Kashmir and Modi

Narendra Modi is the man whom everybody in India either loves or hates. In Kashmir, those who hate him are in absolute majority. Those who love him can metaphorically be counted on one hand. Yet, Kashmir’s fate is going to be inexorably linked with man of the moment in coming years.
Jammu’s landslide verdict in favour of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gave the saffron party a clear chance to be part of the power structure in the state. News reports emerging from Kashmir and from Delhi confirm that BJP will occupy the power corridors of the state.
Given that a PDP-BJP government seems inevitable now, the fate-lines of Kashmir and Modi are going to run together for the next few years. Modi will have to be extremely cautious that these do not turn into fault-lines. Kashmir will be the Prime Minister’s litmus test.
Modi’s battle cry for the Delhi polls is exactly what Jammu and Kashmir needs. In New Delhi, Modi’s promise is: BJP government in Delhi will fear Modi and perform.
This is what Kashmir needs too, that the BJP government in the state fears Modi, and performs. Now that PDP and BJP are going to share the treasury benches in J&K, Modi must take 100 per cent responsibility that his party walks the right course in the state, keeping the faith of the electorate.
Equally, Modi must take total responsibility that the regressive right-wing groups do not unleash their communal poison neither in Jammu nor in Kashmir – and not elsewhere in India. All across India, there is immediate need for Modi to rein in these right-wing organizations before they further tarnish India’s image. In the politically volatile Jammu and Kashmir, any mischief by them will spell doom for the state, and by extension for the country.
Why must Modi take 100 percent responsibility that his party walks the right course in Jammu and Kashmir, and the right-wing hyper Hindu groups are kept at bay? Because Modi’s promises always begin with ‘Mein’.
Modi has consciously and deliberately embodied the Government of India in his own person. He seeks votes in his name, he promises development and corruption-free governance in his name. The vote in Jammu swung for Modi, not for the individual candidate fighting with the lotus symbol on his lapel.

Nationally and internationally, Modi has postured as the messiah of India. With absolute power comes absolute responsibility.
The saffron party is a source of major concern in Jammu and Kashmir today. For the Kashmiris, and for all Muslims residing in other regions of the state, ‘BJP is Modi and Modi is BJP’. It is a clear, unambiguous equation. All the fears that Kashmir has vis-à-vis BJP today are not directed at a faceless entity. They are directed at Modi.
In all his dialogue with Kashmir till date, Modi has been remarkably astute. He did not play to any ethnic or emotional considerations. He focused only on the development constituency, seeking to enlarge it, and bringing it at par with the benefits available to aspirational India.
Modi may come for the swearing in of the government in Jammu and Kashmir. That will further seal his unique relationship with this troubled state. It is Modi’s sole responsibility to ensure that there is no slight to the pride and dignity of Jammu and Kashmir. He must personally monitor that the fruits of peace and democracy flow to the state.
US President Barack Obama’s parting shot to India has become indelibly etched on the minds of all Indians who care for the country: India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along lines of religious faith.
The RSS, the Bajrang Dal, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and all other hyper-nationalist Hindu groups claim to speak on behalf of the majority. The truth is – they do not. The large majority of Hindus feel disconnected from the hard posturing of these bigoted groups.
The nationalism of these fanatic Hindus is actually a heft for power. They feel emboldened now that the BJP is ruling at the centre. These fanatics are looking at cornering positions of glory in new India. They do not care for the development agenda of the government. From Obama’s potent reminder to India to be true to its foundational values, the saffron groups learnt nothing. RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha told news channels that Obama had articulated the concern of Christian evangelists engaged in conversions in India.
While the extreme posturing of the Hindu groups is alarming, one has to concede that distrust of the ‘other’ has maligned the roots of our social fabric. Apoorvanand, a prolific writer who teaches Hindi at Delhi University, recently noted: There is a widespread feeling that India would have achieved a much neater and cleaner self-identity as a nation, save for Gandhi’s insistence on equal status for Muslims and Christians living in a nation of Hindu majority. Gandhi is blamed for the confused Indian identity, or for making it ‘unclean’.
How far will India go, if it moves with such diseased concepts of ‘neat’ and clean’? The notion of ethnic supremacy has always poisoned man’s mind. Obama admitted that his country is no utopia either. No society, he said, is immune to the darkest impulses of man. But these outdated notions of ethnic dominance have no place in a modern, pluralist world. These dead beliefs will push India further towards the bottom rung of nations.
It is for Modi to tell all rabid hate-mongers that new India has no place for them. The modern world does not have a single theocratic nation that can be labeled as a successful state. Modi has consistently projected India as a modern, progressive nation. Indeed it is so. And to keep it on this path, Modi must ensure that India does not become an akhara for the show-jumping of the Sangh Parivar and all the self-styled supporters of BJP.
Among Hindus, faith in Modi remains high. Former diplomat Shankar Bajpai gives a voice to what millions of Indians today believe – that howsoever you might feel about Modi’s government, it has given us the hope that it can revive the country. It is Narendra Modi’s duty to his motherland that Muslims and all minorities feel the same way about his government. Bigotry, intolerance and goondaism have no place in this idea of India. A feeling of alienation among the diverse minorities living on this land will not serve India well.
It took an American to remind India what the prophets and saints of this land have always said: That every person has the right to practice their faith how they choose, or to practice no faith at all, and to do so free of persecution and fear and discrimination.
Modi has promised that he will retrieve the idea of India that ought to be. May his idea of India be true to what was shown to us by our messengers!

Author is a senior journalist and Director at Lehar—a NGO. She can be mailed at rajnishaleen@gmail.com