Delhi Elections: Can Toxic Hate and Fear Win Elections?

In just a few days of public campaigning, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has turned the Delhi Assembly election campaign from the normal mudslinging to deadly poisonous. Statements of its leaders in public rallies and meetings are not just violations of the election Code of Conduct. They are, seen in their full context, open incitements against one community of people. That is a criminal offence, besides being evidence of the real fangs of a divisive ideology. One leader was leading the crowd to shout slogans of shooting traitors, while another was warning that lakhs of people will invade your houses and rape your daughters. Both were referring to the minority community. That’s the bald truth, and the straight intention.

As Newsclick had written earlier when the campaign was just starting, the BJP has its back to the wall and would be relying on divisive issues like the citizenship law (CAA) and the proposed population register (NPR) and citizens’ register (NRC), as also abrogation of Article 370 and the Ayodhya issue, to carry it through. These issues are polarising and targeted at winning the majority community. But Delhi was too difficult to win even by such tactics. It seems that in a few days, they realised that airy fairy talk of these issues will not be sufficient – you needed to go straight to the heart.

Audacity of Hate

So the shift to what otherwise usually remains confined to the darker circuits of WhatsApp and social media – open, outlaw hate mongering and evocation of fear through the most egregious lies. And distortions of truth.

It is shocking – in fact, tragic for the country – that Home Minister Amit Shah is leading this campaign, though the speeches referred to above were delivered not by him but others. Who are these others? One is Anurag Thakur, Member of Parliament from Himachal Pradesh and Minister of State in the Finance Ministry. The other is Parvesh Verma, a two-time MP from Delhi, and son of former chief minister and Delhi strongman Sahib Singh Verma. Both are lightweights, and perhaps that’s why they are seizing the opportunity to prove their credentials.

The victory in last May’s general elections seems to have generated this delusion in BJP and its parent, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, that people have given them a mandate for installing the Hindu Rashtra. And that anything goes in this effort. This hubris is responsible for this audacity of hate.

That the unbridled ambition of BJP to win an election can lead to such hateful and poisonous public statements is a measure of the depth to which the country’s politics has sunk. They could destroy the harmony between religious communities, create strife and chaos, even perhaps cause bloodshed – all for winning an election. That leading luminaries of the ruling party, all elected representatives, should be feeling free to do so, shows the impunity that has been fostered by the Narendra Modi government. The country’s people need to see this.

This has been reflected in diverse ways in the past few years. Lynch mob leaders were feted and praised. Those who called Gandhi’s assassin a 'nationalist' were made MPs or otherwise protected. In states, various leaders spout all kinds of canards and toxic lies without any check. A vice chancellor (in Vishwa Bharti) openly says that the Constitution was passed by a minority and can be changed. The home minister himself calls immigrants “termites”. False charges are put on people who dissent. Protestors are shot dead and police says no live rounds were used. The saga of this is endless ….

Whole Country Needs to Watch - and Learn

So – this election has now suddenly escalated to something much more than Delhi’s Assembly election. It is a test of whether people are willing to go with this medieval and blood thirsty ideology which is going to drag India back to a theocratic dark age. Or, whether they will reject it. The alternative – Aam Aadmi Party or AAP – may not be ideal. But with all its peculiarities, it is challenging the BJP and giving it a tough battle. In fact, AAP is doing a creditable job of rebutting the BJP on its various claims and lies about Delhi. It seems to be chary of taking on the issue of communalism head on because it feels that it may lose some votes.

But this is AAP’s miscalculation. People at large do not want religious strife, riots, violence and fear. There may be a section that is interested in it for political gain. But not common people. And, as the massive protests in Delhi against CAA-NRC showed – and Shaheen Bagh or other smaller sit-ins are showing – large sections of young people, students and others, are quite agitated by this BJP plank. Of course, to be fair, AAP has taken a formal position against CAA-NRC.

In fact, it is an indication of the BJP’s losing ground that it has fallen back on this discourse of Hindu-Muslim division. It is scrambling to keep its base intact. It has won at least a third of votes in past Assembly elections. It wants to keep that and hopes that the Congress will cut into AAP base sufficiently to create a three-way division. It’s a really foolish hope because not only will Congress not get any traction, Delhiites are unlikely to swing away from AAP to BJP because of fear and hatred of another religious community. On the contrary, many who were enamoured by Modi’s big talk of New India and leading the world are now disillusioned. They are likely to vote AAP.

The BJP has taken its gloves off and revealed its real face. It’s a 'do or die' battle for them in Delhi. In the remaining days (election is on February 8) this campaign will be ramped up and possibly, lead to even more desperate conspiracies. But the country needs to watch this carefully – it's coming everywhere. So, the defeat of BJP will be a victory for India and her people.