Cultural clashes in ‘the heart of India’

MP without attracting any moral policing!

This dichotomy between thought, action and a growing intolerance of other viewpoints has seen the ruling party take steps that seem to regard other ideologies or cultures as “inferior”. Unsurprisingly, MP minister for culture, Laxmikant Sharma, has recently questioned the faith of a French writer whose book talks of an alleged affair between Rani Laxmibai and a British lawyer. “You are influenced by ‘sex-obsessed Christian beliefs’ and hence you are unable to comprehend other cultures or their personalities,” the minister is believed to have told the author while asking for an apology and a pledge not to repeat such “cultural violations” in the future.

A few months ago, MP’s health minister, Ajay Vishnoi, promoted a booklet that used quotations from Islam to encourage Muslims to opt for family planning. “What comes in the way of family planning is ignorance and not religion,” the minister had said while releasing the booklet that expressed concern over a rising Muslim population. At the same time, MP was quick to follow Gujarat in banning sex education because the government felt it would corrupt young minds. This was followed by an announcement to introduce Yoga in schools. “We want to promote Yoga shiksha not ‘youn shiksha’ (sex education),” MP ministers say, parroting the slogan popularised by Baba Ramdev. To drive the point further, they claim abortion clinics have come up next to schools in the “corrupted” West. In keeping with its newfound love for Yoga, the government made Yoga and ‘Surya Namaskar’ compulsory in schools. Later it backtracked and announced that organising such events was compulsory fbut participation was voluntary. It disregarded the minority community’s plea that non-participation would still divide students along lines of faith.

When a little-known painter showcased his unabashedly anti-Muslim paintings at Bharat Bhavan, the government stood by him in the name of protecting freedom of expression. Amid calls to cancel the exhibition, the paintings were displayed as scheduled with a large posse of policemen ready to pounce on vandals. Incidentally, the same party had justified vandalism in the incident involving the Vadodara’s Fine Arts Faculty.

With the state government playing such a proactive role no one is expected to keep other organisations in the Sangh Parivar in check. Apart from the routine moral policing around Valentine’s Day, Bajrang Dal beat up two foreigners merely on the suspicion of carrying beef when, as laboratory reports proved, they had only chicken and pork. The BJP government has already imposed a total ban on cow slaughter and is readying a bill to provide for stringent punishment for slaughtering the cow or its progeny. But Bajrang Dal activists need no legislation when it comes to cows. When a Muslim driver’s vehicle accidentally hit a cow in the state capital and he had struck a compromise with the cattle owner, the Bajrang Dal hauled him to the police station saying they did not recognise such compromises.

Christian missionaries are leading a relatively easier existence in the state these days. Yet a Christian could not marry a handicapped Hindu girl for months because he was accused of luring her with money. The couple had completed all the formalities and had to approach the governor in order to get married. The charges against the groom were found to be fabricated. The marriage was finally solemnised under police protection.

All this has happened when the party has changed three chief ministers since wresting power from the Congress in 2003. Uma Bharati, Hindutva’s poster-girl who helped the BJP in its landslide victory in MP, has floated a new party but her parent organisation has lived up to her ideology.