The war that was brewing on the internet since 2009 seems to have been unleashed on the country at large, and it is increasingly looking like the rotten framework of India is powerless to withstand it. A defeated, demoralized Congress cowers from the consequences of its own choices and is too busy navel gazing to see the larger picture beyond the “alarming” rise of the right wing. Liberal elites are content with posing opinions from the high perch of a supposed neutrality.
On the ground, the country is savagely sabotaged and enslaved in the worst of ways with the political collusion of the Congress that would rather protect itself from accusations by not provoking BJP. The demon of communal fanatism that the Congress let thrive in order to point at it and look angelic has cannibalized the Congress, the BJP itself and is headed for the country.
That BJP saw a winning horse in the success of the 2002 riots is hardly a secret, no matter how much “development” it is coated with. The relentless exploitation of every weakness of the system to cover up and present a facade of noble ideals has led to an unprecedented war on India from within. Defended staunchly when exposed, otherwise sinking into obscurity and letting the “development story” unfold.
While most of BJP supporters appear to be moderate, educated and supposedly law abiding, they have stood the test of time, never deviating from seeing Modi as the ideal, no matter what inhumanity gets exposed.
There is abundant evidence that the Gujarat state rewarded those guilty of riots and did its best to defend them. Maya Kodnani, responsible for several deaths and inciting mobs into murder got the Ministry for Women and Children. That bubble burst only with the dedicated efforts of activists (who were continuously painted as enemies of India). Babu Bajrangi’s sting that shows a chilling insight into the matter-of-fact butchery. This ought to be enough for anyone who puts country over religion, political party or community to shun the BJP. But those accusing Muslims of putting religion over country are consistently doing it themselves. Very very few BJP supporters stopped being BJP supporters because Hindus killed Muslims who were Indians too.
This pattern repeats over and over. The Ishrat Jahan case showed clear extra-judicial murder. With complete disregard for the law and complete lack of apology for disregarding the law, BJP supporters insist that she was a terrorist, and that is why it is ok. Her being a terrorist is disputed, and even if she were a terrorist, a custodial killing faked as an encounter is cold murder. The acceptance of the Hindutva war machine disguised as the arms of the state replacing the judicial system makes a mockery of claims of patriotism.
Vanzara’s letter from prison after the arrest of Asaram makes it clear that he had abdicated his duty to the country and had pledged his loyalty to the dictator in waiting and that the fake encounters were indeed fake. Aseemanand seems to take pride in his role in Hindu terror and is clear on the approval he got from the top leadership of the RSS. Revelations such as these get dismissed as “political conspiracy” even when they fit the facts better than the evasions and excuses BJP makes. Aseemanand’s case is even more strange. His statement before a magistrate is apparently fake. His sting interview is apparently fake. Why? Because his lawyer says so. While Aseemanand himself consistently says something else.
The lack of convictions of BJP’s guilt, when the state machinery being systematically misused to prevent justice and destroy evidence is abundantly on record. Cases transferred out of Gujarat have done better. It is no coincidence that Modi’s sidekick Amit Shah was forced to leave Gujarat to protect the trials.
Over the years, BJP has successfully woven a story of its dictator in waiting being a victim of a false conspiracy to malign him and that he had tried his best during the riots and other bullshit, when Babu Bajrangi’s video clearly states Modi’s approval.
Modi’s own speeches during his election campaign after the riots make no hint of any apology and in fact endorse the riots as a justified response by a majority to traitors within. This too is parroted by his followers by presenting “proofs” of Muslim duplicity, while Modi’s speeches are conveniently wiped from public memory. The original videos are taken down from youtube – this is not possible without media collusion, because copies can be removed citing copyright violation, but the originals, uploaded by media channels must be deleted by the channels themselves. Yet content has a way of never dying on the internet, and the award winning documentary “The Final Solution” on the Gujarat riots (dismissed as a conspiracy) contains footage of the speeches (which cannot be dismissed as did not happen):
This, in no way sounds like Modi had any intention whatsoever of preventing the riots, as BJP likes to claim. Not only are BJP supporters keen to take whatever stand allows them to continue supporting Modi without embarrassment – however flimsy – they have over the years contributing to inventing his innocence through sheer repetition of their preferred interpretation and discrediting anyone who says otherwise. This has nothing to do with logic, but then critical thinking is the first victim of mental colonization.
This is clearly the formation of an alternative force within the country that follows its own laws and considers the country’s laws and constitution to be optional, while creating a huge noise about patriotism.
