UNEMPLOYMENT, price rise, agrarian distress, corruption, justice for women, development - these are the key bread-and-butter issues that concerns the Indian voter. The ruling BJP’s entire effort in the Lok Sabha 2019 elections is to divert the voter’s focus from these issues to one or the other piece of rhetoric (‘jumla’) or emotive, divisive idea.

Diminishing Returns From ‘Chowkidar’ and Pulwama Planks

First, the Modi regime tried the ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ campaign but this failed to attain greater popularity than the Opposition’s catchy ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ (The Watchman Is a Thief) campaign. Moreover, real-life chowkidars began to speak up about Modi Government’s disinterest in improving their insecure, ill-paid lives.

Next, came the Pulwama attack and the air strike reportedly carried out by the Indian Air Force at Balakot. But recent voter surveys suggest that the ‘surge’ in Modi’s popularity riding on media propaganda over Balakot was short-lived: it has now worn off and given way to the old bread-and-butter issues, most notably jobs.

Modi’s own speeches betrayed irritation at the failure of the Pulwama-Balakot episode to deliver the desired electoral results. He expressed displeasure that concern for the welfare of Abhinandan Varthaman, the IAF pilot captured by Pakistan, had interrupted the more urgent task of singing his Government’s praises for its strike on Pakistan!

Two further developments have further clouded Modi’s post-Pulwama boasts. A visit by a team of journalists to the site of the Ballot strike did not find any evidence to back India’s claims of having wiped out a Jaish-e-Mohammad camp and caused thousands of casualties. Moreover, it has turned out that an Indian Air Force helicopter which crashed in Budgam in J&K, killing 6 Air Force personnel and one civilian, could have been a victim of ‘friendly fire’, i.e. a mistaken target of the IAF itself.

Modi of course continues to blatantly violate the Model Code of Conduct by invoking the soldiers killed at Pulwama for votes - leading retired Chiefs of Staff and officers of India’s Armed Forces to issue an unprecedented letter to the President of India expressing concern over such political misuse of the Armed Forces.

Rafale Scam - New Evidence

Fresh evidence on the Rafale scam has come to light.

A French publication Le Monde has exposed the fact that soon after Anil Ambani snagged the offset contracts in the Rafale deal, France waived taxes worth 1200 crore owed by a French-registered company belonging to Anil Ambani. The Ambani company was in deep financial trouble, and the tax waiver came as a life-saver for it. Why did France waive such massive taxes so generously and Dassault grant offsets to Ambani instead of HAL? Was it because the Indian PM Modi had, in exchange, weakened the Rafale deal, raising prices per jet, and doing away with transfer of technology; sovereign guarantee, and anti-corruption clauses?

What did Modi get in return for brokering this sweetheart deal for his crony Anil Ambani? We cannot yet know - because Modi’s Electoral Bonds scheme (under which the BJP got 95% of Bonds) has ensured that donors to the BJP’s election campaign remain secret! The Supreme Court, belatedly hearing the Electoral Bonds matter, ordered that parties submit details of donors in a “sealed envelope” to the EC - thus ensuring that the voting public will not get to know which Indian and foreign donors may be seeking to repay or buy the BJP’s loyalty by donating funds to its election campaign.

Meanwhile, in a blow to the Modi Government’s and BJP’s attempts to claim a “clean chit” from the Supreme Court in the Rafale deal, the Supreme Court has ruled that papers published by various news media will be admissible as evidence in the review petition, irrespective of how they were obtained.

“Modi Baba and the 36 Thieves”

Opposing the bail plea of a defence agent in an ongoing hearing, the Enforcement Directorate told the Court that no less than 36 businessmen, including Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Sandesara brothers, have fled from the country in the recent past.

Was Modi running a “Loot and Scoot” scheme for corrupt businessmen?!

The Bank NPA Scam Is A Modi Government Scam

A recent news report showed that 80% of write offs of bank loans by rogue borrowers in the past decade came in the last five years - i.e during Modi rule.

Such “Non-Performing Assets” (NPAs) of Public Sector Banks increased from Rs 2.26 lakh crore in March 2014 to Rs 8.96 lakh crore in March 2018. So, NPAs accumulated in Modi Raj equalled Rs 6.7 lakh crore, of which the Modi Government wrote off Rs 5.56 lakh crore!

More than 70% of the total bank loan dues are owed by big corporations. So, in effect, the write-offs by the Government mean that the savings of ordinary citizens are being siphoned off as “loans” to big corporations who have no intention of repaying the loans! This is daylight robbery enabled and excused by the Modi regime.

