Modi’s remarks on communalism well-timed
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stern warning that his Government will not tolerate communal disturbances engineered by either the majority or the minority community, comes at the right time. A spate of incidents involving churches in the national capital had especially raised concern that minorities were being targeted by radical elements, who ostensibly had the blessings of the Sangh parivar. The attacks came on the heels of the religious conversion controversy and also added to a growing perception that communal violence was somehow linked to the electoral season. Though there has been little evidence to back these perceptions, the fact is that they were gaining ground.
Modi-baiters had also sought to interpret the Prime Minister’s ‘silence' on the issue as either appeasement of the ‘hardline Hindu' vote-bank or, worse still, tacit endorsement of majoritarianism. Overall, the issue was becoming too big to ignore and was distracting from Mr Modi's development agenda — after all, many believe that one of the reasons why the BJP lost so miserably in the Delhi Assembly poll was public concern over communal tendencies. Mr Modi needed to break his silence and reassure the public. He also had to send out a message to the extremist fringe groups that electoral victories for the BJP do not mean state permits for their regressive agendas.
Perhaps it is too much to expect that Mr Modi's statements, delivered on Tuesday at an event organised by the Christian community to celebrate the beatification of two Indians by Pope Francis late last year, will end the pseudo-secular camp's vilification campaign against the Prime Minister, his colleagues in the Government and those within the ruling coalition, branding them ‘minority-haters’. But it should be enough to ensure that this camp is unable to dilute the trust the common man has reposed in Mr Modi and his good governance agenda.
Reassuring statements, however, are just one part of the story. The key to assuaging public fears in the long term lies in effective law enforcement and speedy justice for the aggrieved. This is also the best way to tackle the malicious anti-minority campaign. For example, after all the brouhaha over the Delhi church attacks, police investigations now reveal that, except for the first incident, the remaining five were acts of petty crime. As regards the first case — the attack on St Sebastian's Church in Dilshad Garden — a Special Investigation team set up the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, is looking into it. That said, the Modi Government must also take care to carefully calibrate its minority message.
While it must silence the false alarms raised by vested interests, it need not go overboard and take to minority appeasement politics the country has vehemently voted against. For example, with regard to the church attacks, the need of the hour is a thorough probe leading to punishment of the culprits, not special laws to protect the minorities — for those will only lead to more social divisions.