You must come across a lot of banal statements about how a crisis can be an opportunity. The Chinese character for crisis is popularly assumed to consist of two letters that represent danger + opportunity. Although the second part, the opportunity, is not exactly that. Do-gooders that write nice books on self-improvement want us to turn our crisis or danger into opportunity. As a cynic, you may say your crisis has become their money-making opportunity. If only life’s problems can be solved with a $9.90 paperback. Anyway, coming back to our story, What if BJP can turn the left’s biggest threat into its opportunity?
What I am saying is this: The mainstreaming of Muslims is the biggest danger for the Dynasty-Left continuum. And it is also the biggest opportunity for BJP, if only it is sensible to grab it.
The danger
No one is more aware of the danger that nationalistic, secular and peace-loving Muslims pose to leftist narratives than the left itself. They pose as much danger to the left as legalising alcohol does to a moonshine operator. It shuts down their lucrative business.
That is why the vilest and most abusive form of criticism, often even worse than what RW has to face, is often reserved for these secular Muslims. Many of these people targeted for abuse are devout, observant Muslims, some agnostic and some openly atheistic. But they are all hated with an extra dose of venom by the left-liberal cabal.
Globally we have the likes of Tarek Fatah, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and many others who are hated by the left-liberal cabal and cancelled. Don’t believe me? Just see the TL of any of these people, to see the comments from liberals.
In India too, any Muslim that does not fit the Owaisi, Azam Khan, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Abbas Siddiqui mould is hated with special intensity by the Stalinist left, corrupt dynasties as well as their serfs in media & academia. Be it Dr. Kalam, Taslima, Arif Md Khan or even Sara Ali Khan. Often, when “direct action” is deemed politically inconvenient, Islamist all-weather allies are allowed to do the job, with the left providing camouflage, obfuscation or whataboutery services, shutting off their outrage factory or diverting its output. They are often declared ‘Sarkari Muslims or even apostates. You know what that means in the jurisprudence of WAPO certified “religious scholar” like Baghdadi or even our own Feroz and Rashed Khan sahebs.
Dr. Kalam’s path to Presidency faced several hurdles and ABV was abused endlessly for fielding him. He was also not given a second term. We all know Tasleema was hounded out of Kolkata, then ruled by, guess who?
Left often claims they are only targeting anti-Muslim bigotry and want BJP to give up its “hate” but that lie can be nailed quite easily. Leftists just don’t want BJP to enter what they see as their turf. For example, look at how leftist media plays down or blacks out perfectly sensible comments by Bhagwat or other RSS leaders. ABV is being hailed now but he faced as much abuse, if not worse when he was ruling.
Why? It’s quite simple.
Understand why the left hates the Kalams of this world? They are a threat to dynastic loot and farmhouse lifestyles of their chosen media servants, bungalows and lucrative gigs for left’s “intellectuals”.
These Muslim leaders or intellectuals like Kalam et al represent the gravest threat to the lucrative business model that has been developed with painstaking hard work, over decades. A model that has delivered them power, privilege, and money. And kept India third world. And Beijing happy.
Remember what “our Chairman” Mao said? “Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent”.
Left, and by extension, the families and dynasties who are now B-teams of each other, are heavily invested in keeping Muslims in their ghettos, real or virtual. When they get truly “woke”, it is GAME OVER.
Therefore, how can a man that plays the veena, has no hate for Hindus, even respects them, be allowed to become a role model or President? He is written off as a “bomb-daddy”.
A variety of tricks have been perfected over years – the Ayodhya issue was allowed to fester and worsen, any peaceful negotiated settlement was actively sabotaged. Giving refuge to persecuted South Asian Hindus escaping rapes and genocide in Pakistan was cleverly projected as anti-Muslim.
Yet another popular trick is to use crimes that routinely happen in a largely poor, backward agrarian society with poor law enforcement, judicial delays and ineffective policing and give it communal colour.
Look at one simple example. If you watch old Westerns, the scene is familiar. Someone hustles cattle or commits some crime, they don’t go to the police. They form a posse, go after the culprit and “string him up”. Instant “justice”. This doesn’t happen in today’s the USA but sadly, happens regularly in today’s South Asia whether Congress or BJP or Muslim League is ruling. Ditto if A’s son wants to marry B’s daughter when they are both from different social strata. Victims can be of any caste or religion. Obviously, economics too has a big role to play here. A rich upper-caste man is unlikely to steal cattle just as an elite Ashraf Muslim is unlikely to. Often both the victims and the culprits share the common misery of poverty and economic insecurity. One day the victim can be Muslim another day some Dalit and the third day some other Hindu. But one incident will get wall to wall coverage all the way to NYT and WaPo and the other will be buried and anyone even mentioning is a bigot for “communalising” an incident. It will obviously escape “fact-checkers” list of “hate crimes”. Get the point?
