Modi, Rahul and Parliament: ‘Black Colour Takes no Other Hue’

There is a popular proverb in Bengali that says that the colour ‘black takes no other hue’ or ‘the leopard cannot change its spots’. The proverb states an eternal truth about the caste system in India and the basic instinct of someone wicked. Once a person is born in a so-called ‘low caste’ family, he or she has to face life-long suffering, and even after death. The body of a so-called ‘untouchable’ is not touched for burnt by so-called ‘upper caste’ people. Social scientists have abundantly spoken about this rigid character of the caste system. Even Swami Vivekananda, the greatest monk of Hinduism, has reiterated this.

“In our country if somebody is born in a low caste, he has no hope to live--he is gone (destined to ruin). Come and see, one fourth of the people of Travancore, which witnesses the highest degree of priestly oppression in India and where the Brahmins are the owners of all lands, have converted to Christianity. Also see that thousands of Parias of Madras have become Christians, just due to lack of sympathy and compassion from the Hindus. Do not think that they embrace conversion only for livelihood; it is for the lack of our compassion,” (loose translation from Bengali).

That is why it is said that caste persists even after death. So is the dirt or filth that does not go even after repeated washing. In Sanskrit, it is said: ‘angarah shatadhouten malinatwang na munchati’, meaning black colour will take no other hue.

In an article published immediately after the sixth phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it was suggested that going by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statements made in the course of his election campaigns, we need to change author Mark Twain’s famous statement ‘lies, damned lies and statistics’ to ‘Lies, damned lies, statistics, Modi speech’. It implied that Modi’s statements were more unreliable than statistics. While trying to guess the outcome after six rounds of elections, Ajay Umat, a Gujarat-based journalist, predicted that “panho ochho padse” -- the width of the cloth will turn out to be inadequate. Modi understood the content of this metaphor well, and thought of making good by amplifying his campaign with slogans about programmes like Viksit Bharat. One of these was ‘Modi desher-ee janya’ -- meaning Modi is only for the country. The reaction of many people was that Modi cannot be for the country, as “Modi is for Modi only”.

Thereafter, the Prime Minister claimed he treated both Hindus and  Muslims equally. The view that the ruling party (Bharatiya Janata Party) would face a shortfall in number was then being widely aired by journalists, analysts, voters and contestants. In an article titled ‘Can an autocrat become a democrat’, columnist Ramachandra Guha mentioned the assessment of Anil Maheshwari, a journalist from North India in February-March, much before the elections, saying, ‘I reiterate 230 seats for BJP (30 out of 80 in UP). There is simmering discontentment among the voters. There is discernible hubris among the BJP voters”.

Arghya Sengupta, political researcher and columnist, in an article titled, ‘A victory for constitutional values-Beloved document’ in The Telegraph, wrote that during his travels from Manipur to Mumbai, it became clear to him that voters were struck by concern that their everyday lives and opportunities would come to an end with a landslide victory for BJP. The Constitution, which had so far remained a somewhat abstract thing, mostly the stuff of political rhetoric with concepts like liberty, equality and fraternity, came alive. “By the end of the campaign, it had morphed into a distinctly articulated fear that the BJP would fundamentally alter tribe and caste-based reservations promised by the Constitution,” Sengupta writes. It is this articulated fear that needed to be slayed. Here Congress leader Rahul Gandhi entered with the mantra ‘fear not, scare not’.

The assessment of Maheshwari and others could not be wrong but for the questionable stance of two leaders. The main one is Mayawati, a Dalit leader. It is because of her anti-INDIA bloc (the Opposition alliance) attitude and campaign that BJP could bag 12 seats in Uttar Pradesh, because of substantial (though not sufficient to win) Dalit votes being pulled by her party, the Bahujan Samaj Party. Similarly, in West Bengal, it was Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee’s dilly-dallying on her joining the INDIA bloc that caused a loss to the Opposition alliance. Had she been a bit more pragmatic and less covetous, BJP’s strength in West Bengal and in the country would have further reduced.

