Hinterland onslaught

POLITICAL STABILITY HAS PITFALLS TOO. It allows shift of attention to issues unattended for years or decades. Such issues could have potential to disturb social amity. Some of them are well known to those who matter, but they refuse to open their eyes for fear of consequences. 

Larger worries for cascading effects of political instability preoccupied people for two and a half decades. And they ignored social upheavals taking place in their backyards. In those years of collective social disbelief, nature-loving tribals in Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh were lured by benefits of education and healthcare along with other material gains to become Christians. The governments, both at the Centre and states, knew well of the goings-on, but chose to become silent approver or collaborator at some places.  

That the Christian Missionaries savoured poverty of tribals in India's hinterland is a fact commonly known. And the manner in which tribals of Jharkhand and other states turned Christians is brazen to speak the least of the Missionaries. Also, to say that Missionaries broke all the rules of the book will be just an under-statement, for they in the process showed that they had least respect for India's Constitution. 

In Congress they found a benign political patron. And, the Missionaries went about their proselytizing jobs in the hinterland with impunity, while Sonia Gandhi remote-controlled the Manmohan Singh government for a decade. The Congress rule earlier in a few of the states directly (Andhra Pradesh) and in proxy (Jharkhand) gave them the kind of hunting ground for proselytizing they just dreamt for.   

Yet, tipping point came after the emboldened Missionaries began targetting Dalits for conversions. And their brazenness brought them at staring glance of those who sought out to defeat their designs through their own trade in the tribal land.

Incidentally, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, an affiliate group of Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS), had been trying to slow down conversions of tribals with their educational activities in Jharkhand and Chattisgarh. Former Jharkhand chief minister Babu Lal Marandi is a product of this RSS offshoot, besides many others. However, it could not match the wherewithal of the Missionaries who could afford to bribe the poor in lieu of change of religion with the might of foreign fund flow. And the foreign fund flow ballooned in the last one decade, with Sonia Gandhi making the Manmohan Singh government bend to the extreme.

Ironically, Manmohan Singh had questioned the NGOs getting foreign funds after they tried to stall the Koodankoolam Nuclear Power Plant and many such bodes came under the scanner of the FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act). The Centre ensured fund flow squeeze. But no such clampdown happened on those brazenly carrying out conversions by the UPA government for a decade.

HOWEVER, the BJP with Narendra Modi changed the status quo. And the Christian zealots had since been angry with Modi. They are yet to fathom how could a Hindu "hawk" become Prime Minister of the country. 

K V Thomas

Prof. K. V. Thomas is one such Christian Congress leader from Kerala. He became Union minister in Monmohan Singh Cabinet by taking care of Sonia Gandhi's taste buds. Congress leaders would tell gleefully, that Thomas would bring freshwater fishes to 10, Janpath straight from Kerala for years, and the reward later ensued in him becoming a minister. 

Now, he's an angry man.
  
"He's a dictator. Can you believe, this government sent non-Catholics to represent India when two Indians were canonized by the Pope. Earlier, only Catholics were sent. I called up Sushma Swaraj to tell her that never ever non-Catholics had been sent to Pope, but she was unaware of who had made the decision and was helpless. Only one man calls shot in this government and he's is Modi," ranted Thomas.

Incidentally, Thomas is not a solitary angry bird. Sonia Gandhi had been more angry than him and any other Congress leaders. Her eagerness to rally her MPs and those of the Trinamool Congress in the Lok Sabha to create ruckus has been noticed on numerous occasions.   

And she finally succeeded during the Winter session of the Parliament to paralyse the Rajya Sabha, with the CBI stung Trinamool Congress more than willing to eat out of Sonia Gandhi's hands. The Mamata Banerjee brigade along with the Congress paralyzed the Rajya Sabha on an alleged incident of re-conversion,which allegedly took place in Agra in Uttar Pradesh. Taking part in a discussion on the same issue, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav refuted any tension in his state and wondered why was it being discussed in the Lower House. 

