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This is why Modi will win the war protesters have waged against him on CAA

What troubles protesters so much about Modi’s idea of India? It is just one thing. A strong, organised, politically aware Hindu consolidation.

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The ‘civil war’ in India intensifies. As skirmishes and conflagrations break out there is so much unnecessary human suffering. Damage to public property. Normal life brought to a standstill. Even, worst of all, loss of lives of protesters and 263 injured law-enforcement officers in UP alone. Sadly, in the current atmosphere, all around the country there is more smoke than light.

Confusion seems worse confounded even among the best-informed. But if anyone is in doubt what these disturbances are about, I would ask them to just look at a social media hashtag that was trending – #IndiaHatesModi. It is full of such bile and loathing against Prime Minister Narendra Modi that anger over the recently passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is left far behind.

Here’s an example from a well-known journalist: “It seems @narendramodi has opened a war on India. Let us see whether he survives or India!” This message was appended to the hashtag #CAA_NRC_Protest.


Also read: BJP’s failure to see dissenting students as citizens belies Modi’s own youth activist history


Uninformed on CAA

As is obvious, it is not that Modi has declared a war on India. Rather a small section of well-organised Modi-haters has declared war on Narendrabhai.

Of course, some well-meaning protesters who have joined in are somewhat exempt from this charge. Perhaps, they don’t hate Modi as much. After all, they voted for him. I’m referring to sections of the youth. But the videos proudly flaunting young protesters against the CAA only show how ill-informed this important section of our society is.

Having taught young adults all my life, I know that they are in favour of all things good and apparently idealistic. Truth, justice, equality, minority claims, LGBT rights, and so on. Now even animal rights. And why not? What’s the point of being young but already cynical or hopeless about the future of India let alone human condition?

But these same young people don’t know the first simple thing about the CAA. It is not about disenfranchising any citizen of India. It is about granting citizenship. To whom? To those who have fled to India to escape religious persecution. The Act is about giving, not taking away citizenship.

What about those excluded from its purview, namely Muslims? There are at least three Islamic countries in our neighbourhood—Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. The CAA is for those who have nowhere but India to turn to. Are there no persecuted minorities within Islam? Yes, there are. The Ahmadiyyas of Pakistan are one example. They have been beaten, abused, raped, hounded, repeatedly targeted, and often charged with blasphemy, a capital offence in Pakistan. Their properties destroyed, shops burned, even their graves vandalised.

Shouldn’t the Ahmadiyyas, for instance, also get refuge in India? Yes, they can. Even under existing citizenship laws. But they would not get the five years’ relief granted to other communities—Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, and Parsis. The CAA does not debar Muslims from becoming Indian citizens if they are religious refugees. They would be still be covered by existing provisions of our citizenship laws. Those who consider this unfair should move an amendment to the CAA in Parliament rather than burning buses on the streets.

Unfortunately, the celebrities and Bollywood stars against CAA, though equally ill-informed, are not as innocent as some of our youth. Some have even posted fake pictures and videos. Besides showing unauthorised maps of India without Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Chinese-occupied Aksai Chin. None of them, moreover, seem to have read the Citizenship Amendment Act properly.


Also read: Modi govt thinks CAA protests won’t hurt India’s global image. It needs this reality check


The hatred against Modi

The CAA is only partly what the protests are really about.

This agitation is against Modi. And his sarkar. If there is one thing that unites protesters across party, caste, religious, linguistic, or ethnic lines it is Modi-hatred. An implacable, unrelenting, unremitting hatred. That borders on the irrational and pathological. But as our spiritual masters have warned us, too much hatred is self-corrosive.

Modi-haters are also united by the privileges they have lost. Earned and unearned. The new India that he seeks to usher in is utterly threatening and alarming to Modi-haters. What troubles them so much about Modi’s idea of India? It is just one thing. A strong, organised, politically aware Hindu consolidation. Such a consolidation, as we have seen in the last decade or more, has the capacity to so alter the dynamics of Indian politics that its erstwhile post-Independence rulers are now fighting for their very survival. These include caste satraps, brokers of backwardness, Muslim bullies and rabble-rousers, regional feudalists, dynasts of all stripes.

As I was writing this, #IndiaHatesModi was overtaken by #RamlilaMaidan. The latter pushed beyond 50k tweets within hours of Prime Minister Modi’s speech. So much for making too much of social media trends.


Also read: You can’t cancel Modi, RSS: Why US-style identity politics won’t help Indian liberals’ fight


Prime Minister Modi has hit back strongly against his detractors. An unholy and unruly mix of “urban Naxals”, jihadists, negative Ambedkarites, and so on—all backed by disgruntled opposition parties and leaders. Modi has accused this cabal of rumour-mongering, misleading and inciting the mobs.

