New Delhi: With shock and awe becoming commonplace this election season, especially with Pragya Thakur’s candidature from Bhopal on a BJP ticket, no one blinked when a spate of Bollywood actors and cricketers joined the ranks of the ruling party.Code violations were also the flavour of the week, with accusations flying thick and fast. At a rally in Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi even bragged about horse trading, claiming that he was “in touch” with 40 TMC MLAs.The right-wing, though, largely stayed the course with the usual outpouring of approval for Modi and his policies, regular opposition bashing, and assertions that Begusarai in Bihar was in the bag for BJP all thanks to Kanhaiya Kumar.Math is not with Modi, everything else isAthar Khan, a consulting editor with Times Now, attempts to decode why the BJP “faithful have found their groove again” and the “real reason” behind a new “BJP surge” in the third and fourth phase of the election.It can’t simply be pegged on the “massively successful road show and its media afterglow”, he says, referring to Modi’s Varanasi roadshow.The heavy religious symbolism of the entire canvas, which in turn was decorated, curated and meticulously planned to the last detail, left nobody in any doubt about the verdict in Varanasi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, important allies like Nitish Kumar, Uddhav Thackeray, and all other NDA allies were present to complete the picture of a happy ‘parivar’… It sent out a powerful message, not just to BJP cadres and the Modi faithful, but more importantly to millions of ‘floating voters’ who tend to go with the winning side or the side that seems to be winning.He admits that the roadshow looks like it may have been borne out of “slight discomfort, maybe even a hint of desperation on the part of the ruling establishment”.It is then that he comes to the real reason behind the likelihood of an “imminent second Modi term”:The real reason for this BJP surge (again, either perceived or real) in the 3rd and 4th phase is the belief that when it comes to voting for the next PM of the country, the population is largely tilting towards Narendra Modi. Call it superior branding, effective communication, polished propaganda, masterful political messaging or pandering to the saffron base… call it what you will, when a question is framed in a deliberate, reductive format of Modi Vs Whom, the Prime Minister is going to get the nod 9 times out of 10.Ask any BJP supporter privately, and they will happily tell you that the Trump card is the Prime Minister. Forget vikas (development), forget Balakot, and forget everything else, “Modiji ko hi vote milega.”Of course, add an almost fawning media and “apolitical interviewers” bringing forth to voters hitherto unknown dimensions and layers of the PM’s aura by discussing ‘aam’ issues (Al=pun-so intended), the narrative is building in favour of another Modi term.Crying wolf in Modi’s IndiaIn an attempt to puncture a hole in the “narrative” of hate crimes in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure, Swati Goel Sharma, a senior editor at Swarajya, writes that “there is nothing to show that Muslims are being targeted more over their religious identity than other religious groups, including Hindus, for their beliefs”.This is because the same media that popularises hate crimes against minorities allegedly “turns a blind eye to atrocities by Islamists”. Sharma here offers no such examples of such atrocities, but says:Such has been the relentless push of a one-sided narrative that hate against BJP supporters has now been normalised. Open calls for lynching and death of ‘bhakts’, at times by professional journalists, has become par for the course; actual murders of Hindus for just being BJP supporters don’t raise any alarm.Goel cites two examples of “hate crime hoaxes” that give the occasional boost to the narrative of ‘secular forces’.The first is a story involving Misbah Qadri, a 25-year-old who had alleged that a broker had refused to rent out an apartment to her in Mumbai because of her religion. The broker had in turn accused Qadri of not having submitted the relevant documents. But “Qadri got away with her lie without any consequences”, Goel says, while the “popular media, which spiritedly reported her initial claim, showed little interest in the contrary details” and no apology was rendered to “either the broker or the readers or the target of their vilification – the BJP and its voter base of Hindus”.The easy use of Muslim victimhood did not lose currency.Goel moves on to the story of 22-year-old Umam Khanam, a law college student in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district, who had alleged that she was molested on a bus for being Muslim and refusing to wear a BJP cap. Khanam had shared her experience on Twitter, something, Goel says, was picked up by several publications because of the association with the BJP.The viral tweets were picked up by a large number of publications. It’s safe to assume that it wasn’t the alleged molestation but its association with ‘BJP’ and her identity as a ‘Muslim’ that found prompt favour with the media, as is evident from the headlines. ‘Youth harass Muslim girl for refusing to wear BJP cap’, said one. ‘Lone Muslim on college trip says she was abused for refusing BJP cap’, said another.Goel calls Khanam’s story into question before proceeding to tear into her “lies”:It emerged that away from the glare of the media where her version had been lapped up without question, the ‘victim’ found little support among those actually present on the bus. It turned out that 35 out of the 50 students on the bus had given a written statement to the college authorities the very next day of her written complaint, refuting her allegations.Her written complaint to the college, which named two of her male classmates as accused, gathered dust for more than a week as she did not care to show up before the internal inquiry committee. Eventually, the college was forced to close the inquiry without making any headway.Her classmates say she made up the story and did so “to get into the good books of Shehla Rashid”.Wrapping up the article with an attack on the “use of Muslim victimhood card”, Goel reminds her readers to be wary of such reports published by the “gullible – if not incompetent – media”.Incidentally, Khanam, and the journalist who broke the news of her harassment, Piyush Rai, continue to stick to their original story.Modi government’s successful terror policySuggesting that the “imminent danger of following a passive policy on terrorism” was made clear by the serial attack in churches in Sri Lanka two weeks ago, Chandni Sengupta for rightlog.in writes that this is the result of there being “little or no check on Muslim immigrants”.The audacious acts of Islamist terrorists are justified by harping on their economic status, unemployment and other socio-economic factors that are projected as factors for “making a terrorist.” Analysis of the psyche of the terrorist and his background take precedence over the innumerable loss of lives.Moving on, she says that barring the attack in Pulwama, where 40 CRPF jawans were killed, and the attack on an army camp in Pathankot, “there have been no major incidents of terrorism in the past five years”.Also read: Fact Check: Was Modi Really Unaware of the Pulwama Attack For Over Two Hours?This narrative has been proven false by the data again and again, as Sengupta ought to have checked before making this assertion. Instead, she harps on with empty words about Modi and the BJP government’s commitment to fighting terror:The Modi government has by and large performed well on the national security front and has not only secured the national border but has also taken effective steps in rooting out sleeper cells which were active during the Congress dispensation. Modi government has given a clarion call for dealing with terrorism the way it is supposed to be dealt with. PM Modi’s dogged determination has lifted the spirits of the citizens of our country, and now everyone is assured of safety and security.While Modi’s and minister of external affairs Sushma Swaraj’ condemnation of the attack on Sri Lanka “reinforced their commitment to fight against terror”, she holds similar tweets by the Congress leadership of no consequence because “the inaction of the Congress government following the dastardly attack on Mumbai in 2008 was an eye-opener for all those who believed that the UPA government was interested in national security”.The focus was never on dealing with the handlers sitting across the border, which is why the Balakot strike seemed to be a bolt from the blue for a party which followed an unassertive policy on terrorism.Sengupta waxes eloquent about why the Modi model on terror must be followed by states who wish to act.In the aftermath of the attacks in Sri Lanka and the persistent danger of such acts being repeated in any part of the world at any given time, the policy of Modi government going hard on terror seems to be the only logical intervention that the world needs at the moment. Every nation’s security is important and every nation has the right to defend itself against terrorism. The only possible way to win this war is to go on the offensive and instead of being meek spectators to the killings of innocent people, the ruling dispensations across the world need to show some might and act now. The Modi government model might be a good plan to replicate.