BJP Spews Hate

Even as the Supreme Court and the Election Commission show no inclination or will to act against hate speech by BJP’s topmost leaders Modi and Amit Shah, BJP candidates and leaders across the country are busy doing what they know best: trying to stoke divisive hate and fear in voters.  

Here is a sample of the daily poison BJP leaders are spewing in election speeches:

BJP leader Ranjeet Bahadur Srivastava at Barabanki (UP):

“In the past five years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made attempts to break the morale of the Muslims. Vote for PM Modi if you want to destroy the breed of Muslims. Despite partition, the Muslim population is increasing in the country and soon they will able to get the grip on the power through voting…after the Lok Sabha elections, the party will bring machines from China to shave 10-12 thousands of Muslims and later will force them to adopt Hindu religion.… get ready to face consequences if you do not vote for the BJP.”

 BJP Kerala president PS Sreedharan Pillai at Attingal (Kerala):

“Muslims can be identified by removing their clothes.” (a reference to circumcision - ed/-)

UP CM “Yogi” Adityanath at Meerut-Hapur (UP):

“If the Opposition has faith in Ali, BJP has faith in Bajrangbali…Followers of Bajrangbali will never allow the green virus (green is a reference to Islam and to the colour of the flags of Congress’ Kerala ally IUML, Indian Union Muslim League - ed/) to fix its fangs on the security of the country. I appeal to you that you should completely destroy this green virus from western UP…”

BJP President Amit Shah at Nagpur: (Also referring like Adityanath to green flags of the Congress ally, IUML):

“And this Rahul baba, for his alliance, is contesting from such a seat (Wayanad in Kerala) where when a procession is taken out, it is difficult to make out whether it is India or Pakistan.”

What Shah is saying here is that Muslims are not Indian but Pakistani.

Modi at Wardha also said something similar about Rahul Gandhi choosing to contest from Wayanad, saying:

“Rahul is running to a seat where the majority (Hindus) is the minority.”

Yogi Adityanath in Sambhal, UP:

The Shafiqur Rahman Barq, the SP candidate says he is descended from (Mughal Emperor) Babur. On the one hand, there is a candidate from a party which developed places linked to Baba Bhim Rao Ambedkar and Gautam Budhha. On the other hand, there is an opposition candidate who calls himself a ‘“Babur ki Aulad’ (child of Babur, a communally abusive phrase often used by the RSS and BJP against Indian Muslims).

BJP Deploys Threats and Fear

There is also a long list of threats by BJP leaders and candidates against voters, warning that if they fail to vote BJP they will be made to suffer.

BJP leader and Union Minister Manoj Sinha in UP’s Ghazipur:

“If any finger is pointed at a BJP worker, then I assure you, in four hours that finger will not be salamat (safe)…No one has the temerity to look a BJP worker in the eye. If they do, then rest assured, those eyes will not be safe.”

BJP Union Minister Maneka Gandhi to Muslim voters in the Turabakhni Basti in Sultanpur, UP:

“We aren’t all sons of Mahatma Gandhi, are we? It’s not that we keep on giving and then losing in the election. This victory will happen with or without you. …When the election comes and this booth throws up 100 votes or 50 votes, and then you come to me for work we will see... So it is up to you….”

Maneka Gandhi again, in Issauli, Sultanpur, UP:

“I divide villages using the “ABCD formula” --  a village that votes 80 per cent for me will be given A certificate; B for 60 per cent; C for below etc. Development projects will be given according to their vote percentage.”

BJP MLA from Gujarat Ramesh Katara in Dahod, Gujarat:

“There should not be any room for error as Modi sahab has installed cameras in the booths this time…Who voted for the BJP, and who voted for the Congress, it will be seen. Aadhaar Card and all other cards have your photo now, if there are fewer votes from your booth then he (Modi) will come to know who did not cast vote and then you will not get jobs.”

Tejasvi Surya, BJP candidate from Bangalore South:

“If you are with Modi, you are with India. If you are not with Modi, then you are strengthening anti-India forces.”

Death Threats To Left Voters in Tripura:

In Tripura, handwritten death threats accompanied by severed chicken heads are being found on the homes of Left voters, warning them that they will be killed if they vote.

Amit Shah’s NRC Will Mean Concentration Camps For India’s Muslims

In Raiganj, West Bengal, BJP President Amit Shah said, “Infiltrators are like termites…We will implement NRC (National Register of Citizens) and Citizenship Amendment Bill nationwide. We will find and weed out out every single infiltrator from the country, and seek and grant Indian citizenship to every Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist refugee across the country.”

