Modi Has Perfected the Art of Keeping Silent and Letting Others Do the Talking

hile Prime Minister Narendra Modi gifted 200 cows to Rwanda, Rakbar Khan’s wife and seven young children in rural Haryana were reeling from the loss of their family’s sole breadwinner, who was killed over two cows.

On the night of July 20, 28-year-old Khan was walking home with a friend and two cows he had bought for Rs 60,000 just across the border in Alwar, Rajasthan. The reason he was walking, his wife says, was because he had no money to hire a tempo. Just before he crossed the state border, he was attacked by a large mob that accused him of cow smuggling and proceeded to brutally beat him. His friend escaped into the fields.

According to the FIR, a member of the mob, Naval Kishore Sharma, called the police at about 12:41 am and help arrived at about 1:25 am on Saturday morning. Khan was reportedly transported on the floor of a police van to a nearby home and washed up. Meanwhile, the police arranged a vehicle to transport the cows to a gaushala.

The policemen reportedly drank cups of tea from a stall en route. Khan was finally brought to a hospital at 4 am, where he was declared dead on arrival. The autopsy report states he died of shock as a result of 13 injuries caused by a blunt object.

There we have it – allegedly “saving” two cows at the cost of orphaning seven children. But the issue doesn’t end there. Various leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, including ministers and MLAs, have had a lot to say on the matter over the past few days:

“Appeal to Muslims to stop smuggling cows and understand the sentiments of Hindus… they must stop this business..” – Jaswant Singh Yadav, BJP, minister in the Rajasthan government

“Lynchings will stop if people don’t eat beef…develop the right sanskars…” – Indresh Kumar, RSS leader

“Indresh Kumar is a mature man…” – Giriraj Singh, BJP MP

“Muslims should abstain from touching cows” – Vinay Katiyar, BJP leader

“The more Modiji becomes popular, such incidents will keep occurring..” – Arjun Ram Meghwal, BJP, Union minister of state for water resources

“Lynchings will continue till cow slaughter is stopped in the country…” – Raja Singh, MLA, BJP

The prime minister, unsurprisingly, has said nothing. Yet another instance of Modi’s “politics of ventriloquism” – the art of remaining silent while others do the talking.

What disturbs us most today, and has been happening over and over again in India since 2014? Yes, that same thing that BJP-RSS leaders keep claiming is not such a big deal after all; in fact, it’s nothing more that a sign of the prime minister’s ever-increasing popularity.

One of two things must be true. Either all the gentlemen quoted above are speaking with Modi’s consent, or Modi no longer has control over his party. For a man who barely five days ago won a no-confidence motion on the floor of the Lower House 325-126, it is unlikely that the latter is the case.

Of course we realise the one man cannot control what prejudices and biases human beings have against others who may look, dress or eat differently. But what Modi and his government can control are institutions that make it unacceptable, nay impossible, to air these prejudices in public, far less act upon them. The advent of stringent anti-hate and anti-racism laws in Europe and the US did not mean all white people stopped hating people of colour, it just meant they couldn’t talk about it in public, much less act on it. There will still be Hindus in India who may not like the idea of their daughter marrying a Muslim man and vice versa. That is different.

What we are talking about here is a young Muslim boy getting lynched on a train, on his way home after shopping for Eid, simply because he was wearing a skull cap. We are talking about sick perverts who entrap an eight-year old child in a temple and rape her to death, and leaders of the ruling party who march in their defence. We are talking about a lone assassin in Rajasthan who hacks an innocent migrant labourer from Bengal to death while spewing communal abuse, and numerous groups in the state that raise money to defend the killer in court.

Is Modi’s government even looking at the difference between just simple right and wrong, let alone the larger good and evil?

It cannot be that our great country placed trust in Modi’s government to govern us for five years only for things to come to such a pass – that the only choice a poor dairy farmer struggling to eke out a living has is between going near a cow and staying alive. At 10 pm last Friday, our prime minister was standing tall in parliament and telling the country how he, a hard-working son with humble roots, empathised with the struggles of the downtrodden. Two hours later and barely 150 km away, Rakbar Khan was being beaten to death.

It is time for Modi to reclaim his conscience. He must stop this politics of ventriloquism and doublespeak. Either he should speak out in the name of good, or stop others in his government and party from speaking out in the name of hate. And in doing that, Modi can work on giving us back our country, our faith, our tolerance and our innate sense of right and wrong.
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