There is no alarm that a woman was put under comprehensive surveillance, including surveillance of those she met – a deployment of security forces completely off the record, for the personal interest of the Chief Minister. The man she met, has – independently of this sting – been implicated in cases filed against him by the state government and he is appealing to the Supreme Court to investigate call records of an another Reliance number Modi used to verify his claims of being framed. BJP dismissed this sting with a letter from the woman’s father that he had asked for the woman to be protected. BJP doesn’t seem to have any problem with the idea that a Chief Minister uses state security for personal reasons without any record. Even if offered at her father’s behest, why would protection have to be secret, so that the supposed person at risk doesn’t know there is help if she needed it?
But then the BJP has consistently endorsed absolutely every show of force against minorities in recent times and every illegal action by an entity affiliated with them – no matter how illegal, inhuman or unpatriotic it is. BJP ruled states have consistently been soft on criminals supporting BJP terrorizing and assaulting citizens. The only exception is backing off on allowing Sri Ram Sene (of the pink chaddi, pub attack and hoisting Pakistan flag on govt building fame) leader Pramod Muthalik when reactions were impossible to defend against. Supporters who were horrified quickly got over their horror and purred that the BJP listened to them, quite ignoring that BJP did not see anything wrong with inducting him in the first place.
It is war, and it is psyops and disinformation and strategic use of force and whatever it takes to win it. “Truth” is whatever strategy for this win determines it is. An unaccountability is generated by keeping mouthpieces “independent” and “apolitical” as far as possible. Thugs are “unaffiliated”. Other than bursts of spontaneous violence, violence that is congruent with the BJP views (and defended by BJP supporters and enjoys impunity in BJP ruled states) usually happens as the actions of random Hindu groups and not BJP – ideally, even RSS will claim to not be affiliated, though they may express approval and pride – as in the Mangalore homestay attack. The guy who assaulted Prashant Bhushan three years ago is now officially in BJP and distributing pamphlets of Kejriwal as Osama Bin Laden at last report. At that time BJP was pretending to support the Jan Lokpal Andolan and he was “unaffiliated”.
This election has been a season where the masks fall off and it is too late to do anything about it. The media is already trained to juggle serious accusations and manipulate them into oblivion. Particularly the TV channels. Newspapers are more difficult to control. The internet is impossible to control, and it is here that you find abundant criticism and stripping of this party of treachery of India. But the penetration of internet for news in India is so miniscule, that the counter narrative rarely reaches those on the ground. The stage is set for the large machinery to swing into action, using seemingly unlimited and incomprehensible funds that are not explained by what they declare to the Election Commission.
The BJP propaganda machine claims a wave. And there is indeed a wave in propaganda. Modi stares at you from hoardings, from newspapers, from your TV screens, from internet websites you visit, from pamphlets slipped in your newspaper. The radio tells you to vote for Modi too. The money spent on this is a mind boggling 5000 crores. Yet, the BJP chooses to employ unethical means of disinforming the voter to dissuade them from other possible alternatives. Pamphlets declaring Kejriwal to be a terrorist are circulated in Varanasi before Modi calls him AK49 in a speech. Stories that expose wrongs by BJP are swiftly killed by a media that can spend hours of prime time discussing the imlications of a 10 year old blog post and toppled metal detectors, but not video tapes where “service providers” offer to trigger riots in the country or discredit Rahul Gandhi by spreading rumors that he participated in the gang rape of a woman just before the elections. Hours can be spent discussing a “fingertip rape” where the absolute of guilt is unequivocally discussed, but not the Muzaffarnagar rapes, which served to unite the Hindu vote in favor of BJP uniting dalits and Jats in an eerie echo of the Gujarat riots. Media glosses over those accused in riots getting honored in public ceremonies and getting tickets to contest elections, while the side kick of “Development Man” Modi goes around evoking the riots, claiming the aggressor as the victim and encouraging them to take revenge through the polls. Not unlike Modi’s election campaign after the Gujarat riots, where he gave massive speeches explaining how Hindus had been wronged. He won those with a massive margin.
This too is not enough. BJP is so confident of a Modi wave in the population, that they and their allies are putting up fake candidates to sabotage chances of competitors. Media cannot see this as relevant to elections. Complete blackout. But then media themselves are using doctored surveys to project “people’s opinion” to favor who they want to encourage people to believe some parties to be more popular and others less popular than they really are, and thus influence voting patterns with classic middle class Indian “everybody thinks”. Why would they expose affiliated processes?
