Eleven years of Hindutva regime

Marking the completion of eleven years of Hindutva rule on June 9, PM Modi wrote on ‘x’ that during this period the country witnessed rapid changes in various fields. He pointed out that alongside being the fastest growing economy in the world, India has become a major voice internationally in areas including digital innovation and climate change. As regards social justice, he highlighted that 60 percent of his current cabinet is made up of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes. Never before has the underprivileged sections been so well represented in the Union Cabinet. Modi also claimed that the rapid changes stemmed from implementing the National Democratic Alliance's slogan of 'Sabke Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas'. Laying out the details he stated that 80 crore people have already been given food grains, drinking water to 15 crore and set up 12 crore toilets. He shares with 1.4 billion people the dream of India becoming a welfare state by 2047.

Even as setting aside for now the Opposition’s arguments refuting these claims, some serious facts still protuberantly refuse to be forgotten or ignored. The most important of them is the dangerous approach against the Indian Constitution that the Hindutva regime led by Modi and Amit Sha has taken so far and will be pursuing with increasing severity. The prime minister who is proud of having about 60 percent of his cabinet members from backward classes is silent about the absence of representatives of the country's largest religious minority onboard. The question that cries for an answer is why a people who make up 14 percent or 20 crore of the country’s population, whose social economic and political condition according to Rajinder Sachar Committee report submitted to former Prime Minster lags behind the Scheduled Castes, has not been included in Modi's 'Sabka'. Moreover, the Prime Minister is turning a blind eye to the continuing destruction of Muslim educational institutions, places of worship, workplaces and homes using bulldozers in states ruled by the Sangh Parivar. Most recently, the Himanta Sharma government in Assam has taken steps to issuing gun licenses to people, targeting Bengali-speaking Muslims. The saffron states for the first time banned animal sacrifice in public places during Eid. Turning a blind eye to the incidents of minority atrocities brought to light by the world media and the US government does not improve the country’s image. It is reasonably all the more evident in India’s failure to garner global support to its military response to Pahalgam massacre. Backlash is evidently certain when you try to protect your image by banning human rights commissions like Amnesty International and obstructing international media outlets like BBC.

India could not avoid the situation of Pakistan being elected to the UN Committee for Taliban Sanctions and the Vice-Chairmanship of the Counter-Terrorism Committee, despite sending 59 parliamentarians to 32 countries to convince them of the truth and gain support. This is the background against which the opposition points out that the 11 years of the Modi government have been a complete failure in diplomacy. Let us not forget that no country in the world, including the SAARC countries, stood by India’s Operation Sindoor. Global rankings also question the veracity of the claims about development. What is the point of the hullaballoo about overtaking Japan to become largest economy, while the country ranks 114th in terms of per capita income? As many as 44 percent of the population is still below the poverty line according to the approved list. On the other hand, in the happiness list, our position is 118th. The 11th anniversary of Hindutva rule should have been celebrated after convincing people how the concessions and financial facilities to Adani, Ambani and Tatas are contributing to the development of the vast majority of the poor.