Modi’s “Hindu Terrorism” denial can’t shield Hindutva terrorism’s existence

As election propaganda is at its peak, with all gadflies amplifying their pitching for votes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seen in his usual poll-campaign avatar, blowing the klaxon of phrases to laud himself and his purported efforts to “develop” the nation. In the run-up to the campaigning against his bete-noire Congress, the prime minister has unleashed a series of utter gibberish rhetoric, including his bait — the Sangh’s variant of nationalism — to woo voters. Communal propaganda is freely resorted to by Modi and he didn’t mind accusing the Congress of inventing the term — Hindu terror — calling it an oxymoron and claiming that no incidents of Hindu terrorism ever took place in India in its history.

Modi’s obnoxious claim has a lot of flaws but we won’t discuss all of them here. We want to focus on answering him on the main accusation — is there a thing called Hindu terror — to show the nadir Modi’s lies and coarse propaganda has stooped to. His sheer lies contradict history and try to perverse the fact by erecting the edifice of further lies and propaganda.

More than 70 years ago, MK Gandhi, the Congress leader rechristened as the “father of the nation”, was shot dead by a Hindutva terrorist — Nathuram Godse — who had been a member of the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha. Modi’s icon of inspiration — VD Savarkar — blessed Godse and even became a prime accused in the MK Gandhi assassination case until the Congress regime diluted charges against him to ensure he helps the party in fighting the communists and socialists.

In recent times, critical writers like Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, MM Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh were shot dead by Hindutva terrorists nabbed by the Karnataka and Maharashtra Police. Every other day one or the other Hindutva fascist leader openly exhorts genocide of Muslims, threaten to behead those oppose the Hindutva fascist rule and resorts to terrorism whenever the situation looks good for it. These are stark examples of such incidents of terror that, according to the prime minister, never take place.

From the 1947 genocide of more than 100,000 Jammu Muslims to the demolishing of 15th century mosque in Ayodhya, from the anti-Muslim pogroms of 1992 Mumbai, 2002 Gujarat and 2013 Muzaffarnagar, to the burning alive of Graham Steins and his children in a station wagon in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, from massacring Christians in the 2008 Kandhamal pogrom to the numerous mob lynchings of Muslim men under the pretext of “gau raksha” (cow protection) or “love jihad”, Hindutva fascism has manifested the true character of terrorism, even if we leave the heinous crimes like Samjhauta Express blast, the Mecca Masjid blast or the killing of Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare alone.

How would the prime minister defend the killers of MK Gandhi, when he praises both the killers and the victim? What are the defence arguments of the Modi regime when it comes to the massacre of Christians in Odisha and Assam, even though the prime minister never talks explicitly against Christian faithful? How would Modi defend the Hindutva terrorists like Aseemanand, Sadhvi Pragya or Colonel Purohit, when the prosecution lawyer opposed the NIA’s heinous efforts to dilute the cases against these accused to secure their release? Why would Modi and his coterie adopt double standards regarding terrorism, support one form and oppose another, if Hindutva fascism and Brahminical hegemony have nothing to do with terrorism?

Mr Modi must remember when he goes on ranting over the Sangh’s patented “Hindu khatre mein hain” (Hindus under siege) narrative that it’s his government in power at the centre for the last five years with an absolute majority and if the Hindus still have to remain in a perilous situation then it’s not worthy of him to rule the country as the “Hindu hruday samrat”, the title bestowed upon him by his RSS bosses.

The Hindu religion is a diverse religion; it’s a collection of many faith systems, cultures and religious affiliation under one political entity that’s ruled by the Brahminical upper-castes, who merely form 20% of the population. Since the coming of the Aryans to India, these Brahminical classes have ruled the non-Aryan and non-Savarna Hindus with an iron fist and unleashed the most barbaric violence on the aboriginal people. The Aryan invaders carried out massive genocides throughout the subcontinent for centuries to establish themselves as the ruling clique. Not only the aboriginal people but even thousands of Jains and Buddhists also faced the barbaric violence unleashed by Brahminical rulers and they lost their lives as well as philosophical treasure due to such violence.

When it’s said that religion has really nothing to do with terrorism, then why did the prime minister use the phrase “Hindu terrorism” repeatedly and didn’t try to use “Hindutva terrorism” even once? Isn’t it a clear thing that while Hindu is an identity since the colonial era, Hindutva fascism is a form of terrorism that’s thriving under the state machinery’s patronage in India? Can Modi or his sycophants defend Hindutva fascist ideology and its terrorist inclination with facts and figures if they are put to question by the common people?

Modi, of course, can’t afford to tell the public the difference between Hindu religious identity and Hindutva fascism. The political mileage that the BJP and other affiliates of the RSS derive from equating their notorious and toxic ideology Hindutva with Hindu religious identity can’t be sustained once the broad differences between the two are shown to the people. Though Hindutva terrorism and Brahminical terrorism have wiped out thousands from the world, however, during elections, to polarise the common Hindus, only the Islamophobic card is played by the RSS and the BJP.

Even though he said a part of the truth, ie of not relating a religion or identity with the threat of terrorism, Modi actually tried hard to cover up the grotesque face of Hindutva fascist terrorism. It’s the task of the democratic, progressive and secular forces to reveal the truth to the people so that they can ask more questions to Modi, which would force him to flee from one place to another, as answering real questions is something that Modi is allergic to. Hindu religious identity isn’t the enemy of the Indian people, but the corporate lackey, pro-feudal Hindutva fascism definitely is, which the common people, mostly Hindus, have to defeat by strongly resisting the caravan of Modi and his coterie.