It is amazing that the AAP support continues to grow on the ground in spite of a sustained vicious campaign against them aimed at showing them everything from corrupt to terrorist, opportunistic, rapists, rioters and worse. It would seem that the real problem with a 67 year old India is a party that was formed 2 years ago. BJP clearly sees AAP as a sustained threat remaining after the Congress is rather visibly defeated.
And we have the final assault on the country. Aam Aadmi Party representatives have reported compromised poll booths at 110 places in Gurgaon with the nature of compromise ranging from some fake voting during parts of the day to completely BJP controlled booths with mobs of supporters outside, BJP volunteers pressing buttons on the voting machine on behalf of voters, non-secret voting with threats to voters, AAP agents forced to leave and more. This is the open assault on democracy – no matter what party does it and apart from stray reports like INLD in Mewat, it is clear that BJP is massively engaging in electoral rigging. Media has so far maintained complete silence on this. The toothless Election Commission appears to be severely compromised as well.
Given the BJP’s sustained insecurity and methods employed to ensure success, it becomes clear that BJP does not care for democracy or India, and is merely interested in controlling the country to profit its undisclosed investors making expenses comparable with the country’s.
In my view, a BJP win is still unlikely given that the BJP themselves appear to think that they need to use illegal practices to win. However, what is clear, is that BJP has declared war on India that it intends to win with any means possible. The idea of people of India having a right to choose is not a consideration, just as the rights of the country being attacked are not a concern for invaders . An immoral media is already on the side of colonists, before they have won, encouraging the people to believe that the entity that is actually silencing their right is what they need.
Regardless of the results of this election, India is entering a phase that will make or break it. BJP losing this election will likely expose this further (but not stop it). BJP winning this election will put us firmly on the Pakistan path, only with a “superior and tolerant” religion.
India has hardly faced such attempts at takeover for the first time. The Maoists tried it and were eventually banned as a party and became open about their not recognizing the Indian state as their government and have proceeded to capture parts of the country. BJP on the other hand has not made the mistakes the Maoists made in their bid for the takeover. They have successfully captured the media and business cartels before making their play. This is not unlike what the Congress did for years (which is also how they could “kick the Maoists out” of the legal stakes for representation), if only in a more subtle way, which leaves the government powerless to confront this takeover without wading through their own skeletons.
Not to mention the Congress being exposed in scams without adequate action has lost them support of people, and the little inadequate action they were forced to take has lost them support of the business cartels. They are effectively in a place of “dhobi ka kutta na ghar ka na ghat ka” that is going to be very difficult to recover without complete reinvention – which they so far seem unable to face. They are still clinging to the defaults that left them wide open to corruption for the sake of the support those cartels get – which has already left for other pastures, nicely persuaded by the media machine that the Congress is a corrupt party whitewashing the others in the process and ignoring that the UPA is the only power in rule since the RTI was passed – which is at the root of most disclosures. On a stray note, the Gujarat government was sitting on 14,000 unanswered RTI queries this time last year. That is one way of preventing scam exposes and looking honest, I guess.
BJP is hardly the only party to realize that no information to public is no exposing of self as all six National Parties ordered to institute a Public Inormation Officer by the CIC have simply…. not appointed them. So there is literally no way of getting information on who profits from the bullshit being fed to the country, who supports the spread of this bullshit and how much money goes into facilitating all this.
The Aam Aadmi Party is still young and powerless. Even if they won the elections with a sweeping majority (which they are unlikely to), they cannot match organized thug power that is entrenched into the very fiber of the country through sustained sabotage of democracy when the pillars of democracy themselves have been infiltrated.
And at this point, there is little difference between BJP and Modi. Senior politicians are sidelined. Opposing views sabotaged. The Modi cult prevails, the others must survive or exist. One only needs to look at the leadership within the BJP and the respect for diversity and differences to get an idea of what India is in store for – whether the BJP wins this election or not.
Regardless of who wins this election, India is in for a period of class struggles and violence – whether physical or economic. And we only have ourselves to blame for seeing only what we wanted to see till too late. A BJP government will result in India’s undeclared Emergency and BJP not winning will result in immediate riots and less immediate attempts to topple whatever government forms. Whatever funding they have demonstrated so far is not going to sit idle and be okay with BJP not being in power. Return on Investment will demand that the piper be paid.
Mark this post to read in a year.