What does this threat mean? It means that if Modi wins another term, every Muslim or Christian in India will be treated as a suspected infiltrator, stripped of voting rights, put in a detention camp till they can ‘prove’ citizenship.

There can be no clearer statement of fascist Nazi-style intent in India. Remember, Hitler first started out with the idea of mass deportations of Jews - it was only later that this turned into the idea of mass genocide of Jews. Nor is this a new idea. The ‘NRC’ and ‘infiltrator’ excuse is new - the idea of evicting Muslims because they don’t belong in ‘Hindu’ India is as old as the RSS.

Savarkar, founder of the Hindu Mahasabha, defined Hindutva as nationalism, and asserted that to be a true nationalist one must recognise India as one’s pitrubhumi (ancestral land) and one’s punyabhumi (the land of his religion). According to this definition, Muslims and Christians could not truly belong to India till they accepted the Hindu faith, since Islam and Christianity are not born in India!

The biography of RSS founded Hedgewar by Bhishikar notes that he called Muslims “Yavana snakes’ - ‘Yavana’ here denotes foreigners. Golwalkar openly admired the Nazi purge of Jews and wanted India to emulate it to purge Muslims:

“To keep up purity of the nation and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races, the Jews. National pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into a united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.” (We Or Our Nationhood Defined, 1938, p.37)

Deen Dayal Upadhyay, another RSS ideologue, wrote in his article ‘Akhand Bharat’ in 1953 that Muslims were incorrigibly “separatist and anti-national” in their attitude, and so “the continuance of six crore Muslims in India would be highly detrimental to the interest of India. Would any Congressman say that Muslims should be driven out of India? If not, then they will have to be assimilated into the national life of this country….apart from making Muslims Indian, we must also change the 30-year old policy of Hindu Muslim unity, which Congress adopted on a wrong basis ... If we want unity, we must display Indian nationalism which is Hindu nationalism, and Indian culture which is Hindu culture.” In other words, Upadhyay felt that for Muslims to remain Muslims was “separatist and anti-national must either become Hindus or be evicted from the country for their attitude”.

Modi and BJP Back Hindutva Terrorism

BJP has made Pragya Singh Thakur (a self-styled ‘Sadhvi’ or ‘saint’), charged with terrorism in the Malegaon blasts, its Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal.

Remember, the 2008 Malegaon blasts were one of a series of bomb blasts at Muslim religious places which had killed Muslims en masse. Innocent Muslims had been arrested and tortured and framed for these blasts till the Maharashtra ATS under Hemant Karkare unravelled the thread of Hindutva and Sanghi terror. The then Home Secretary RK Singh, who is now the BJP MP and Lok Sabha candidate from Arrah, had then declared that there was substantial evidence to show the links between the Sangh (RSS) and terrorism.

Hemant Karkare exposed 17 cases of Hindutva terror attacks including the 2006 and 2008 Malegaon blasts. When he was about to present the strong evidence in courts (including tapes and witness statements recorded before a magistrate under Section 164), he was killed in suspicious circumstances during the Mumbai terror attack of 2008 November. Karkare’s late widow, Kavita Karkare, had consistently raised troubling questions about the circumstances of her husband’s death. SM Mushrif, a former IG Police of Maharashtra, has written a book suggesting that some other domestic terrorist forces with the complicity of a “deep state” network, took advantage of the Mumbai terror attack by the terrorists from Pakistan, and killed Karkare and his team members.

In 2015, Special Public Prosecutor Rohini Salian had publicly declared that the NIA was pressurising her to “go soft” on the Hindutva terror cases. She raised the alarm that witness statements recorded under Section 164 - very powerful and credible evidence since these are voluntary statements that are not obtained in police custody - had ‘disappeared’ from court records. Soon after, with the NIA under Modi working to weaken the cases, one after another Hindutva terror-accused including Pragya Thakur got bail. Very recently the Samjhauta Blasts accused including ‘Swami’ Aseemanand who had himself given detailed statements to a magistrate and to the media admitting his role in Hindutva terror, were acquitted. The judge hearing the case faulted the prosecution for presenting weak evidence.

Soon after being declared a BJP candidate, Pragya Thakur - with BJP leaders applauding - made a public speech saying Karkare had died as a result of her ‘curse’. After subsequent outrage at her insult to a brave and decorated police officer who died fighting terrorists, she withdrew her statement, saying it was a “personal” one and she did not want it to “benefit enemies of the nation” - i.e the Opposition!

What needs to be underlined here is that Pragya’s statements are not an exception. What Modi said at Wardha, as well as what he said defending Pragya’s candidature to a tame Times Now interviewer, is as much as an insult to Karkare’s memory as Pragya’s “curse”.

