Protests a test: Can govt not read signs of times?

It’s too early to say whether the unschooled student protests at many of the nation’s universities will impact the country’s politics at a time when the ruling BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah seemed to be fully in control of the national affairs. It is, however, hard to ignore the fact that the protests have cast a shadow in the Modi-Shah power hologram, a tiny one no doubt, but a shadow all the same. At a time when the political Opposition seems all but decimated — despite Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand — the students have in their own small way restored the voice of protest to the country which is so essential in a functioning democracy. The BJP monologue has been turned into a noisy colloquy. Cynics would say, and they may well be right, that the students will soon get back to their studies and they will be busy with their lives and careers after that. The presence of a Kanhaiya Kumar with his political engagement will not make much of a difference. But what is heartening about the student protests, and there is no need to exaggerate its epic proportions, is the energy and innocence they bring to it. These protests are an assurance that democracy is doing fine in the country.

These protests also test the political maturity of Mr Modi, Mr Shah and the BJP. They can call these expressions of political dissent immature, but they would be committing a grave blunder to tag them as “anti-national”. The temptation of many of the fanatical followers of the Modi-Shah BJP is to repeat the empty canard of “tukde-tukde gang” against the youth. That would be a callous attempt to smear the innocence of the students with calumny, and it would only end in showing the Modi-Shah foot soldiers to be political automata, who can be turned into masked mobs anytime with or without provocation. The Modi government and the BJP have the responsibility to respond with nuance if not with sensitivity to the protesting students.

It would be futile for the BJP to reach out to those few Hindus who have crossed over from Pakistan and to tell them that after the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019, they are the proud and protected citizens of India. The more important and intelligent thing to do would be to discuss with the protesters the concerns of the protesters, not just about the CAA 2019 but also about the future of the country. It is of course unfair to expect the BJP to behave unlike any other political party. It has been customary for all political parties to gather the faithful in the face of challenges and believe that they have reconnected with the people. The door-to-door outreach campaign of Mr Shah and other BJP leaders to defend and explain the CAA is an empty gesture of connecting with the converted.

Meanwhile, the concerns and apprehensions about the CAA will only grow because the government refuses to explain exactly who are the people who will benefit from it — the actual numbers — and how the others who do not have claim to the CAA but who are in a similar condition have other legal ways to get a fair deal. If the intentions of the Modi government are honest, then they would not have much difficulty in explaining their point of view to the people, especially to those who do not agree with them. A loud and clear message must emanate from the party that they will not turn India into a “Hindu rashtra”. It is the hesitation of the BJP’s leaders to state unequivocally that India belongs to people of all faiths that makes the BJP politically suspect in the eyes of the people, who are neither the leftists nor rightists, who are neither narrow-minded nationalists nor cosmopolitans. The ordinary people of India, whose immediate identification is with their own caste, religion and region, are very clear that they do not want a Hindu state. The students are voicing this inherent openness of ordinary Indians. The leaders of the BJP, with their parliamentary majority, cannot hoodwink the people at large on this very basic issue of an open, democratic society.

It is also necessary to consider the criticism of the BJP and its ardent sympathisers that the Opposition parties who had lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election are propping up the student protests to regain lost ground, and that they are trying to wreck the rightful electoral mandate won by the party. There is little doubt that the Opposition parties had failed to take on the BJP effectively in last year’s general election, and they have not been nailing the Narendra Modi government’s substantial failures on the economic and social fronts, and that they hope to benefit from the student protests. The BJP leaders can even extend their argument that it is the Opposition parties that are masterminds behind the protests. But then they will have to remember that they have done the same thing through their student organisations when they were in the Opposition. The argument does not hold beyond a point.

A majority of the students who are shouting slogans, holding placards and marching in the street processions do not belong to the youth wing of any party. And it is for this very reason that these protests are spreading and gathering force across the country. The Prime Minister must remember that it is the youth who had favoured him in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, and they have not been as enthusiastic about him in 2019. The students who are not participating in the protests, and they run into millions, are not with the Prime Minister but with the protesting students.

The signs are very clear. The Modi government has turned complacent and arrogant, and they want to put down the protests by controlling university administration through incompetent vice-chancellors and registrars. The government may succeed in the short term, but there is trouble looming on the horizon. The dissatisfaction with a government of loud claims and unimpressive performance is growing across the country.