Of course, he also reminded people that it is this same Modi sarkar that is going to regularise unauthorised colonies in Delhi. If so, how can it be accused of being anti-people? “Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians—all befitted. Everyone who lives here was benefitted. Why did we do this? Because we live for the love of the country. We are dedicated to the mantra of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’,” Modi thundered.

Listening to him, I am almost tempted to say that the war against Modi more resembles a game. And he is winning this round too. Even if BJP has lost Jharkhand, the pro-CAA rallies have gathered force.

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106 COMMENTS

  1. The author seems to be carried away by his great admiration for PM Narendra Modi and seems to be deluded by the vision of “strong, organized, politically aware India”. He forgets that Modi’s India is not inclusive. It is based on the concept of Hindu Supremacy. The Supremacy that Modi wants to impart is neither spiritual, ethical nor civilizational. It is purely political and power-centric. His understanding of India totally disregards the Historical transformation that India passed through in the past millenium. The India of 1947 is not homogenous vedic India. But a multicultural and multi-religious society. Parallely, the World traveled from being a power-driven regime to an equality-aspiring humanity. Thus, talking of a “strong, orgaznized India” based on Hindu supremacy is not just an anachronism, but bargaining for anarchy.

    Again, to trust an individual who did not display even an iota of respect for Constitutionality and Democratic values, could not but be considered as blind faith. I am referring to unembarrassed abuse of power by the Government in repealing Art. 370. It is unparalleled in India’s Parliamentary history that a government concocts parallel rules to circumvent Democratic imperatives and Constitutional bindings! Worse Modi went on record asserting at Houston “Those who oppose repeal of Art. 370 are supporters of Terrorism!” At one stroke he turned all the Kashmiris and all those rational souls who support them into supporters of terrorism. That is the effect of the (prejudicial) ideology held by Modi and his cohorts. And to think that such a person woulld build a strong, organized, political,y aware India…!?

    And not to impart workings of such a devious mind to his policies like CAA is to be abysmally naive and gullible. More so, a Law once settled, has the potential of becoming precedent in various ways and liable to various extensions. Amit Shah himself distorts the well-meant opinions of leaders from Mahatma to Manmohan to cover his bill’s/act’s (CAA) Muslim bias and blanket legal and procedural exemption given to Hindu religions. He never tried to explain when there are so many Christian countries in the world, why that religion was given a special treatment!

    • Yes you are right.Hindus need to consolidate to take on evengelical and ghazawa e Hind projets. We want to bring back our lost lands of Akhand Bharat. We want to push islam beyond Afghanistan.Hence we find ,it is Modi under whose leadership,we will be able to achieve our political goals. We hope there will be consolidation of those forces opposing these goals,call it hindutwa or by any other name. Left+congress+Pakistan+chrisitian missionaries+ghazwa e Hind forces can join and challenge us,they can also take help of china,malaysia,turkeystan,etc. the Hindutva jagguarnet can not be stopped come what may.The writing on wall is very clear.

  2. Modiji has presented himself as bully of the bullies. This somehow is not all that uncalled for as, our self styled moral guardians draped in the suit of ‘secularism’ are as decrepit and engrossed in debauchery that they have lost the moral right of reaction that they are venting. But all these good and fine if he had delivered on the economic front. In fact, Modiji is unwittingly or, may be covertly, engineering the inequality in the society by lavishing the hard earned national wealth on the Ambanis and the Adanis. The Modiji’s coming good even with his bullying tactics at the opposition can only happen if he has some innovative ways at place to soothe the economic agony. I for myself would suggest Modiji to use the startling discoveries made by the Bengal scientists in many areas whose resukltants combine to help the happiness index surge manifold.

