Benito Z. Swu
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hy is our active Prime Minister N D. Modi squandering all the goodwill and the best wishes for all the good intentions that he has taken up for the common people of India within such a short period of time by remaining silent and inactive on issues which is of paramount importance to maintain the secular thread strands and fabric of the Indian nation? No nuclear power of the world can stop the unraveling of the sheep wool from the seams of the coat once the single knot that binds it is cut off. It is no secret that even the citizens of India who have not voted for the BJP in the General election of 2014, silently if not vocally have been appreciating our Prime Minister for his magnanimity and diplomatic skills not just in India but even beyond the far reaches of the world. Why then is that diplomatic skill missing when it comes to tackling the emotive and sensitive issues of the people raised because of the words and actions of the fringe elements within the BJP and its parivar nakedly promoting the bigoted Hindutva perception which is no more a perception but a threat? Why is our Prime Minister trying to shy away from the fact that the people of India voted for the man of action in him and not for the BJP party? There is no denying that the UPA government, for what so ever reason, could not live upto the expectation of the people of India. Hence a mega lottery winning slot of luck and opportunity for the doer in Narendra Modi to cement it all up and display not just to the people of India but the world that the BJP has what it takes to be reckoned internationally as a great Indian national political party which could have made Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, J P. Narayan, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru and all other luminaries of the India of that times proud? And not forgetting our very own and still living Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Abdul Kalam Azad. Why is the gap between the consciousness raising rhetoric and results in the Modi government getting wider by the day? Why is ‘liberty’ of the individual, the catchword of Modi in attacking his political adversaries glaringly missing from his party and the political machinery he is riding to get to his goals? The language being used by the RSS and the leaders in the BJP is simply divisive and not at all unifying. The sentiments of the people of other faiths who are completely non-violent and simply simplistic are just without any punctuations being trotted upon. The ultimate height of hypocrisy is the deliberate deliberation of talking about how many children women must give birth to. And it is not just the fringe elements. It is the ministers passing such comments. The silence of the Prime Minister is appearing to be tantamount to condoning it all thereby undermining his own declared objective.
It is indeed heartening but a little too little too less to hear the Union Law Minister P V. Sandananda Gowda just the other day on February 2 that it was for the state governments to take action on the complaints of the re-conversion incidents while reacting to queries on re-conversion or ghar wapasi ceremonies organized by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in Kotayam and adjoining districts of Karnataka.
Churches in poll bound Delhi is being vandalized at regular intervals. Since November of 2014, five Churches in Delhi has been vandalized and desecrated. If it is not an attempt to polarize voters and garner the Hindu majority votes on the basis of manipulating faith and thereby abusing faith, then what is it? When what happens not just in Delhi but anywhere in the country where the so called fringe elements in the Hindu community blatantly without fear of rule or law disrespect and violate the very soul of secularism, the BJP government needs to know that ,black, the color of death and of the ISIS flag gets intermingled with the saffron, and a color which is neither this nor that gets imprinted in the view and mind of all the people of other faith. As it is, India is not immune to the very extremist influence of the ISIS. It is also worth noting that it was on Indian soil, and by Indian citizens and not any export from beyond the Indian border or import from home that gave birth to the Indian Mujahedeen (IM) and the havoc that followed. It was also just providence and sheer luck and not by any intelligence or security effort that brought to light the crude but real explosive manufacturing unit from within just that any normal looking, the common people tenant house room with families in West Bengal. And with Mamta Bannerjee turning a nelson eye because of political compulsions. What is the need of the BJP to open up many fronts of confrontation be it active or passive? It legitimates and gives room to the views of the other extreme. Just a few days back there was this one Member of Parliament (MP) belonging to the Muslim faith, who, while countering the ‘Ghar Wapasi’ programme of the VHP, took to television proclaiming that every human being on earth was born a Muslim and as such all the people of the world professing other faiths should come back home to be a Muslim. The BJP needs to understand that there is atleast a little kernel of truth in a critic, and not let power walk thoroughshot over every critic that comes its way. When Christians, if not for that rare overzealous missionary who fail to use the correct words to frame the language of love, are all completely against violence and conversion of people from other faith by coercion or inducement, is it morally and spiritually right for the numerical superior Hindus to violate the sentiment of the people belonging to the numerical inferior? Prime Minister Modi and his party is hurting no other but only itself by gagging itself to the misplaced priority of the extreme in the BJP and its offshoots.
The Border Road Task Force (BRTF) has put up billboards on the sides of the road between Dimapur and Kohima some of which reads “Better late than Sorry.” Another reads “Stop, look, watch, Go.” The age old wise saying, “Look before you leap,” too is in itself much more worthy than the sum of the number of words it is made up of when it comes to getting close to a political party which even deliberates about deleting the word ‘secular’ from the constitutional Bible/Gita/Quran of the country. When such awareness has to be maintained even while driving up to Kohima from Dimapur, one can be pretty sure that it is even more important for one to be very careful and aware when we make a political decision. It will be not just in the greater interest of the Indian nation, but even more importantly to the BJP in the long run and the not very long run as well if leaders from within the BJP itself irrespective of individual faith stands up to condemn and reign in irresponsible comments and divisive action. Not doing so might garner short term political dividends in particular states but cause irreparable damage to the diversity of the nation and its reputation in the international arena as a legitimate nation seeking a permanent membership in the world body.
Why cannot India be that big flower garland which political leaders of different hues love to fit into one during election time, a garland not just of marigold flowers but sprinkled with variety somewhere in the middle, a little of another variety on the side, and again a little of yet another variety on the edges of the two ends? Let India as a great democratic secular republic nation be like that of the Rashtrapathi Bhavan Presidential garden with that big pond full of those lovely breathtaking lotus flowers, and all those hundreds of varieties of both unseasonal as well as seasonal flowers that do not survive in water but blooms one after another all the year round in that maha garden.
Will our NPF party legislatures also please spare a thought for the very common people who are also responsible for having voted us all to power in the many elections that we have faced. The NPF as a regional political party was and is the only body in Nagaland which has remained steadfast and united for all this time inspite of fissures within. The question is, “Can Nagas afford to crack and break this last bastion of unity.” Which ever group wins will not be victory for the Nagas. Heartburn will lead to more heartburns. The crack and fissures will further widen, and no superglue on earth will be strong enough to hold it good. Love, in the correct sense of the word has to be understood. The only glue which will hold us as one. For too long we have lived only on faith and hope. Faith and hope- the two brothers, individually and even as a duo can function only with the positive participation of another entity. But love functions on its own. It does not necessarily need the participation of any other entity. It functions on its own, unconditional and least bothered about factors. It is the eldest of the three. Love works on its own and never fails. Love is indeed the greatest, because with love’s presence both faith and hope is guaranteed victory. The Church has played and is playing the very significant role of the transition from the other side of the moon. The simplicity of the force and the impact of implanting the seed of love within the core of the congregation is a blessing every single individual is being blessed with. There is no coercion, no musts, no conditions. Just simple love within self and its reflections. When there is love you start loving yourself. And after that loving others is a given and a cake walk. That’s what the teacher taught. Allow love to unite. Yes, We can. Definitely.
