Use of abusive and divisive speeches in Indian politics

The recent uproar in the parliament over a derogatory speech made by Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti has resulted in a lot of debates and discussions. The words she used while campaigning for BJP in Delhi were definitely not acceptable. After such a strong protest and maybe on the advice of senior leaders of her party, Ms. Jyoti apologized "if her comment hurt anyone." I wonder how she expected that after using such derogatory language it won't hurt anyone. The words she chose in her speech are definitely used to insult people who don't subscribe to her faith and political ideology, she not only used abusive language but also made a divisive speech where she questioned people's patriotism if they don't believe in the Hindu god Ram. She rightfully apologized for her abusive language but she and her party defended her divisive comments. Unfortunately, she is not the only one and BJP is not the only party who is trying to defend such divisive comments made by their leader there are quite a few political parties who do the same thing.

Any use of abusive language should be avoided on public platforms, but rarely do politicians in India show this restraint. They address each other with many derogatory names and adjectives but I can understand the theatrics they do to appease their base, so, I always ignore when they abuse each other, especially during election campaign speeches. But one can not ignore it when they start negatively painting communities or when they use derogatory words to insult people who don't support them, this propagates communal hatred and divisive politics. This leads to communal tension, sometimes it even leads to communal riots which are difficult to control once they start and that's why this is more dangerous. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti's speech comes exactly under this category of hate speech. She was not insulting any political leader or party, she was talking about all who don't agree with her political ideology and questioning the patriotism of people who don't respect a god from her religion. She literally abused everyone who didn't agree with her views, and this is not some ordinary party worker or some insignificant politician (fringe elements) this is a union minister in Mr. Modi's cabinet. This is the same Modi who declared on Red Fort not to indulge in any communal propaganda at least for 10 years so that the country can focus on important issues like development. But it seems no one from his own party or cabinet heard that part of his speech or they just ignored his request because these leaders think that politics has to be divisive, and without polarizing votes how can they win elections? Not taking any strict action against such people encourages such behavior, it reinforces the idea that as long as you are popular you can get away with anything.

As it happened many times in the past with BJP and many other parties this time also most of Sadhvi's comments were defended by her party. She apologized for using that abusive word (the word means "bastard") but not for the rest of her speech. BJP offered various explanations to defend her, their spokespersons even quoted many other instances where people used some derogatory words for Mr. Modi but they all failed miserably to differentiate between a personal attack and an attack on the entire community or the entire opposition. Nowadays abusive and divisive speeches are used very frequently in politics. Politicians who use them understand their impact very well. They use these types of speeches to their advantage but now it is time for people to understand this dirty game played by politicians and act accordingly.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:
1. Ruckus in Parliament over minister's abusive remark, opposition demands PM's statement
2. Modi's minister uses derogatory language, defends remark

Communal politics and hate speech

During the past month or so countless speeches have been delivered in India by various leaders from various political parties. 2014 general elections for Lok Sabha are still going on, and many political parties are engaged in a fierce political battle to win seats in the lower house of the Indian parliament. Mostly these political speeches are full of emotional calls, crude jokes, and personal remarks, rarely they contain anything substantial or useful. The main aim of these speeches is to highlight their party's agenda, engage the audience, and challenge them emotionally to vote for their party. Even though these speeches don't contain much authentic data and are normally full of impossible promises they influence voters. Many people get inspired after listening to them, and it can also mobilize the masses if required. That is why any hate speech or inflammatory speech is very dangerous, because like other inspirational speeches that can have a positive influence these speeches can have a negative impact on people. It doesn't matter who is delivering that speech and where it is delivered, such speeches can instigate feelings of hatred among people against certain castes, religions, genders, communities, or groups. This feeling of hatred then can manifest in some ugly forms like communal tension, social boycotts, or even communal riots killing innocent people.

