Seeing through the propaganda of intolerance- An open letter to secular, liberal fascists

May 16, 2014 was a significant date as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured a strong and decisive mandate of the people of India for running the Union Government for the next five years on that day. It is also significant as the ruling Indian National Congress (INC) led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) had to swallow a resounding electoral defeat despite resorting to a full-fledged onslaught of propaganda outsourced to its henchmen in media, academia, and arts. Unable to fathom this resounding defeat and behaving like a responsible opposition party, Congress has waged a war against the government of the day which is not only disrespectful to the mandate of the people of India but also amounts to undermining the national interest. The henchmen have been following the instructions of their master ever since Mr. Narendra Modi took over as the Prime Minister of India on May 26, 2014.

One may wonder why I am stating the obvious! I am stating the obvious in order to contextualize the arguments I am going to present henceforth.

Let us begin with defining intolerance. Broadly speaking, intolerance is the unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behaviour that is different from one’s own. In Soli Sorabajee’s words,” intolerance stems from an invincible assumption of the infallibility of one’s beliefs and a dogmatic conviction about their rightness. An intolerant society cannot tolerate expression of ideas and views which challenge its current doctrines and conventional wisdom. Consequently, unconventional and heterodox thoughts and views have to be suppressed. That is the prime motivation for censorship.”

Sorabajee further says that “freedom of expression will continue to remain under siege unless all groups accept that people can have different opinions and beliefs in a free country”. This applies uniformly to each and every group, and the cacophonous ‘idea of India’ group is no exception. The problem with the henchmen and political minions of Congress party, and the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty itself is that they think it’s their birthright to even assassinate their political enemies, but a slightest groan of counter-arguments makes them call names, abuse, and even destroy careers!

The first salvo was fired against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the mentor of the Bharatiya Janata Party, as the national broadcaster Doordarshan live telecast the Vijaya Dashami address to the nation of the RSS Chief Dr. Mohan Bhagwat. This was the first glimpse of the ‘liberal’ face of fascism, determined to crush each and every voice which is not the echo of the cacophony called the ‘Idea of India’. In their bid to crush the ideological opposition and dissenting voices, they carried out the second attack on those who pledged their support to Mr. Narendra Modi and voted for NDA in order to make Mr. Modi the Prime Minister of India. Nevertheless, this was nothing but continuation of arrogance, hostility, and intolerance towards the ideological opponents and dissent whose epitome was the duration of the Emergency, declared by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975. I need not elaborate what all happened during the period of the emergency.

The ideological enemies (I would not call them opponents) of the BJP have no qualms in undermining the national security as well as the national interest even if that’s the cost the entire country will have to pay for their pathological hatred for the BJP. The corroborating evidence is their stance over the terror-boat incident as they chose to toe the Pakistan’s line and thus undermined the national security as well as the global standing of India.

It was their condescending opinion of the people of India which made them believe that outright lies such as the fabricated story over the cost of PM’s monogrammed suit would be consumed as the Gospel truth. It’s worth noting that these very people, who are now accusing the NDA Government of peeping into their bedrooms, have had no qualms in discussing the personal life of Mr. Modi. What could be more ironical and tragic then the self-proclaimed admantine feminists making disparaging comments on Mr. Modi’s relationship with Jashodaben Modi? The world’s largest democracy deserves a much better public discourse!

Unable to come up with genuine criticism of the NDA government over any policy matter, they resorted to the beef-politics. An unfortunate yet stray incident of mob-lynching of a Muslim man, over the alleged rumours of him having eaten and procured beef, in the state of Uttar Pradesh ensured that the beef-politics gains relevance yet again. Nevertheless, chilling murder of a Dalit animal liberation activist, Prashanth Poojaray, for campaigning against the beef-mafia was either justified or condoned by the same set of people who now claim to be petrified over the rise of ‘intolerance’ in India and blaming Modi for it, again, without even a shred of any logical, statistical, or even empirical evidence.

Before the propaganda of Award Wapsi, and the rise of intolerance in India too disappears from the discourse, let us critically examine this allegation.

Now let us examine statistics to inquire whether intolerance of any sort is on the rise ever since Mr. Modi became the Prime Minister of India, as the cacophonous ‘idea of India’ cabal wants us to believe, despite law & order being a state subject. I am picking Gujarat, run by allegedly communal government of BJP and pitting it against three states run by self-proclaimed secular governments, namely Karnataka (run by Congress), West Bengal (run by TMC), and Uttar Pradesh (run by SP). Let us examine where these states stand and if at all intolerance is on the rise what the reason behind its rise is. We would consider the following parameters to form a conclusion: 1) Violent Crimes 2) Crime Against Women 3) Crime Against Children 4) Human Trafficking 4) Crime Against Persons Belonging to SCs/STs

 Violent Crimes:

A total of 3,30,754 cases of violent crimes were reported in the country during the year 2014  compared to 3,00,357 cases in 2013, recording an increase of 10.1%. The share of violent crimes to the total IPC crimes during the year 2014 was 11.6%. Uttar Pradesh accounted for 17.4 per cent, West Bengal 15 per cent, Karnataka 13 per cent, and Gujarat 6.6 per cent of total cases of violent crimes. The crime rate (26.6) of total violent crimes in the country has shown an increase of 9.0% during the year 2014 over the year 2013. The crime rate i.e. incidence of crimes committed against women per one lakh population was observed as 11.6 at all India level during 2014; crime rate in Uttar Pradesh was 19.74, in West Bengal 30.2, in Karnataka 29.1, and in Gujarat it was 14.