COMING Coming back to the issue of conversions and simmering tensions, the Congress must take credit for exponential rise of Christian population in the country. The Congress prepared the grounds for the Missionaries for their proselytizing activities by keeping education and health care infrastructure moth-eaten.   

Children in this country are at the mercy of the Missionary schools for their education. The poor in the hinterland can not access reliable health care except for those offered by the Missionaries. And there is no free lunch in the world is not lost on these evangelical zealots. They've extracted the price by swelling their numbers. And the governments, both at the Centre and in the states, have done just lip services to these twin areas, which make people, especially the poor, vulnerable. And, it's to the credit of the Congress, that people in this country largely are at the mercy of the Missionary schools and nursing homes for the basic needs.

Going forward, there may be more confrontation among the offshoots of the RSS and the Christian zealots. The design to proselytize can not be defeated by replicating the modus operandi for lack of financial muscle. So, the war will need to be won at the psychological level, that by the use of the muscle.

And, it's true, that the lack of monetary wherewithal could well be compensated by that of the muscle. That seems to be the strategy now to turn away the tidal wave of religious conversions.

Postscript:

ARTICLE 25 of the Indian Constitution grants the freedom to practice and preach one's faith. No right comes without reasonable restrictions, which in the case of preaching (and promoting religion) is that there should not be any inducements. The Central government never bothered to codify these restrictions. But the state of Odisha did it first followed by Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand would soon do it. 

"My freedom ends when my elbow touches someone else's body,"

Bhartruhari Mahatab

said erudite BJD MP in Lok Sabha Bhartruhari Mahatab, while taking part in a discussion on the issue of conversion. 

He detailed extensive conversions of tribals in South Odisha carried out by the Missionaries and explained how the anti-conversion law enacted by the state has now become a role model for other states.  

The elbow has not just touched, but bruised others. 

And that calls upon the Centre to enact a strong law to define and codify room for the elbow to swing.

Besides, there is a strong need with the right intention to block the foreign fund flow for religious conversions and let there be a CAG audit of all the religious bodies receiving donations from abroad in the last one decade.  

Nehru: A forgotten icon

HISTORIAN'S pen and surgeon's knife are a lot similar, for both know no emotions.

Elders rightly lament that history had been unkind to Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru. But an argumentative and cynical India finds no hero in Nehru now. And he makes for no political capital either. Nehru's statesmanship and his fashion style may appeal those in power, but the mass has moved away from him. This blogger seeks to put Nehru in today's perspective.   

WHILE travelling in a car to a political rally, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru's eyes caught a wall poster claiming a Congress candidate for the Kerala Assembly elections having committed financial irregularity. He was headed for a rally to boost chances of that candidate only. On stage with the candidate in question in tow, Nehru told his audience, that he would no more be the Congress candidate and asked people to choose a better alternative. 

The crowd was in disbelief, but that was the character of Nehru, who sought spotless characters of people in politics. Nehru would have been a misfit in today's politics. The current practice of "ends justify all" was alien to his brand of politics, as "means" was much more important to him. 

Those who were young in Nehru's time and now pushed by age to that painful reflective phase of their lives recall India's first Prime Minister as a true democrat. Surely, he earned rare contradictions in his political life when he dismissed the Left led Karala government and later put Sheikh Abdullah in jail. 

Yet, he was not only tolerant but even receptive to the Opposition voices. That he encouraged leaders of his time to express their opinion freely is well known and fill pages of the golden history of Modern India. His praise and appreciation for the then young Atal Bihari Vajpayee is now legendary and his prophecy of his becoming Prime Minister one day came true three decades after his death.

But history has not been kind to Nehru. His contribution in building Modern India is no less than that of Mahatma Gandhi in winning freedom for the country. On closer examination, it may emerge that history is less kind to those who wield power. And Gandhi was the supreme leader of India till his death, but never occupied a seat of power. In contrast, Nehru led the provisional government even before Independence and made many enemies. 