The idea is to keep ordinary Muslims, who otherwise have no reason to hate his Hindu brethren, remain in fear, hate and seething in anger. How else will the left-dynasty business model work?
The smallest infraction by the Hindu RW is equated to a precursor to genocide and turned into international outrage. If the act of one person is condemnable, they should be prosecuted legally, but it hardly reflects on the entire ecosystem of ‘Hindu right’. When such infractions happen, far from dousing the flames, left and its ecosystem actively fans it, sometimes even lighting the match when there is no real fire. The Haridwar speech issue will not be allowed to get out of front pages for weeks, if not months through the extended ecosystem of professional letter writers and other useful innocents while far worse stuff targeting Hindus is quietly buried. This makes even more Hindus, otherwise perfectly secular, see red. And keeps the pot boiling.
Let me repeat. Remember what Mao said?
The opportunity
But as I said in the beginning, someone else’s danger or crisis is an opportunity.
BJP, caricatured as upper caste party has, with remarkable success, accommodated backward castes and Dalits into its fold, giving them genuine power. Not “OK you can be the opposition leader but when it comes to PM it has to be La Famiglia” sort of fake power. In fact, this success infuriates the families and left, whose abuse of BJP or Modi never fails to include rote text such as “anti-Dalit/backward”. They often of course, include other routine add-ons such as “BJP is against women, farmers, workers, students” etc., leaving you wonder who are the 10 guys that voted Modi to power!
Now it’s time for the next big project – bringing on board large sections of secular, nationalistic Muslims into the mainstream and into its vision. This is not just a favour to themselves – they will become undefeatable – it is the biggest gift they can offer to India.
And it is perfectly possible even if you adopt a narrower definition of “Hindutva” as something that represents the interests of Hindus, not “anyone of Indian heritage” as BJP/RSS often claims. Because, Muslims or for that matter Christians, have nothing against positive pro-Hindu agendas if there’s something in it for them. The operative word here is positive.
And in this effort, they can surely bet on one thing – they will face vehement opposition, visceral hate and sustained, relentless, venomous, vicious attacks by the left-dynasty continuum. And they will be playing in a pitch dug up and turned into a minefield by left’s ecosystem and its international partners. BJP lacks, what Prof Banerji terms “liberal privilege”. Liberal privilege is when you march under the banner of mass murderers, despots and womanisers all your life and coolly wash hands with “Stalin mera mama tha kya?” when you have upgraded from Made in China boots to Gucci.
BJP will face abuse of the sort they have never seen. Even more than they faced when they fought for Ram temple at Ayodhya.
After all, unlike the Ram temple success, they can’t even turn around and claim credit for it!
The path
But how?
It is not easy as we pointed out. But small steps must lead to big change.
The path must be through the Kalams – the intelligentsia. And the ground level selection of the right, genuine people, not party hoppers and influence peddlers. Instead of simply letting them get thrashed about by the left, or simply ignored, BJP should woo them and bring them on board. To some extent, this is happening, but at a glacial pace. It needs a significant speed boost, maybe a dedicated top-level leader in charge.
But they are not going to come free. No, I am not saying they will demand money. They will demand something for the community in return. Something real, not the false mirages offered by corrupt families and their even more useless sidekicks from their community they have been foolishly supporting for years. And perhaps some change in BJP, real or perception.
But what can they ask for that BJP cannot provide under its own policy of “Sabka saath Sabka vikas”?
Not much, but here can be other demands.
One demand often raised by reasonable folks is that Modi should condemn the statements made by some “RW” folks. But they miss one crucial point – Modi doesn’t go around condemning the Islamist fringe or their statements as well. Nor does he condemn every lynching of a Hindu or the killing of Kamlesh Tiwari by Islamists. How many times has he reacted to Owaisi types, except perhaps in some election meetings? That is his style. He does not have to react to every idiotic statement by every village idiot.
But that is not to argue that nothing more needs to be done.
What BJP needs to do is, use the enormous goodwill and unquestionable Hindu support that Modi has built up to leverage Hindutva into something that is positive for Hindus but not necessarily negative for anyone else. It is not a zero-sum game. It merely seeks to correct centuries of decline forced upon a people and re-discover their glory.
And that large hearted “Vasudhaiva kutumbakam” is baked right into Hindutva’s genes.
That spirit just must be woken up, given a shine and put forth.
If executed sincerely and well, nothing can stop BJP or India.
