Having been born and brought up in a Namboodiri landlord family in Kerala’s only Muslim majority district before independence, this author has seen how, as part of untouchability, Kerala also had ‘unapproachability’.For those practicing this casteist norm, an Ezhava, part of other backward classes (OBC), must be kept off 30 feet lest the ‘upper’ caste person get ‘polluted’. For Dalits, the rule was 60 feet, and for unassimilated tribals, 100 feet. The feudal system had ruthlessly imposed these social mores before the birth of the Indian constitution. Curiously, there was no such restriction for Muslims and Christians; they could approach an ‘upper’ caste Hindu without the latter fearing getting ‘polluted’ by them. I bring this up only to underline a curious aspect of the Kerala psyche. It was casteist towards Hindus but could be ‘syncretic’ towards others. Vavar, a Muslim associate of the Sabarimala deity, has a mosque near the temple and Hindus make it a point to visit it. The 14th century Koratti Muthi church was uniquely constructed on land gifted by the local Raja. It retains many Hindu features. There are several more such cases. For those coming from a pluralistic background, it is agonising to find the mindless ghettoisation being pursued by the Modi-Shah duo as a well thought out political strategy during the past 11 years. Communal ‘othering’ is the chief instrument in their toolkit to create and maintain an assured vote bank. Before Modi, the BJP could not come to power without the support of the minority groups. “The BJP believes that Indian Muslims are an integral part of the nation,” the party had said in a 2005 political resolution, adding: “However, since Independence, the Congress has viewed Muslims purely as a vote-bank. In the process, their pressing issues such as modern education, living conditions, livelihood and women’s rights have been glossed over. The BJP reiterates its principle of justice for all and appeasement of none. The party will always remain committed to this.”“I wanted the Hinduism of Vivekananda, not the one based on ‘narrow-mindedness’,” Atal Bihari Vajpayee had once said in a taped speech in 2002. Illustration: Pariplab ChakrabortyOne may debate the sincerity and meaning of those words but the language of the BJP today is markedly different. Indeed, the Modi regime has been openly using Hindu-Muslim conflict as its winning strategy. That is the crucial difference between the two approaches: Modi and the previous BJP leadership. Consider the Modi-Shah regime’s single-minded efforts at saffronisation of history textbooks, elimination of opposition voters, imposition of Hindi, Nazi-style detention camps along borders, mandating the singing of Vande Mataram in Bengal’s madrasas, media control, concentration of powers through rule changes. The list is rather long. All this leads to political, administrative and judicial manipulation. The Modi-Shah regime seems to have no ‘illusion’ about Muslim support for the BJP. For instance, 38% of Assam’s population is Muslim, but there is none among the 102 new BJP MLAs in the Himanta Sarma government. On the contrary, of the 19 Congress MLAs in the assembly, 18 are Muslim. In the past five years, the Modi government did not have a single Muslim minister or MP. This is deliberate ghettoisation, keeping a whole section of the polity outside of politics. Political observers also fear that the Modi-Shah regime intends to introduce some kind of separate electorate for the minorities.Such administrative measures get prompt support from the Hindutva groups at the ground level. For instance, every religious festival, Hindu or Muslim, is an occasion for heightening communal tension: Muharram, Id, Diwali, temple festivals and processions like Kawadias are used for creating communal tension. When the dates of festivals clash, it is all the more delightful for hate mongers. The VHP and other Hindutva groups take objection to Muslim artisans preparing the kits and costumes for kawariyas.The Supreme Court had to intervene when some BJP governments ordered a ban on Muslims traders setting up shops along the route. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath, the most virulent anti-Muslim chief minister, recently warned Muslims against holding namaz in public places. When reminded there was hardly any place available to accommodate all of them, he advised them to control their population. His latest drive has been to shut Varanasi’s decade old Eid-eve goat market. In Kolkata, Amit Shah’s newly captured region, fresh curbs were imposed on Eid namaz this year. The venue was shifted and no public slaughter of animals allowed.In Maharashtra, ‘pig worship’ and a ban on goat sacrifice have been the highlights of pre-Eid harassment this year. Pig worship by Hindutva ardents in Muslim areas was reported from Mumbai, Delhi and West Bengal. The BMC also revoked permission granted for goat sacrifice.Goats were removed from residential areas in Thane and a housing society cluster in Mumbai. A favourable high court judgment was used by Hindutva hardliners on the basis of a revised report by the ASI – a government department – on the Bhojshala dispute. The next in the firing line is the Kasmandi dispute.Earlier this year, the BJP‘s Andhra Pradesh ally Chandrababu Naidu had announced cash incentives for couples having third and fourth child. This was to raise the state’s population. Later, the VHP urged Naidu to confine the incentive to Hindu parents, not Muslims.With almost the entire domestic media toeing Amit Shah’s blackout dictum, it will be rewarding to have a look at the much maligned foreign media. And most of them provide what our domestic media try to hide from the readers.In a lengthy piece with on-the-spot details, The New Yorker concluded that a “populist Prime Minister has legitimized India’s more militant groups”. Clearly, targeted attacks on minorities are on the rise, it found giving details. The Guardian attacked the Hindu supremacist nationalism and gave instances of how it has been “tearing India apart”. It gave details of how over a period JNU has been systematically saffronised. TIME magazine gave details of how history is being weaponised by the Hindutva groups against the country’s Muslims.In another study, TIME also provided details of how Hindutva pop music is bring used to spread violence against the minorities. The BBC, with accompanying details, explained how Muslims in Uttar Pradesh are becoming victims of hate crimes and are living under fear. They are being beaten and humiliated. In parts of Haryana, Hindu extremists were reported by Le Monde as hunting down Muslims with impunity. Human Rights Watch has explained how government policies are targeting Indian Muslims. It presented many cases to establish the contention. Genocide Watch, in a special report, narrated the persecution of Muslim women under Modi government.Reuters in an exhaustive study, of which the agency itself is a victim, provided details of how the Modi government cracked down on the media. It gave details of harassment of foreign media by various government arms.Taken together, the pattern that emerges is disturbing.In an age of fractured mandates, personality cults and transactional alliances, P. Raman brings clarity to India’s shifting political equations. With Realpolitik, the veteran journalist peers beneath the slogans and spin to reveal the power plays, spectacle, crises and insecurities driving India’s politics.