True to the characters of youth, Nehru did differ from the painfully slow method of Gandhi to win freedom for the country. That he subordinated his angst to the ideals of Gandhi is well documented. He, arguably, did not believe in the Gandhian method to polarize Muslims for the cause of Khalifa, that to the understanding of this blogger sowed the seeds of Muslims as a separate nation. Rest is history, as Muhammed Ali Jinna ran his knife on the body-soul of this nation.  

WHILE India insulated Gandhi from critical review by elevating him to the Father of the Nation, Nehru became the fall guy for the gloom of the 1970s. That his internationalism cost the nation dearly in relations with China and earlier in Kashmir bear high in the minds of the people. 

Ironically, while Nehru did not come off in flying colours in the political domain, the nation undoubtedly should be grateful to him for his economic vision. He tied up with Germany to set up IIT-Madras and Rourkela steel factory and replicated this model with the erstwhile Soviet Russia, etc. India's economic resilience owes its strength to Nehru's vision.  

Most importantly, Nehru with the help of able and astute Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel shaped and fortified India. Together, they proved many doubting Thomeses wrong, who in those days dreamt balkanisation of the country (Lord Mountbatten was one of them). And the most important contribution of Nehru was making the people of the country believe, that India can stand on its feet firmly and with pride. 

While millions of people are apparently enamoured to hear long and extempore speeches of Narendra Modi, people in villages in the 90s still recall travelling several kilometers to hear the oratory of Nehru. They still believe that none spoke like Nehru and after hearing him out they sensed confidence in them. 

That Nehruvian era is gone and gone forever. And it was none else, but her daughter late Indira Gandhi, who made sure that people forget Nehru so soon. Her systematic destruction of the Congress and constituting a political dynasty were all un-Nehruvian works. And, she was surely not a worthy political heir to Nehru.

Now that Rahul Gandhi seeks to Nehru legacy to revive his gloom-stricken Congress, Nehru has zoomed out of the box. But he again is misguided, for Nehru no more makes for any political capital for any to invest in. He is history and has played his innings. 

Foolishness has no ends and many fools hope for historical icons to revive their political career. History enlightens and offer clues to issues of present and future. And one clue that history offers to Rahul Gandhi is to embark on a path to rid the Congress off the sycophants.

Five percent politician

NOT many months ago, a chief minister snubbed his senior ministerial colleague in a Cabinet meeting in such a manner that tears rolled out in torrents from the swollen eyes of the poor soul. In politics, tables turn often, and, fortune too.

The tearful man, that day, is now chief minister of Bihar -- Jitan Ram Manjhi -- and his tormentor then was an aspiring Prime Minister, until May this year -- Nitish Kumar. And after the turning of the wheel, Manjhi is paying back in kind for what all he got for over a decade from his political master.

Just another day, Nitish Kumar showed up in New Delhi in the august company of Shivpal Singh Yadav, who has many identities besides that of a brother of Mulayam Singh Yadav and senior minister in Akhilesh Yadav Cabinet, but his fame is for his being a popular political "goonda" of Uttar Pradesh. Also giving him the company was Prem Chand Gupta, the man-friday of Lalu Prasad and not known for great virtues. 

A few weeks back Nitish Kumar showed up at a rally of Jat leader Ajit Singh in western UP for political unity of parties smashed by the Narendra Modi wave. That commitment for political unity lasted only a few days, as Mulayam Singh Yadav found no space at his home for the Jat leader. That should sufficiently speak of the political convictions of Nitish Kumar and his restlessness to leapfrog to the national limelight again.

A month after the May verdict on Lok Sabha elections, a mentor and man instrumental in propping up Nitish Kumar as CM of Bihar had this to say: "It was his personal ambition that Nitish helped Narendra Modi's cause in becoming BJP's PM candidate. If we -- JD (U) -- had not snapped ties with the BJP, Modi may not have bulldozed through his party to become the PM candidate. We were a bone stuck in BJP's throat and snapping ties with the party we ourselves helped Modi. It was not ideology but a personal decision to break away from the BJP."

