Where words speak louder than actions

Into that heaven, my Father, my country has already awakened

“For our party, mahila shakti is important.”

“Equal respect for all religions must be in the DNA of every Indian.”

Who said this? If you answered PM Modi, full marks. Everyone else will be sent to detention camp.

After a close study of many such statements, I’ve found that Mr Modi always says the right things. It is everyone else who gets it wrong.

In a 2018 Mahila Morcha convention, Mr Modi said his government had created women-focussed welfare programmes for the first time. And society had now entirely changed its view of women. This was after just four years in power. Now, close on six years, can you imagine the leaps and bounds women’s empowerment must have taken?

All aflutter, I checked out the latest Amnesty International study. It said that between March and May last year, of 100 female Indian politicians, 95 had received nearly a million hateful comments on Twitter. One in five of these was a sexist or misogynistic comment. And that’s only politicians. The report didn’t cover actors like Deepika Padukone or writers like Rana Ayyub.

Mr Modi, who makes no secret of how much he respects women, follows 2,383 people on Twitter. Among these are a bunch of luminaries who proclaim that they are “proud to be followed by PM Modi”. When fact-finding website Alt News examined these accounts, it found that these handles regularly label female journalists, writers and actors as ‘prostitutes’. If the names are Muslim, they are also called ‘suicide bombers’ and ‘terrorists’.

If you wondered what a women-focussed programme is, now you know. It is basically a set of insults and threats distributed to paid trolls of the IT cell so that they can regularly show “love and respect” to any woman who speaks up against the government.

Which is why the brave and outspoken Swara Bhaskar is constantly targeted. And what do they abuse her with? The fact that she acted in a scene that simulated masturbation in the film Veere di Wedding. It works like this: If in Kabir Singh, the hero struts about with ice in his pants to subdue his raging libido or threatens a woman at knifepoint for sex, it is male desire at its best. But female desire? By god, she must be an anti-national. So, if Bhaskar supports JNU, the scene is invoked. If she protests the CAA, the scene is invoked again. And always in the foulest language.

So, why does the woman-respecting PM follow these handles? His supporters claim he is unaware of his followers’ tweets. Fair enough. So, when such tweets are pointed out, why doesn’t he or his social media team unfollow these people? Instead, as the Alt News report points out, these trolls post selfies with the PM and meet him at special events. Why, one would imagine they were being rewarded! But the PM respects women, so we must be mistaken.

As we are mistaken about this government’s motives against Muslims. As far back as 2015, in a speech at New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan, Mr Modi said that the “tradition of welcoming, respecting and honouring all faiths is as old as India itself”. Can such a PM enact the CAA, which clearly does not welcome one religion? There must be a doppelganger loose somewhere.

In that same speech, the PM declared: “My government will not allow any religious group to incite hatred against others.” Yet, in Delhi, BJP’s Parvesh Verma, speaking about Shaheen Bagh, said, “These people will enter your houses, rape your sisters and daughters, kill them.” In Bengal, BJP’s Dilip Ghosh said that his party in UP and Karnataka had “shot these people like dogs”. In Karnataka, BJP MLA Renukacharya said he would block facilities to Muslims since they did not vote for him in 2018. All this sounds like inciting hatred, but I must be mistaken.

An NDTV report notes a sharp spike in hate speech in December 2019, post CAA. Of 25 such communal speeches, 23 were by BJP leaders. But you know how unreliable data is. I am sure Mr Modi will be able to release a better report soon. Or he will, no doubt, make a rousing speech defending women’s empowerment and minority rights. It is our duty to believe that speech. Because actions on the ground don’t matter. Please, don’t disagree. I can’t visit you in detention camp.

Where the writer tries to make sense of society with seven hundred words and a bit of snark.