Modi referenced the acquittal of the accused in the Samjhauta blasts in his Wardha speech, saying that by accusing Hindus of terrorism, the Congress-UPA Government had committed the unforgivable “sin” of linking a 5000-year old civilisation with terror. He said, “How can the Congress be forgiven for insulting the Hindus in front of the world? Weren’t you hurt when you heard the word ‘Hindu terror’? How can a community known for peace, brotherhood and harmony be linked with terrorism? In the thousand years of history, not a single incident shows an act of Hindu terrorism.” To escape Hindu anger over this, Modi said, Rahul Gandhi had been forced to go to contest elections from Wayanad “where the minority is majority” (i.e where Muslims are a majority). The fact is that Muslims are in a minority in Wayanad but that is besides the point.

The point is that Modi too insults Karkare when he implies that this honest, dedicated and brave professional police officer was a Congress pawn. After all, it was not the Congress that filed cases against Pragya and others. It was Karkare and his team who unearthed the evidence leading to their arrest - in fact it was a BJP Government of Madhya Pradesh under which Pragya was arrested.

In his “interview” with Times Now, Modi said, “Samjhauta Express verdict came. What came out? Without any evidence, a rich civilisation as old as 5000 years, which gave the message of ‘the whole world is one’... You called such a civilisation terrorist? To give a reply to all such people, this (fielding of Thakur) is a symbol and this symbol will cost Congress dearly.”

Imagine if the New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern had, instead of expressing solidarity with Muslims and calling the Christchurch attacker a terrorist, fielded the attacker as a candidate and said that terror charges against him mounted to branding White Civilisation ‘terrorist’! Such conduct would be support for White Supremacist and Islamophobic terrorism. India’s PM Modi, by saying that for the police to charge any Hindu supremacist with terror charges is an insult to “Hindu civilisation”, is justifying and promoting Hindu-Supremacist terror.

Modi’s Wardha speech implies that to charge a Hindu with terror (or rape, rioting, or violence of any kind) is an insult to Hindu civilisation. No wonder then, that Modi’s followers see Gandhi’s assassin Godse as a hero not a terrorist; that they hold rallies for the rape-accused in Kathua and defend rapists like Asaram and Ram Rahim; that they garland members of lynch mobs which have killed Muslims; that BJP leaders funded a terrorist organisation, the Ranveer Sena, which massacred Dalit landless poor in Bihar in the 1990s. If Modi gets another term as PM, he intends to change the Constitution that says the Rule of Law must be the same for any crime irrespective of the religious identity of the criminal.

The recent Christchurch terror attack on a mosque in New Zealand aroused the world’s attention to Islamophobic terrorism and far-right terror. Modi, usually voluble against international terrorism, remained publicly silent on this attack. But when Christians were targeted in a series of bomb blasts in churches in Sri Lanka, Modi promptly invoked the attacks to seek votes in India in the name of fighting terror. Why was he silent on Christchurch? Clearly, because the victims, like the victims of the Malegaon, Mecca Masjid, Samjhauta Express and Ajmer Sharif blasts committed by Hindutva terrorists, were Muslims praying in mosques and shrines.

Abhinav Bharat and Sanatan Sanstha - Terrorism Inspired By Godse

The Abhinav Bharat organisation to which Pragya and her co-conspirators belonged was set up by descendants of Gandhi’s assassin Godse and the Hindu Mahasabha founder VD Savarkar.  

Pragya has alleged that she was tortured in custody - but an NHRC investigation found no evidence that she was ever tortured, or that any evidence gathered by Karkare’s team was acquired though custodial torture. In fact, in contrast with multiple terror cases in which Muslim men have been jailed merely on the strength of custodial confessions obtained under torture, the evidence against Pragya, Lt Colonel Purohit and other accused persons in the Hindutva terror cases was solid, based on seven witness statements recorded before magistrates, as well as several hours of taped phone conversations in which the accused gave a detailed account of their plans to subvert India and use terror to turn it into a Hindu Nation.

Take the case of Lt Col Purohit, the army man who was one of the key accused in the Hindutva terror cases. There are 37 taped conversations of Purohit plotting with other army men as well as members of the Abhinav Bharat terror group. In these tapes Purohit can be heard speaking to other Army officers, about “how this country should be taken over by the army”, how the Indian Army must be indoctrinated in Hindutva political ideology, how they are creating an international network of Hindutva terror, how they are acquiring AK-47 rifles, and how they plan to commit terrorist blasts to kill the maximum number of Muslims.