DID Nitish Kumar really believe he could have been a PM candidate? The media is conditioned to patterns, and most believed people can not give majority to a party at the Centre, that too to the BJP. And they drummed up the Nitish Kumar card since 2012 as the acceptable face for the PM post. "Yes, he not only believed, but had started living the dream. And a number of BJP leaders had helped him believe this dream," the mentor-turned-senior leader of the JD (U) told this blogger.  

Nitish Kumar not only lived the dream, but turned destructive to nurse his personal enmity with Narendra Modi. And, he continues to find ways and means to gather the strength to challenge his political turned personal enemy -- Narendra Modi.

"Nitish Kumar never forgives any and can wait for years to take revenge," Sabir Ali, once a close confidante of Nitish Kumar and former Rajya Sabha MP said when asked to spell out five negative features of former Bihar chief minister. His personal ego overwhelms other issues and carries arrogance in party and administrative works, said Ali, while listing the negatives.

On the positive, of course, Ali credits Nitish Kumar to be a pleasant person for whom smile comes naturally. "He told me once that even if a CIA agent spends whole day with him, he would fail to take out any secret," Ali quoted Nitish Kumar having told him about his art of keeping secrets. 

And for that matter, Lalu Prasad never tired of saying for over a decade that "while all have teeth in their mouths, Nitish Kumar had them in his stomach". Lalu Prasad's description was not for Nitish Kumar's art of keeping secrets, but for his guile. But enemy of an enemy is a friend in politics, and both are now family. That bonding obviously has happened after politics took a turn hostile to their brand of politics.

THOSE who have seen Nitish Kumar from close quarters also state that he is a man of few friends. And that cripples his worldview. For that matter, his eyes and ears were two persons for at least a year running into the May Lok Sabha elections -- Pawan Kumar Verma, an unlikely person from the background of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and a prominent journalist, who wears and smokes socialism to an extent that the changing wind easily gives him a slip. 

These two made Nitish Kumar believe that the Narendra Modi wave was all about the one pumped through a "blower". And people heard him his denial of changing winds in politics. He had been blinded by the blindness of his two friends. Such blindness is attitudinal for which, sadly, there is hardly any cure.  

Whenever a political biography of Nitish Kumar is written, an apt title for it could be "A political gambler". His belief in politics of arithmetic is religious. And he believed that the combo of Backward-Dalit-Muslims is too tall a wall for any to climb. That Modi not only climbed but smashed it has been spoken and commented enough for any repetition. Religious belief lasts long and still beholds Nitish Kumar.

                                                                                                                                                            

And, hence, he propped Jitan Ram Manjhi, a Mahadalit, to win back the community, which to his shock, had deserted for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. But the gamble seems to be going haywire. Manjhi soon realized that he had had enough of his master and began shrugging off his shadow. That Bihar is hostage in recent times of drama enacted each day by Manjhi is part of the larger political design. The gap between the pawn (Manjhi) and his master had been so wide in recent days that Sharad Yadav had to dash recently to Patna to build bridges. 

Nitish Kumar is restless to carve out a role for himself in national politics. So, he was in the company of Mulayam Yadav, Lalu Prasad, H D Deve Gowda, Dushyant Choutala and others. 

Chirag Paswan, son of Ram Vilas Paswan and Lok Sabha MP, would largely be considered a political novice. But his take on Nitish Kumar's efforts to reunite the old Janta Dal to counter Narendra Modi is worth taking note of. "All of them have been tigers of their respective territories. If they all come in one cage, the fate of the cage could well be imagined," junior Paswan told this blogger.   

For the moment, tigers invite only skepticism, because two plus two is not necessarily four in politics and that too in India.    

Eastern approaches

THE western disturbance has blown over north and west parts of India with all its might, plucking electoral fruits in loads. The gust seemingly growing in strength is now seeking eastern approaches. 

Now that the dust is settling on the battleground in western and northern parts of India, moves have begun for the next electoral war zone, that will be played out in Bihar and West Bengal. That the battle would be fierce and bitter is a foregone conclusion. Because the political generals in the eastern battlefield have already begun their acts of fortification to block the western gust.