I wrote a blog post somewhat related topic after that infamous hate speech by MIM (Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi. BJP leader Amit Shah and SP leader Azam Khan have been already warned for the hateful remarks they made during election campaign speeches, note these are some of the top national leaders. Recently few more similar instances happened, surprisingly most people involved in these incidents were related to BJP or its allies. In one recent incident, Mr. Praveen Togadia from VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) talked with some groups about how to get rid of Muslim neighbors, the content of his speech was disgusting and full of hatred towards Muslims. This was not the first time he delivered such hateful speech, he is a serial offender in this area and so far no action has been taken against him in any case. Another instance was when Giriraj Singh, BJP's candidate from Bihar, told all Modi opponents to leave India and go to Pakistan. In another instance, Saharanpur Congress candidate Imran Masood threatened to kill the Bharatiya Janata Party's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The most recent one that I saw was the more serious incident where in the presence of Mr. Narendra Modi Shiv Sena leader Mr. Ramdas Kadam threatened revenge against Muslims and also said that Modi would destroy Pakistan within six months of assuming power. All these speeches have something in common, a feeling of hatred towards some community or person, such a deep hatred that people are willing to go to any extent to attack that person or group. This is not a democracy but fascism, in a democracy, people criticize each other, argue, and debate but don't threaten to kill each other just because of differences of opinion. Another common thing among all these incidents is that none of these people faced any action from their own party for making such statements. Rather, they became more popular and prominent faces in their respective parties. There is no strong deterrent that can stop them from making such statements or using such tactics. Freedom of expression should not be curbed under any situation, all these people have the right to express their opinions, and it's up to voters to respond to such statements. Obnoxious statements like these should be challenged as shutting these people up is not an option. Freedom of expression comes at a cost but communal violence is not that cost. People need to decide if they want such people to represent them in the assembly or parliament. As long as voters vote for such people even after delivering such speeches they will use such dirty tactics to achieve their goals.

Words like "secular" and "communal" are used very frequently and casually in Indian politics. Every party claims to be secular and accuses its opponent of being communal. BJP, Congress, or any other regional party (like BSP, SP) all play this game with each other. They all try to fool voters by playing this game. AAP is a new entrant in this field and it will be too soon to say anything about them in this area, so I will wait and watch before making any conclusions about them. According to me, there is no real secular political party in India, some are less communal than others, that's the difference, they all use equations of caste or religion at their own convenience. Some even don't hesitate to use means of communal violence to achieve their political goals which is more dangerous. In fact, I don't even expect any party to be completely secular. In a society like India where religion plays such an important role in people's lives, it is practically impossible to keep religion and politics completely separate. But to spread feelings of hate and animosity between different groups purposely, and create division among people for political benefit is a dangerous exercise. Communal tension, frequent riots, rampant gender discrimination, casteism, and regionalism, are the results of such divisive politics. Because of a lack of awareness about these things political parties make use of these ugly tricks to fool people. There can be several other reasons for this lack of awareness about this divide-and-rule policy, after all, the British used a similar policy to rule India for many years. Because of the proven track record of divide and rule policy in India, these political parties can't avoid the temptation of using it for their own political gains. It is for people to recognize this trap and avoid it.  Only voters can diffuse this deadly weapon, these parties are not going to stop on their own.

Hate speeches are as dangerous hateful acts, they deserve strong condemnation and people should demand answers from respective political parties for such statements. We cannot ignore these things anymore, these things have already done enough damage to our society, and now the time has come to put an end to such divisive politics. This type of politics already resulted in the division of our country in the past, if we can't stop it now then we don't know what problems it might create in the future. Politics should be based on issues and topics related to development and governance, it should not be based on hate and revenge. Religion should not be mixed with politics as much as possible, and hate speeches should not be encouraged at any cost. Communal politics and hate speeches are different sides of the same coin and they should not have any place in civilized political discourse. I hope all political parties and voters understand the danger that lies behind the use of such tactics and behave accordingly. The time has come to change the direction of political discourse in India and only we the people of this country can do it. Let's hope we recognize this and act responsibly before it's too late.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links: 

