lines, helps bank defaulters to abscond, silently gives stamp of approval to lynchings, promotes hatred in the name of cow vigilantism?<\/p>\n The BJP has several failures under its belt, its only fear is the questioning, thinking public who would in time ask the government about jobs promised and other hollow promises made during elections. And until then the government is biding time and trying to detract public attention by keeping the ante up on public discourses from love jihad, ghar wapsi, gau raksha, triple talaq, nikah halala, Jinnah, surgical strike, “plot to kill Modi”, anti-nationals, \u201cRahul Gandhi bad mouths India abroad\u201d, \u201cnational anthem to be played in cinemas\u201d and countless other idiocies that do not concern the youth of the country.<\/p>\n Perhaps it\u2019s time to zero in on the real anti nations of the country who are making concerted efforts to muffle the dissenting voices.<\/p>\n [The views expressed belong solely to the author, and may not reflect the opinions of the editorial team]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s time to zero in on the real anti nations of the country who are making concerted efforts to muffle the dissenting voices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":2603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"tmauthors":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-opinion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2602"},{"taxonomy":"tmauthors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tmauthors?post=2602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}