Swachh Bharat & dirty politics

Today I was reminded of this joke from my childhood, about a Fuller Brush salesman trying to sell a new vacuum cleaner. As soon as the lady of the house opens the door, the salesman rushes into the living room and swiftly empties a bag of rubbish onto her carpet. He then flashes a smug smile at the horrified lady. “Don’t worry, Madam,” he declares grandly. “If my new vacuum cleaner doesn’t clean all this and leave your carpet spotless in the next three minutes, I will eat this rubbish!” The lady brings him a spoon. “Go ahead,” she says, “We have no electricity.”

The latest charade of Swachh Bharat reminded me of this story. It was sad but not shocking to see our political leaders and other dignitaries fussing about with brooms for a photo op projecting themselves as concerned citizens “cleaning” Delhi. The fact was that a clean road had been selected for the show, then “dirtied” by carefully laying out dry leaves carted from elsewhere. Sad because it was so fake, so fake that you could make a style statement of it like faux leather. But not shocking because we are used to fakes and fakism, especially in politics. And we are so used to political drama that we have learnt to appreciate it for its creativity and style. We don’t take political promises and stories literally.

So what’s all this fuss about? Did we really expect our esteemed leaders to clean real filth in the stinky, slimy, bug-infested garbage dumps? Do we not care for their health and well-being? Do you not understand the importance of symbolism? How crude can you get. Politics is all about symbolism.

The stage-managed Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is only a part of the stage-managed political and social scenes that make up our everyday life. Let’s look at Delhi, the scene of the Swachh Bharat exposé.

Delhi is going to the polls. Again. And this time the Bharatiya Janata Party is desperate to get a clear majority, in spite of the clear and present danger posed by the Aam Aadmi Party. So last week, just before the 30th anniversary of the 1984 massacre of Sikhs, the BJP government ruling our country reportedly promised an added compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family of each victim murdered in what is known as the “Sikh riots”. Apparently, this would cost the country Rs 166 crore, and would be over and above the compensation the victims of the terrible tragedy have received so far. The money, it was said, would be distributed swiftly, in a matter of weeks. What a nice way to hand out cash to voters just before the state elections.

Unfortunately, the Election Commission has raised its indignant head and thrown the rule book at the BJP, speaking of the model code of conduct and other such irritants. Let’s see how this pans out. Meanwhile, the BJP has no option but to shriek in horror at the rumour that Rahul Gandhi’s election team includes Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, two Congressmen widely believed to have instigated and assisted the lynch mob during the 1984 “riots”, specially in east Delhi’s Trilokpuri. The Congress has diligently denied the existence of such a Rahul Gandhi election team, but of course no one believes political parties. Especially a party that has pathetically failed to bring to book the perpetrators and instigators of those riots that killed thousands following the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Even after 30 years, 10 of which saw India ruled by a Sikh Prime Minister from the Congress. “Rewarded for the Sikh Massacre?” said the BJP. “Audacious!”

Actually, rewarding for a sectarian massacre is hardly audacious now. It’s expected. The BJP should know. Sanjeev Baliyan, our Union minister for agriculture and food processing, is just one recent example. He is a prime accused in last year’s Muzaffarnagar riots, and many believe deserves being thus rewarded for his hard work before, during and after the sectarian violence that killed around 70 mostly Muslim.

But that’s over. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed for a 10-year moratorium on caste and communal violence. That made a lot of us happy. Especially because most caste and religious violence in our country is started — usually in a cold-blooded, pre-planned way — by the power groups. Hindus lash out at Muslims and Christians. Higher caste Hindus lash out at the lower castes. So if the Hindus really want to, they can jolly well stop sectarian violence for 10 years.
But is that happening? On the contrary, there seems to be a deliberate attempt to polarise people along religious identities under this BJP regime. As had happened in Gujarat just before the 2002 massacre of Muslims.

There seems to be a pattern to the recent sectarian disturbances in many parts of Delhi. Three days of rioting during the Diwali festivities left several injured at Trilokpuri, the site of the 1984 riots. But this time stout resistance by locals, Hindu families standing up to protect their Muslim neighbours, diligent action by activists and concerned citizens forcing the passive police to act prevented it from flaring into a dance of death. Among the troublemakers was local BJP leader and former MLA Sunil Kumar Vaidya. Among the local heroes were 15 eunuchs, who formed a barricade to prevent sword-wielding rioters from entering their target block.

In Bawana, north-west Delhi, reports point to Hindu trouble makers attempting to repeatedly trigger sectarian violence that locals have stoutly resisted. The police, as in Trilokpuri, were prodded into action by vigilant citizens and activists.

Since 2002, sectarian polarisation has reaped rich dividends for the BJP. The Delhi elections are coming up. We need to be very vigilant if we wish to save our democracy and our sanity. The PM may call for a moratorium on communal violence, but having reaped the benefits of sectarian polarisation, can he now stop his Hindu undivided family from spreading such hate?
Like the vacuum cleaner salesman in the joke found out, your grand machine may not always be able to clean up the rubbish you have dumped.

The writer is editor of The Little Magazine.

She can be contacted at: sen@littlemag.com