Watching the post election NDTV analysis of the exit polls in the great Indian state of Bihar I felt something in me shatter into a million shards: it was the idea of India as a progressive, secular and united country where elections would be run and politics done based on great competing visions of a grander India; the whole idea of Mahatma Gandhi's India lay slain in the ballot boxes. The exit poll analysis was all about which caste, 'lower' or 'upper' voted for whom and why; all about people belonging to which religion may have voted for whom; all about which religion or caste stayed home and why. The analysts didn't talk about the economy, the state of the environment, healthcare, corruption or any other issues that could have motivated people to vote or not for a particular party. It was as if the misery, poverty, injustice or unemployment didn't exist; that Bihar lived only in the realm of caste and religion caring for nothing else. Regardless of who wins the election the exit poll analysis was heart breaking. It told the terrible truth about the current malaise in the country.
Then the results were announced. It can not be said that Biharis saw through the dividers of people, religious splitters and the caste cleavers; they were not necessarily repulsed by the inane beliefs and statements of many apparatchiks of different political, caste and religious outfits; it can't be claimed that they substantially rejected the communal hate that underpinned much of the election campaign in Bihar. Merchants of communal discord and distrust attempted to polarise the Biharis along the narrow myopic contours of religions and castes. Despite Nitish being in the company of tainted Lalu the results, some say, restored some hope for the quite enfeebled idea of Mahatma Gandhi's India. My problem with that sunnier view is that Nitish/Lalu/Sonia triumvirate too based their campaign on caste calculations.
The Bihar results do not change the sad fact that the Indian electorate stands utterly sliced and fragmented into voting blocks being urged by politicians to think only in terms of self/group interest, not public interest. In the face of pandering by politicians to religious and caste differences the idea of public good stands utterly orphaned. Bihar election campaign was the latest manifestation of the persistent undermining of the secular social solidarity among Indians.
The recent butchering of writers and rationalists didn't really move the Nitish/Lalu/Sonia's grand alliance to inspire a more robustly compassionate, socially harmonious, economically prosperous and unabashedly secular vision of India. During the Bihar campaign it felt as if that butchery had happened to others in some different country; as if Mohammad Akhlaq had been lynched for allegedly eating beef in some other country on a different planet; not on this earth, in India, in great but embattled state of Uttar Pradesh next door to Bihar; as if two Dalit children-three year old Vibhav and his nine month old sister Divya- were burnt alive in another world, in the middleages; not in Haryana, India in the second decade of twenty first century; as if Shah Rukh Khan hadn't been insulted; as if his Indianness had never been questioned; as if prominent politicians hadn't declared with complete impunity that any Muslims wanting to live in India must live by the dictates of the violent fanatics of the other faiths.
It is encouraging that some strong voices of protest have emerged against the threat to the country posed by the extremely potent and poisonous mix of political pandering, opportunism and splintering along religious and caste lines in India. In an effort to awaken Indians to the lurking and present dangers many writers, artists, scientists, public intellectuals and others of great accomplishments have been returning their awards and honours to the government of India. But none of it seems to have mattered much to the menacing purveyors of hate. They continue to ply their heinous trade.
The fact that it has come to this can't be altogether shocking for any Indian or student of Indian politics. We hoped for better stewardship of the country from BJP despite its roots in the RSS. It has disappointed Indians-dashing their hopes -by allowing untrammelled acts and words of hate from its supporters. For India's current slide into a near warzone of religious hate and violent suppression of free expression the Congress Party deserves the lion's share of responsibility. While I agree with Rahul Gandhi that Secularism is in the Congress' DNA, the Congress politicians who have ruled India for most of the last sixty plus years, despite their own ideological beliefs, claims and prescriptions to the contrary have too often deployed opportunism and pandered to the castes, religions and irrational prejudices of voters. Such opportunism has severely undermined the mores, values and in fact the foundations of secularism in India. As a result the idea of India as a society with a fair degree of social solidarity and cohesion is now hurtling toward its near demise. The sense of oneness that India once had, which had stubbornly reappeared even in the aftermath of the bloody partition, today stands injured and fragmented.
Indians need to dig deep our ancient past and traditions when differences of belief, thought and opinions flourished unhindered; when diversity and pluralism of traditions and cultures coexisted peacefully and harmoniously to produce our once fabled civility and civilization. The ancient literature and folklore of India is a testament to the unparalleled inherent acceptance and celebration of the immense cultural, religious and philosophical diversity. India needs a revolution, a mutinous reawakening of its inherent social, cultural and philosophical genius; a renaissance of truth-satya, to wrestle the demons unleashed by its corrupt and feckless politicians.
Rise up ye Indians and transform India!