Some more factors that helped BJP was the utter failure of Biju Janata Dal in Odisha, the obstinacy Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh in Madhya Pradesh, and also the inability of the Congress to persuade Priyanka Gandhi to enter parliamentary politics and contest from Varanasi against Modi.

Unfortunately for the democracy loving people of India, the possibilities, though so close to realities, did not materialise and Modi survived with the help of two regional parties -- presumably accepting their terms of giving more funds to them for extending support to the coalition. Modi and BJP appear to have saved their face with public money.

The coalition government started its rule in the first week of June 2024 with a bang. First came the furore over the question paper leaks of NEET-UG conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), a Central agency which has been given the responsibility of conducting centralised exams for admission in engineering colleges (JEE), NEET for entry into medical education, CAT for management education, Common University Entrance Test (CUET)for undergraduate admission in Central universities.

Second came the news of a train accident -- Kanchanjungha Express near New Jalpaiguri station -- where the main snag was the failure of safety procedures and excessive hours of work for the drivers due to shortage of manpower in the Railways, was the case in earlier accidents, such as Coromandel Express causing the death of a huge number of passengers.

These incidents led to the Opposition demanding the resignation of the Education and Rail Ministers. Added to these were the news of roof and canopy collapses in three airports, including Delhi and Rajkot, followed by communal violence in Balasore, Odisha, where BJP took charge of running the state government; the razing of the houses of 11 Muslim families in Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh; collapse of roads and waterlogging inside the newly constructed railway station and the leakage of roof along with poor drainage of in  newly built Ram temple in Ayodhya, the centerpiece of Modi’s election campaign.

 Armed with these issues, Rahul Gandhi rose to speak in Parliament as Leader of the Opposition (LOP) and drew the full attention of the House, He took up the issues of ‘Hindutwa’, underlining that co-existence, non-violence, tolerance were the principal virtues of Hinduism and said that judged by that, BJP-RSS were not ‘true’ Hindus, as they “believe in violence, intolerance and hatred”.

The way Rahul Gandhi attacked Hindutva with forceful arguments, forced Home Minister Amit Shah to seek protection from the Speaker. In addition, the LoP raised some other pertinent issues, such as Manipur violence and the Agnipath scheme (the short-term contractual scheme for the recruitment of soldiers).  He pointed out that the Army was recruiting 28,000 Agniveers a year, which translates to 7,000 soldiers, while 60,000 retire every year. Hence, such an arrangement was creating a huge shortfall in the forces. He compelled Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to respond that the government was willing to consider changes in the scheme, if necessary.

With the knock-out punches, his wordplay on Ayodhya and two business barons, and the visible helplessness that hung heavy over the Speaker when he came face to face with the image of Lord Shiva held in Rahul Gandhi’s hand, Modi was at a loss on how to counter Rahul’s narrative. Modi and his cheerleaders alleged that the LoP had “denigrated” the Hindu community by terming it “violent, but Rahul Gandhi hit back, saying that Narendra Modi, BJP and RSS do not represent the whole Hindu society (poora Hindu samaj nahi hai).

The Speaker expunged portions of Rahul Gandhi’s speech without realising that the whole world heard arguments on TV. As per Ananda Bazar Patrika, Swami Abhimukteshwarananda Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Uttarakhand Jyotish Peeth, endorsed the fact that Rahul Gandhi had not denigrated Hinduism, and reiterated that there was no place for violence, hatred and envy in Hinduism.