In Court, Purohit has claimed that he was a Military Intelligence officer spying on the terrorist outfits Abhinav Bharat & Sanatan Sanstha. If Modi thinks Purohit is an innocent man telling the truth, then he would have to admit that the Abhinav Bharat and Sanatan Sanstha are in fact Hindutva terrorist organisations. But the question arises, if Purohit was indeed a military spy infiltrating the Abhinav Bharat and Sanatan Sanstha to expose their terror activities, why did these organisations declare support for Purohit? Abhinav Bharat said that Purohit was a “brave Army officer while the Sanatan Sanstha (as Pragya and Modi do today) demand punishment for the police officers “who had persecuted innocents such as Sadhvi Pragya Singh, Col Purohit.”

This much is clear: if Lt Col Purohit is indeed innocent and telling the truth to the Court, then Abhinav Bharat, Sanatan Sanstha etc are terrorist, anti-national outfits. Why, then are these anti-national terrorists praising someone who spied on them to expose them? If Lt Col Purohit is indeed a hero to Abhinav Bharat and Sanatan Sanstha, then he is also a terrorist seeking to overthrow secular India and achieve Hindu Rashtra by violent means. The Times Now “interviewers” of course did not ask Modi these questions.

Neither did the “interviewers” remind Modi that he himself had, in 2013, well after Karkare had exposed the Hindutva terror network, called the Sanatan Sanstha a patriotic organisation. In June 2013, the BJP national executive meeting was held in Goa where the party declared Narendra Modi as its PM candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The second All India Hindu Convention was hosted by the Sanatan Sanstha and HJS in the same month in Goa. Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat, sent a personal message on his official letterhead to the convention, writing,

“Every organisation that works, based on the inspiration of nationalism, patriotism and tradition of loyalty, is the identity of our people’s strength. Closeness to love, humanity and divinity, giving priority to non-violence, truth and sattvikata are the principles followed by Hindus in leading their life but to have to resist brutal, inhuman tendencies seems to be the destiny of Hindus. It has been our tradition to be alert every moment and raise voice against oppression.”

Why was someone holding the post of chief minister and soon-to-be India’s prime minister, sending a congratulatory message to a convention calling for India to be transformed from a secular state to a Hindu rashtra? Why was he, in his message, calling organisations whose members had been implicated in terrorist activity including blasts, organisations inspired by “nationalism, patriotism, loyalty”? By saying that Hindus uphold principles of non-violence but that resisting “brutal, inhuman tendencies seems to be the destiny of Hindus”, wasn’t Modi implicitly endorsing and valorising acts of violence and terror by Hindus against non-Hindus? What Modi implies - in his 2013 message and now in 2019 - is that Hindutva terror against Muslims is actually Hindu resistance to “inhuman” Muslims.

The Sanatan Sanstha is also implicated in the assassinations of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, Prof Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh. Anand Patwardhan’s new documentary ‘Reason’ shows how CPI leader Comrade Govind Pansare has been speaking boldly and publicly on the Hindutva terror network and asking questions about Karkare’s killing, which is probably why he was targeted and killed by the Sanatan Sanstha.

Why Is The EC Silent on Hate Speech By Modi and Shah?

The Supreme Court ordered the EC to act against Adityanath, Mayawati and Azam Khan, after which the EC debarred them from campaigning for a few days. Subsequently the EC also debated Maneka Gandhi from campaigning for a few days. Azam Khan’s “khakhi knickers” remarks were distasteful and condemnable if applied to Jayaprada. But why has the EC not reacted to the far more hateful remarks of the Kerala BJP Chief suggesting that Muslim men can be identified by stripping them?

Mayawati’s remarks - appealing to minorities to vote for the Alliance rather than the Congress - certainly do not constitute polarising hate speech against any community nor an appeal for votes in the name of religion. To equate these remarks with the communal slurs, hate-mongering and voter intimidation by BJP leaders is unacceptable.

The silence of both the Supreme Court and the EC on the speeches of Modi and Shah tells its own tale. Shah is saying no Hindu can ever be an “infiltrator”, Modi is saying no Hindu (not even those who commit bombs blasts and targeted assassinations) can ever be a terrorist.

The fact that the Supreme Court and Election Commission are choosing to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to these dangerous and unconstitutional statements weakens India’s democratic electoral process. The CPIML has written to the ECI pointing out that going by past precedent (the Bal Thackeray case), all these instances of hate speech and Model Code violations deserve debarment from elections for several years.

If the ECI will not punish the BJP’s hate-mongering, fear-mongering and sheer thuggery, India’s voters must and will! India will vote to elect MPs and a Government that is answerable and accountable to people - and punish the Modi regime and BJP for its arrogant attacks on India’s democracy and Constitution.