The Five State Results and Afzal Sena

The recent elections in five states have upended the primary media narrative around BJP winning, yet again! However, the narrative in the mainstream media remains the same. The talk, the stories, the reasonings behind the results steadfastly orbits around the black hole of Secularism and Hindutva. That's not surprising, obviously. The mainstream media missed out on the rise of Modi in 2014. They insisted that this is one off. Then came numerous state elections where BJP continued to win or continued to increase the vote share yet it was brushed off for one or the other reason. Then came 2019 General Elections. The atmosphere was built as if Modi will not have majority at all, at best or he and BJP will lose power altogether. Of course, the reality on the ground was far different. Now came the 5 state elections where BJP won handsomely in four states yet the focus was either on AAP winning BJP or how Congress dysfunction led to BJPs win. The results are not because of decline of Congress or leadership of Gandhis. The decline of Congress and pungent leadership of Gandhis are not a secret for at least 20 years. The results are not because of banal sounding poll rhetoric of opposition parties and past the due date dynast political parties. The enquiry is never how BJP continues to win. I mean, there's some enquiry but mostly that enquiry is conducted through the lens of Hindutva or through the term 'Majoritism'. Is BJP winning because of better governance? But Is BJP winning because there hasn't been a single corruption accusation against the central govt.? Is BJP winning because they and Modi handled the global pandemic far better? Is BJP winning because they are building more roads, more ports and more airports? Is BJP winning because govt.'s deft handling of foreign relations? Is BJP winning because inflation has been largely been kept in check for almost a decade? Is it because the so called activist have taken over Opposition space, which may be a grand media spectacle but not so much a political and election strategy?

Perhaps, and this is critical, BJP and the BJP govt. is keeping in sync with changing aspirations and expectations of the voters? And, actually delivering on a lot of those promises, fulfilling the aspirations? 

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The political game that's been underway in Maharashtra is like an 'unputtable' Dan Brown novel for students of politics (Not political analyst!). The way the current Uddhav Thakrey govt. was formed, the parties that came together to keep BJP out of power was of staggeringly unholy. Of course, there's nothing unholy in politics. No one, literally no one insisted for BJP to ally with Shiv Sena. In fact, a good chunk advised them against allying with that party. Yet, BJP decided to go ahead with the alliance and the in return they got Baba ji ka Thullu at every juncture since the elections. And as if that inane alliance wasn't enough, BJP in a brain-freeze movement decided to form an ill fated alliance with Ajit Pawar. That move reeked such an awful odor that even this author decided not to vote for BJP. Fortunately, that move didn't even last for 24 hours. It was, as it turned out to be, a power move by Sharad Pawar to force Congress's hand in forming an alliance with Shiv Sena. Fast forward couple of years, Ambani bomb threats, multiple corruption scandals, Home Minister absconding, DGP of the state absconding, Hindu-Muslim riots etc. and we are still left with this unholy alliance of three parties. 

I had guessed that this alliance will not survive more than six months. I was absolutely wrong. But I am glad BJP is making amends for its earlier mistakes and taking a long view. They continued to make in-roads into rural MH. They fought hard in local elections - from Panchayat to Municipal elections. They are clearly the largest party in MH right now but still shy of absolute majority. Of course, local elections may not be indicative of Assembly elections but winning local elections shows strong cadre base and enthusiasm at the ground level. BJP's resurgence in UP started with them fighting at local elections only. Second, BJP is refusing to pull the govt. down but at the same time, they are doing everything in their power to show the real face of this utterly corrupt govt. The ED raids is proving to be very successful since it's hurting where it supposed to hurt - the moneybags. The only way these politician will get worried about is losing their corrupt money. And as it's very apparent, they have been doing very shabby job in money laundering. 

When will this govt. fall? Hard to say that now. Maybe after Mumbai municipality elections. The indication is BJP will emerge the largest party in Mumbai municipality but more than that, if Shiv Sena gets decimated then they will lose their hold over money they siphon off from this richest municipality in India. The death by thousand cuts will be too much bear and govt. may fall. 

However, whenever the govt. is to fall, few things are certain. BJP has emerged as the largest party in MH. Congress will continue to lose it's share to NCP, however, NCP will not grow much beyond it's current confines. But this mess also means NCP will survive. Worse will befall on Shiv Sena though. They will get decimated electorally. But that's not the worse part. By the end of this drama, the only mainstream regional party that was avowedly Hindutva would have turned into Afzal Sena. An utterly despicable way to go! 

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The Hijabis, the Hijab, and The 'Secularists (India waale)'

The Hijab wearers and Hijabis are two entirely different species. They have different objectives and compulsions. Different history and obviously, different future. The recent Hijab row in KA is not what it seems. It's not about Hijab at all. No one is denying right of a woman to wear Hijab. The argument here is to follow the school uniform, which does not allow Hijab. The girl students can wear Talibani attire from their homes to the school - they may even walk few steps behind their fathers or walk in chains, for anyone to care. But if they want to take education in the school or take exams, then they need to shed Talibani attire, and transform into a normal student. Student, who aspires to learn and not carry the sword of religion everywhere. From the law and from judiciary's perspective, the row is related to the rights of school institutions to manage their own schools. Some schools don't have uniforms, some do. The expectation is for students to follow the mandate School authorities have established. And, if they don't want to follow it then they can enroll into schools that aligns with their dressing preferences. That's it. That's the extent of this whole thing. 