In 2011, a temperamental street fighter -- Mamata Banerjee -- uprooted the Left regime in West Bengal, which then seemed to have had millions of roots in nooks and corners of the state, and, hardly any one dared to think that such a gigantic tree could be cut to pieces in such a manner that it would wither away in quick time.

But a street fighter hardly thinks beyond its immediate foe. And sometimes the foe even when vanquished lives through its slayer. That the spirit of the Left rule got another lease of life to survive in West Bengal through Banerjee has been the story of the state for the last three years. 

And, thus, even though the CPI (M) and its multi-headed Left may be terminally ill and counting days to irrelevance, its reincarnation had been immediate and swift through the Trinamool Congress. So, Poribartan (change) was a mere slogan.

Protest in Burdwan.

The extent of Saradha Chit Fund scam is only unfolding and has apparently robbed Mamata Banerjee of her famed clean image. Her obsession to herd the Muslim vote bank has unnerved even her ardent supporters. The Burdwan blast at a premise being used by terrorists has shaken the belief of a lot of people. And, the subsequent political campaign with the apparent blessing of Mamata Banerjee to pitch the Muslims and NIA against each other appears to be the turning point in the politics of the state.

THAT West Bengal is turning into Uttar Pradesh is the clear writing on the wall. Since 2012, Uttar Pradesh under Samajwadi Party government saw a brazen "Muslim flexing muscle" political phase spearheaded by senior minister and till 2014 (May) close confidante of Mulayam Singh Yadav -- Azam Khan. And in a span of two years UP reported incidences of over 300 communal riots. 

Azam Khan with blessing of Mulayam Singh Yadav attempted to polarise Muslims in UP. But he and his aka realised to their horror that the BJP set in a reverse polarisation, which they had not thought in their wildest of the dream. By the time Mulayam Singh Yadav dumped Azam Khan, his party was decimated. 

Mamata Banerjee idolized her foe (Left) for its political longevity and stability. She knew that she could emulate the Left only if she herded Muslims, who roughly account for about 30 per cent of the state's population.  If she succeeds in her herding game, she would not need the Congress. And for three years, the Poribartan had been about herding Muslims. The extent and brazenness of this exercise does not have a parallel even in the usual suspect UP.

For about three years, she and her confidante Mukul Roy were the politburo of her party. In May this year, the BJP woke her up from deep sleep by bagging two Lok Sabha seats. The gentle wake up call turned into horror, after the BJP won a byelection for state Assembly. The horror  now threatens to turn into a nightmare. Because, the western gust is not just at her doorstep, but sweeping through her state in a gentle wind, with promises to gain more strength.

Realizing she is in a spot, Mamata Banerjee made Mulul Roy at whose residence she loved to play piano for hours a scapegoat and dumped him. Her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, an MP, is now in the forefront of her party, with insiders sensing birth of another political dynasty. And all those who were keeping distance from her due to Mukul Roy is now enjoying pleasant bout of mood swing of Mamata Banerjee. 

But two years may not be enough to undo a course which ran for three years. For those three years have ended the political monopoly. 

NITISH Kumar trusted his Mahadalit constituency. He believed that Mahadalits and Muslims would ensure his further run in Bihar politics. The May verdict proved, he was wrong. That he did not sense the changing wind was for his two ears being hostage to Pawan Verma and a Delhi based journalist. He sensed too late, that he had lent his ears to those who had no ear to ground. 

He thought, he could survive in Bihar if he could hide behind a political shikhandi and he found one in Jitan Ram

Teachers lathicharhed in Patna

Manjhi, a Mahadalit. Nitish Kumar may have bought a few more days to discover strategy to save his political clout, but his decision to prop up Manjhi pushed Bihar into greater disarray. 

The political caste is changing and is no more herding. And, it has been none other than Dalits, who bolted first. They reason, that they had been electing people from their caste for decades, but barring community pride no other tangible benefit came their ways. And, hence, they voted for the BJP in UP and Bihar in sizable numbers. Therefore, Jitan Ram Manjhi may turn out to be an effective political shikhandi but may not stop the inevitable.

Bihar and West Bengal now host the Great Game of Indian politics.