Crime against Women:

A total of 3,37,922 cases of crime against women (both under various sections of IPC and SLL) were reported in the country during the year 2014 as compared to 3,09,546 in the year 2013, thus showing an increase of 9.2% during the year 2014. These crimes have continuously increased during 2010 – 2014 with 2,13,585 cases reported in 2010, which increased to 2,28,649 cases in 2011, which further increased to 2,44,270 cases 2012 and 3,09,546 cases in 2013. In 2014, a total of 3,37,922 such cases were reported. Uttar Pradesh accounted for 11.4 per cent, West Bengal 11.3 per cent, Karnataka 4.1 per cent, and Gujarat 3.2 per cent of total crimes committed against women. The crime rate i.e. incidence of crimes committed against women per one lakh population of children was observed as 56.3 at all India level during 2014; crime rate in Uttar Pradesh was 38.3, in West Bengal 85.4, in Karnataka 46, and in Gujarat it was 37.2.

Crime against Children:

A total of 89,423 cases of crimes against children were reported in the country during 2014 as compared to 58,224 cases during 2013, showing an increase of 53.6%. Uttar Pradesh accounted for 16.6 per cent, West Bengal 5.5 per cent, Karnataka 3.8 per cent, and Gujarat 3.6 per cent of total crimes committed against children. The crime rate i.e. incidence of crimes committed against women per one lakh population of children was observed as 20.1 at all India level during 2014; crime rate in Uttar Pradesh was 16.7, in West Bengal 16.7, in Karnataka 17.4, and in Gujarat it was 15.6.

Human Trafficking:

A total of 5,466 incidents of crimes under specified crime heads relating to human trafficking were reported in the country during the year 2014 as compared to 3,940 during the year 2013. Uttar Pradesh accounted for 0.8 per cent, West Bengal 20.1 per cent, Karnataka 8.6 per cent, and Gujarat 1.0 per cent of total crimes specified crime heads relating to human trafficking. The crime rate i.e. incidence of crimes under specified crime heads relating to human trafficking per one lakh population was observed as 0.4 at all India level during 2014; crime rate in Uttar Pradesh was 0.0, in West Bengal 1.2, in Karnataka 0.8, and in Gujarat it was 0.1.

Crime against Persons Belonging to SCs/STs:

A total of 47,064 cases of crime committed against SCs were reported in the country as compared to 39,408 cases reported in 2013, showing an increase of 19.0% in 2014 over 2013. It may be mentioned that during 2014, out of 47,064 cases of crime against SCs 40,300 cases under various section of IPC along with the SC/ST(POA) Act (atrocities cases i.e. where SC/ST(POA) Act applied), 6,511 cases under various section of IPC wherein the SC/ST (POA) Act was not applied, 152 cases under other SLL crimes and 101 cases of the Protection of Civil Rights Act were reported during 2014. Uttar Pradesh accounted for 17.2 per cent, West Bengal 0.3 per cent, Karnataka 4.5 per cent, and Gujarat 2.4 per cent of total crimes committed against SCs. The crime rate i.e. incidence of crimes committed against SCs per one lakh population of SCs was observed as 23.4 at all India level during 2014; crime rate in Uttar Pradesh was 19.5, in West Bengal 0.7, in Karnataka 46, and in Gujarat it was 27.7.

All the statistics I have quoted were taken from the 2014 report of the National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs. This comparison establishes it beyond doubt that the law & order situation is much better in Gujarat, governed by allegedly a communal party, than those secular states, governed by UPA and its friends/allies. This is what matters the most to the common man or woman of India. I wonder whether those who returned their awards or are speaking up against Mr. Modi for all and sundry reasons ever wondered why those secular states fare poorly when it comes to the matter of law & order or enforcement of the rule of law?

I have relied upon the hard evidence and not the propaganda of perception, deception- commonplace for the likes of cacophonous ‘idea of India’ group- to make an argument. I would conclude my post with a couple of questions for them.

What exactly is ‘intolerance’? What evidence do you have to prove that it is on the rise? How do you manage to grab all the megaphones, column space, Tv screens, and even the internet and utter what you wish to say if there’s an emergency-like situation? You would have crawled even without being asked to bend as old habits die hard!