But are these so called students really looking for explanation or even answers on their concerns with dress code? 

The 'Hijabis':

The question for the ' Hijabis' is not the dress code or religious attire. Especially since these Hijabis aren't the one wearing the Hijab. The question is not even the freedom of attire. The real question is, can Hijabis impose the Hijab not only on the hapless Muslim women of India but also, indirectly, on the non-Muslim population of India? Can they impose their regressive, militant and  medieval thought process on forward looking and largely secular country? Can they force the judiciary to move away from reason, rationality, constitution and law? Can they force political parties to toe their line? Can they establish their version of Islam supremacy over everyone? Can they change definition of secularism so much so that Jihadi mindset is now considered as a legitimate Secularism in India? By the way, there's nothing new to this sort of religious imperialism. Whether it's cutting the country into pieces for the sake of religion, to having a different personal law, from having a different govt. body to look after their interests, to having govt. subsidies to travel to Hajj; these Hijabi's have done it all and then some. The list of such 'triumphs' of Hijabis is long and still continuing. At some level, one has to give them credit for being so successful in their mission - they ethnically cleansed Hindus from Kashmir and yet managed to portray Kashmir as a cause for Muslim persecution! 

The Hijab: 

This one is a tough one. Some Muslim ladies obviously like to wear their Hijab. There is nothing wrong in that, their choice. However, considering how in post WWII world has generally progressed, and how the Hijab essentially demarcates line between modern world and not-so-modern world, one need to question the the sudden love towards Hijab. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan are some of the few countries that enforces Hijab and these countries are entirely non-democratic. The timeline and scale of enforcement is also varied.  Iran enforced the Hijab only after 1979 and Afghanistan enforced it after 1995. What's more amusing is Iran doesn't impose head-to-toe Burqa the way these so called Muslims 'feminist' students of Karnataka are demanding. Moreover, throughout the history of Islam, the dress code varied per the geographic region. For example, Kashmiri Muslim women always wore traditional Kashmiri clothes till vary recently. Post WWII, situation started to shift when the oil money from Saudis started flowing into rest of the world. The Hijab started appearing conspicuously across non-Arab world. It became the symbol of pure form of religion when in reality, it only represented the effect and impact of hegemony of Saudi brand of Islam.  Perhaps, the Karnataka controversy is just an extension of that agenda? It will be impossible to prove that but it is not far fetched to surmise that  when there is no consistency on Hijab imposition even among the Islamic countries, this particular manufactured controversy is clearly a political and religious agenda setting by Islamists. 

The Secularists (Jamaat-e-Liberals): 

Now, let's talk about worse among the worse. I mean, the absolute filth, bottom of the barrel awfulness. The absolute worse among all mentioned above is not the jihadi mindset, Islamists or foreign money. It's the 'jamaat' of  self proclaimed woke, the so called liberals, the so-called Secularists that are found only in India. These dangerous morons practice a special brand of secularism. That's because these people are not liberal, nor woke and what's worse, they are so far away from Secularism that the French who devised the very concept may just be burying themselves in in Pere-Lachaise. This secular mafia has certain definitive traits. They are staunchly anti-Hindu, they are staunchly anti-India, they are staunchly anti-progress, they are generally staunchly against anything that's rationale, anything that requires dialogue, or requires understanding of context or requires mature dialogue. Moreover, they are staunchly against finding a solution or against resolving any issue. They want to maintain the status quo. Because unresolved issues helps these creatures to survive. They get to yap about it on Twitter, yap further on TV channels, write mind numbingly stupid Op-eds in the newspaper. Somehow these awful people have made into political, judicial and public discourse as well. 

For some reason, the wokenss doesn't apply to caging Muslim women in Hijab. The choice cannot be given to them. The liberalism does not have apply to rights of educational institutions to have dress code. The 'expertise' does not agree with the fact that Islamic jurisprudence does not mandates the burqa! The agenda is to rile up the issue to stratosphere, corner the government, bring the educational institutions to their knees, adversely impact student's right to education and defame the society and the country along the way. The fact these so called liberal, woke, secularists are in agreement with Talibani mindset isn't jarring enough. The reality, as it appears, is that these so called secularists are here to further the Talibani agenda! 

The hope:

But all is not lost. The controversy (and potentially violence) generating religious, quasi-state actors and the non-state 'secular' 'activists' will not be successful in their nefarious design. The Hijab or Burqa is not universally admired or agreed upon across Muslims in India. Time and again, Indian Muslim women have risen above and shown the world their worth. Numerous examples across broad social spectrum have succeeded in variety of fields to emphasize the point that patriarchal structure of their religion can be won over. Similar controversy was generated against Triple Talaq but it failed to garner any traction. Same fate awaits this issue as well. In the meantime, the emergence of Muslim women as a voting block has potential to disrupt electoral structure across the country. The continued success of BJP in numerous state and central elections points towards the potential that Muslim women might be voting for BJP. 

The irony is, though this issue is manufactured through college going Muslim women, it is the Muslim women only who can win this fight. I still have high hopes that this time they will fight. The children of Shah Bano will triumph.