3. Saharanpur Congress candidate threatens to chop Narendra Modi into pieces

1. Hate politics..let's not encourage it anymore..

2. Praveen Togadia's recent hate speech

3. Shiv Sena leader Kadam shares stage with Modi, makes hate speech against Muslims

4. Hate speech: Election Commission censures Amit Shah, Azam Khan
5. Saharanpur Congress candidate threatens to chop Narendra Modi into pieces

Hate politics - let's not encourage it anymore

MIM (Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi is in the news for his arrest because of the hate speech he delivered in a town near Hyderabad. His arrest can be called a very brave and much-needed step to counter the evil of hate politics. The case is already in court and we have to wait and see what will be the outcome of this case. At least some action has been taken about the hate speech, so let's wait and watch.

This is not the first incident where a political leader has delivered such a speech. We have a long history of speeches like this, and many names can be mentioned. We can argue about who started it, how many people got away, why Mr. Akbaruddin should be punished, and things like that. One can take many names apart from Owaisi like Late Balasaheb Thackeray, Praveen Togadia, Uma Bharati, Sadhvi Ritambara, Varun Gandhi, Digvijay Singh, Narendra Modi, and many more. The list is huge, and they all delivered some type of speech against some community or group that created controversy and communal unrest. There can be many arguments and counterarguments. One can justify some speeches as a need of time, as a reaction to a certain incident, or just as provocative speech rather than hate speech. The fact is that these speeches created some disturbance in society, and were used to get some political mileage. Our system failed miserably to punish these people or sometimes protected and encouraged such speeches. We have to start somewhere, so why not now, and why not with Owaisi? 

Owaisi's speech has all the characteristics of hate speech and it demands to be punished. It spreads venom against Hindus, calls for civil war, and includes many things that are regularly used in these types of speeches. For example, talking about some tragic incidents from the past to challenge people's emotions and incite them to take revenge for the past incident that is no longer relevant today. Normally these speeches try to spread perceptions like the majority is trying to suppress or exploit the minority (if it's delivered by some minority leader) or the minority is getting an unfair advantage and crossing their line (if delivered by some majority leader) and things like this. Political parties and leaders use some of these theories, and some incidents to sensationalize some issues and challenge people's emotions. They bring caste, religion, region, state, or whatever can help them to divide and rule. Their intention is to create a polarized society and a loyal vote bank, which can vote for them no matter what. Many times, they are successful in creating their own brand in state or national politics and this success encourages more people to try this formula, that's why we need to stop this somewhere.

People like Akbaruddin Owaisi are not present only in a particular religion or belong only to certain political parties, they are present in every party. Every party needs people like him to appease their vote bank, they deliver some controversial statements from time to time to keep the fire of tension burning. They keep the media busy and try to be in the news. We need to put an end to this type of politics. Such politicians need to know that people are not going to get fooled by these statements anymore. I know that many of these issues or incidents they mention in their speeches require serious investigation, and culprits need to be punished. Various governments at the state or national levels failed to address many of these problems in a timely manner which allowed such leaders to flourish and prosper. These types of leaders claim to express the feelings of people who feel marginalized in their own country or state. In some cases the current establishment allows these types of leaders or parties to grow purposely for short-term political gains. 

Any single political party can not be solely blamed for this type of politics. Some are more vicious compared to others, but the blame has to be on the entire system, including regulators. They are all in this game together and we are also playing this game with them. We are also responsible for this mess. They are not going to stop on their own. We need to put an end to such hate politics. We need to tell them that they are not going to get our votes based on hate politics. We are not going to listen to this crap anymore, we need to be loud and we need to be very clear. Let's not encourage this anymore. After all, the choice is ours because this country is ours and these leaders are also our own leaders, and we have the power to make them as well as fix them if they are not functioning properly.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

References:
1. Owaisi sent to 14 day judicial custody
2. YouTube link for Owaisi's speech