  3. THE AUTHOR’S PREJUDICE IN FAVOUR OF MODI AND HIS LESS THAN PALLID PERFORMANCE IS SPECTACULAR. EVEN AS MODI WON BASED ESSENTIALLY ON STOKING FEARS ABOUT NATIONAL SECURITY THE OPPOSITION WENT SUBDUED . COME MODI 2.0 ALL ILLS OF ECONOMY WHICH MODI SMARTLY MANAGED TO CONCEAL STARTED TUMBLING OUT OF THE CUPBOARD . MODI COULD NO WAY HAVE DEFENDED ECONOMY SINKING INTO QUICK SAND , HUMONGOUS JOB LOSSES LEAVE ALONE THE PROMISED UTOPIAN 20 MILLION JOBS A YEAR AND HYPOCRISY OF MODI’S ” SAB KA SAATH SAB KA VIKAS” WHEN HIS PARTY MEN STARTED GARLANDING AND DRAPING INDIAN NATIONAL FLAG ON THE DEAD BODIES OF THOSE ACCUSED OF LYNCHING. OUT CAME THE GENIE OF CITIZENSHIP ACT AND THE WHOLE OF INDIA’S ATTENTION IS DIVERTED AS NEVER BEFORE . TODAY INDIA SEEMS TO HAVE BECOME A PARODY OF DEMOCRACY WITH EVEN JUDICIARY NOT INSPIRING CONFIDENCE -AYODHYA AND DRAGGING OF FEET ON KASHMIR ARE PRIME EXAMPLES . WHEN VIDEOS OF LYNCHING ARE BEING CIRCULATED & THE ” LYNCHERS” ARE VALORISED AND APPLAUDED AND FOLLOWED ON SOCIAL MEDIA HOW CAN LAW ABIDING PEOPLE, LEAVE ALONE MINORITIES, LIVE THAT THE GOVERNMENT MEANS BY WHAT IT SAYS”SAB KA SATH SAB KA VIKAS ” . THE TRENDS ARE THAT INDIA MAY TURN INTO THEOCRATIC STATE SOONER THAN EXPECTED WITH SAFFRON CLAD AND “TRISHUL” WIELDING FAKE” SANYASIS ” DIRECTING THE COURSE OF FUTURE OF INDIA . WE HAD TOO MUCH OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ANARCHY CREATED BY TWO NOT-SO-EDUCATED PERSONS INVOKING HINDU NATIONALISM AND SPREADING AND CONSTRUCTING NON-EXISTING GRIEVANCE AGAINST THE HINDUS AND FEAR AMONG MINORITIES BY DEMONISING THEM . LET US HOPE AT LEAST THE JUDICIARY UPHOLDS THE RULE OF LAW & CONSTITUTION

  4. till date there have been plenty of articles stating hard, solid, logical reasons why the caa by itself is constitutionally unsound. and should you bother to put caa with nrc and npr you will understand perfectly why half the country is out on the streets protesting. someone who writes with your level of coherence certainly cant be unable to put the two together. “politically aware hindus” happen to be protesting against caa although the “hindu consolidation” you speak of seem to be fond of political maneuvering – which wouldve been praiseworthy if it wasnt the only thing they were capable of. meaning, ache din akhir kab aenge? stepping up your prose will not conceal the faulty logic you use to try to vindicate caa. and to mention 263 injured and 0 dead policemen but not specify countless injured and 18 actually dead protestors seems to tell that you do know deep down that this government (not just the pm, see how we know its not just about the figurehead, let alone mindlessly hating him) is being a bully. and didnt you mention “muslim bullies”? well, its also the muslim non-bullies, the non-muslim bullies and the non-muslim non-bullies. and “modi-hatred” doesnt unite them . rather its “trying to keep india secular” that does it. and rabble-rousing is democratic, thank you very much. that a government clamps down on the very same democracy that put it in power screams “namak haram”. destruction of public property? yes thats wrong. so after youve set right your underhanded ways thus sending back protestors to their everyday lives, may you meticulously search for the criminals who did that from among police and protestors alike. you seem intelligent enough even if the article sounds stupid, so a question for you. do you honestly think a hindu-rashtra is viable long-term? do the math. and do take the help of any friends who know something about international affairs and economics. you seem weak on those.

  5. Either i am too high or this is not theprint…… Ye suraj kaha say nikla aaj…… I was just reading all these comments… Dekh lo sir khud hi aap RW ko fascist, intolerant bolty ho or aap k hi fans pagal huye ja rahy ki esa kaise likh diya…. Matlab ki insay koi different soch rakhta hai insy different views hai un sab ko ye bhakt, fascist, it cell bol kar kinary ho jaty hai

  6. I don’t know why now they need this NRC or caa.?? When we are suffering from worst economy crisis do we need this act? From last 2 years im unemployed. Doing very menial jobs to fulfill needs. Living in worst condition. If you can’t provide jobs and home to me( Already Indian) then how you’ll give to them.?

  7. Perfectly put by you gentleman.
    I have added few comments in Reply to Mr Kurien’s well written comments.
    By the way you and me know that the two intellectuals you mentioned are well educated in Higher Universities, and of course they are not philosophers

  8. Superb article.
    India is not a dharamsala. It is a sovereign country that can make laws for it’s safety security and prosperity. Go ahead Government. .Nation is with you.

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