Being in a state of Trahi Madhusudan (Save me, my lord), Modi resorted to taunting Rahul Gandhi by dubbing him a balak-buddhi (infantile intelligence). The whole House, perhaps the whole world was witness to the “childish behaviour of an old man”. Modi also termed Congress a ‘parasite’ (parajeevi in Hindi. He has done so in the past, at the time of farmers’ movement against three agricultural laws, when he termed the farmers as ‘parasites’. It is evident that he has a limited stock of words in his lexicon, perhaps which is why he is not confident and comfortable holding a press conference. Parajeevi means dependent on others. However, it is the farmers who produce and others depend on them for food. Modi himself expressed gratitude to farmers for continuing to produce and supply daily necessities during the lockdown. Yet, as part of his offensive strategy, he used the term parajeevi for the farmers and now for the Congress.

In reality, it is Modi and his party, BJP, who are parajeevi, as their government’s existence is dependent on support from Telugu Desam Party and the Janata Dal-United. This is because, as they say, that ‘an old dog learns no new tricks’. Perhaps, that is his basic nature. Recall the words of Marcel Proust, the French novelist and literary critic, who said, “Men, their natures not altering overnight, seek in every new order a continuance of the old’. One can very well substitute the word ‘men’ by ruling classes, if necessary.

Modi should know that the principal section of parajeevis in India are the purohits, who live without doing any labour, uttering some words in the name of mantras and exploiting the common people. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister has been seen on several occasions prostrating before such parajeevis, forgetting the dignity of his post.

Here it may be worth mentioning the blistering critique by socialist leader Rammanohar Lohia in 1953 on the then President, Rajendra Prasad, washing the feet of Brahmins in Benaras. Lohia remarked that the President “has lost my respect and of many millions like me”.                              

Referring to caste and gender hierarchies, Lohia found that a “black sadness prevails” for there is “no possibility of free conversation between the priestess and the shoemaker, the teacher and laundress in a land, whose President bathes Brahmin’s feet''.

In his speech, Modi did not utter a single word about Manipur although there were a plethora of issues connected to Manipur raised by so many MPs in Lok Sabha. Rather, he chose Rajya Sabha where he resorted to a “bunch of lies” about normalcy, peace and tranquility, getting restored in Manipur. Of course, he was contradicted by Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and others.

On the NEET-UG irregularities, Modi said the government was “extremely concerned” and was working to fulfil its responsibilities.

Also, the PM avoided mentioning the Hathras stampede where as many as 126 people died when they rushed out of a stuffy canopy to catch a glimpse of the ‘godman’ Suraj Pal aka Bhole Baba and collect dust of his feet in a three-day satsang held in the village on July 2. Reports said 2.5 lakh followers of the Baba had gathered instead of permission for 80,000 persons.

Godmen like Bhole Baba, with a huge following, have largely remained untouched in UP. Religious polarisation and the Prime Minister’s contribution to such religious practices appear to have encouraged the mushrooming growth of Baba-ism in the country, who tend to exploit the marginalised sections.

After the Parliament session ended, Rahul Gandhi, as LoP, visited Hathras, Ahmedabad and Manipur. The Supreme Court has accepted question paper leaks in NEET, only the extent of its impact is to be assessed, people who lost 108 hectares of pasture land to the Adani group facilitated by the Gujarat government, got back their land after a positive court verdict after 13 years’ of fight. balak-buddhi in near future.

Referring to Rahul Gandhi’s speech during the debate on the motion of thanks on the President’s address, R. Rajagopal, editor-at-large of The Telegraph commented, “The rock-solid foundation on which Rahul Gandhi built the framework of an India of the future was the repudiation of fear………..Rahul spoke of how fear has seeped into every section of society- farmers, youth, women, students, Muslims and other minorities and even among the BJP’s acolytes.” He said “Rahul Gandhi is offering India a crucial choice--The fear slayer”. In Tagore’s language, “Where the mind is without fear …”.

Maybe, we can join our voice with poet Qazi Nazrul Islam, ‘That Rudra is coming who, breaking all the barriers of mandir, masjid and church of the religion-addicts, will bring people under the tomb of the same sky’. Let us heartily welcome Rudra.

The writer is a retired IAS officer and editor of the ‘Socio-Political Movements in North Bengal-Volume 1 and 2.’ The views are personal.