Hatred on Bakrid, Divisive Agenda by Invoking Uniform Civil Code is Polarisation Tactic

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started setting the agenda for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He fired the salvo of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) while addressing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh. This has made one thing clearer – be it the 2024 General Elections or the five Assembly elections to be held this year-end —BJP's agenda will fan the politics of hatred and extreme Hindutva. Its command and design will be handled directly by none other than Modi. As of now, he is not going to hand over this responsibility to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

It is important to mention here that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has maintained silence on Manipur, which has been burning since May 3. While trying to create an atmosphere in favour of the UCC, Prime Minister Modi said when the country has one Constitution of the country, one Supreme Court, and the country as one family, how can two laws be imposed here (as if the country was not being governed since 1947). He forgot that Manipur is the state with a ‘double engine’ government under his leadership, where due to the failure of his own government, the state is burning with extreme violence since the past 55 days. It is the government’s constitutional duty to fix the problem.

But, maybe, Manipur is not important for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as it doesn’t have too many LS seats and no elections are due there, too. That is why the PM chose to fly to Madhya Pradesh and set the election agenda, where elections are due in a few months.

While polarisation around UCC is being pushed, the well-designed work of sowing hatred against Muslims is going on alongside across the country. And for this, there cannot be a better time than the festive season. On each Eid ul-Azha (Bakrid), both goats and Muslims become a target. Countless Muslim friends of mine living in Meerut, Lucknow, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand seemed low on morale to celebrate Bakrid this year. Rehana, a friend who lives in Gurgaon (Gurugram), said, “So much poison has been spread in the neighbourhood, due to which everybody in the area is in pain and fear. The guard laughingly asked if I was planning to bring a goat, otherwise, there could be a ruckus here too. I know that the people of the society were trying to convey this message to me under the guise of guards.”

The situation in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, and Kanpur, the industrial city, is worse. Many acquaintances living in Bhowali city of Uttarakhand said they were also facing suppressed and vocal fear-induced messages. They don't even want to talk about it publicly – “nothing will happen, on the contrary, the police will file a false case against us. Saw this in Mumbai, it can happen everywhere!”, they say.

This question is not only about Jaypee Infra Society of Mira Road, Mumbai, where an FIR has been lodged against 11 people, including its residents Mohsin Sheikh and Yasin Khan. The main reason is that they had brought goats to their home on the occasion of Bakrid. There was a protest in the society, an aggressive crowd gathered, and started reciting the Hanuman Chalisa and the ‘devotees’ made the video viral on social media.

News channels got fodder for Hindu-Muslim debates and discussions on their shows immediately. If a goat along with ‘Hindu-Muslim’ becomes a hot topic of debate, it could do wonders to the TRPs. The buzz is that ‘Tihari journalist’, and journalists of ‘Nation Wants to Know’ fame have also given special assignments to their reporters, asking them to be stationed at Bakra Mandi, and become 'investigative journalists' to see in which societies these goats are found.

However, the Uttar Pradesh government and its Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who are at the forefront of the race to become the brand ambassador of radical Hindutva, have taken this initiative on their own. According to Uttar Pradesh's SDG Prashant Kumar, the UP government has identified 2 thousand 213 sensitive places or hot spots, 238 companies of Provincial Armed Constabulary have been deployed to deal with anti-social elements, ... riot control drills have also been done. After hearing this announcement by the CM, it seems its not the festival of Bakrid that is being referred to but a riot control drill.

'असमाजिक तत्वों से निपटने के लिए PAC की 238 कंपनियां तैनात की हैं'

◆ बकरीद को लेकर SDG प्रशांत कुमार का बयान #BakraEid | #UttarPradesh | @PrashantK_IPS90 pic.twitter.com/odWv34VQAk

— News24 (@news24tvchannel) June 28, 2023

The implementation of the CM’s announcement seems to have started immediately. Police officers reached Ekta Vihar Colony in Moradabad and announced on camera that no animal will come inside – be it goat-chicken-buffalo. And if caught, action will be taken against the person concerned. The police will be posted there all day.

Seeing all this, we Indian citizens feel so good, don't they? For, it has now become the prime duty of the police to check that no one enters the colony with Bakra-Bakri and Murga-Murgi. Is this really Ramraj?

This the 'Ramraj' the Prime Minister talked about in the US, where he gave a chest-thumping statement that there was no discrimination against anyone in India--neither on the basis of caste nor on the basis of religion. The only thing is that Modi ji and Yogi ji's love for Bakra and Murgi has surfaced only on Bakrid. This is the day when Muslims sacrifice a goat as part of their religious belief. So, if Bakrid passes without any fear and trouble, then the Yogiji’s bulldozer rule will be clouded, and the electoral gimmick of Modiji's UCC will be stuck.

If one looks back carefully at the past few years, every festival goes through tension and propaganda of hatred, with different types of violent-aggressive postures on display. It definitely started with the Kanvad Yatra in North India, but now Holi-Diwali-Christmas, Navratri, Saraswati Puja, Eid-Bakrid, etc have become part of the propaganda of hatred.All festivals are being used to divide the society. This is reflected in the slogan of cultural fascism—'One nation, the best nation’. The ground preparation for this is going on. Countless organisations have geared up to spread hatred from Goa to Himachal Pradesh to Uttar Pradesh. The news that arms training of Hindu youth in numerous cities highlights the magnitude of the situation.

In fact, be it the 2024 general election or the celebration of the completion of 100 years of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) after a year — through all this, there is a plan to take Indian democracy from constitutional democracy to Manuwadi Sengol ( sceptre. Polarisation by invoking UCC is a step forward in that direction.

The author is a senior journalist. The views are personal

Translated from Hindi