The BJP claims to fight for Hindus; it claims that Hindus are in danger and they need protection. But today, when Hindus are literally in danger and are dying because of lack of oxygen, medicine and treatment, BJP leaders and the broader Hindutva family is simply indifferent to the pain of countless Indians who are going through intense mental and physical suffering to save themselves and their loved ones from COVID.
Similarly, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister has claimed that there was no shortage of oxygen in the state, and going further, threatened legal action and confiscation of the property of those who flagged oxygen shortage in any UP hospital.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who had earlier asked states to control the ‘demand side of oxygen consumption’, a few days ago claimed that “we have enough stock of oxygen”, while the Health minister, who had claimed in February that we are in the ‘endgame of Coronavirus’, is nowadays busy retweeting tweets of the Prime Minister and writing counter letters to opposition leaders.
While on the one hand, the entire BJP ruling establishment has been in denial regarding the gravity of the situation, the propaganda machinery of BJP – both its official IT Cell and the godi media – has been busy spreading toxic ‘positivity’ and minimizing the extent of the crisis in order to shield the Prime Minister from any criticism.
Even as countless Indian citizens as well as leaders and activists of opposition parties are using every bit of their resources to amplify the desperate calls for beds, oxygen and medicines on social media, the world’s largest social media team, the BJP IT Cell, is busy denying the crisis, justifying the lack of preparedness by the Central government and blaming the opposition’s “70 years rule”.
Why is an ideology that claims to represent and save Hindus showing such extreme apathy to the suffering of broad masses of Hindus who are not even able to perform the last rites of their loved ones as bodies pile up at crematoriums? Why can’t the BJP leader see the plight of countless people who are dying because of lack of oxygen and are issuing desperate last minute appeals on social media platforms? Why can’t the BJP see the plight of that mother who was carrying the dead body of her young son in an e-rickshaw, making arrangements for his last rites?
What explains this lack of empathy and sympathy of the BJP leaders towards the country’s masses?
The problem does not simply lie with the megalomaniac ego of BJP leaders, nor with them being intoxicated with power and aura of invincibility. The problem is the very nature of the ideology to which they subscribe i.e. right wing.
By their very nature, right wing ideologies are not concerned about concrete living human beings. Human beings, in the right wing philosophy, are merely an ‘object’ or ‘tool’ who are meant to serve a ‘bigger’ purpose. This ‘bigger’ purpose is not about betterment of human living conditions; it is also not about positive ideas like freedom or equality. Instead, it is geared towards abstract concepts like nation, culture, race, ethnicity and religion etc. and ‘safeguarding’ them from imaginary threats.
In the right wing philosophy, human beings are not considered as citizens enjoying fundamental rights, but as duty bound subjects. The duty of these subjects is towards one’s own community, which is defined on the basis of religion, caste, race and ethnicity etc.
The focal point of all right wing mobilizations and politics is either to safeguard one’s own community or to restore the imagined past glory or both.
The BJP actually does not care about Hindus; what they only care about is naked power. If the BJP cared even a bit for the life of millions of people, they would not have held massive election rallies in West Bengal when the pandemic was on the rise. Neither would it have allowed the Kumbh Mela to be held, which emerged as a major COVID super-spreader.
In these dire times, our Prime Minister, who otherwise loves to address the nation, is absent, probably advised by his PR managers to avoid the camera considering the sensitive situation all across the country.
But one can be sure that once this deadly second wave subsides, our Prime Minister will emerge from his safe-house to address the nation once again to claim victory. The BJP IT Cell will laud the Prime Minister for “saving the lives” of countless Indians; and minions in the government will hail the Prime Minister for “defeating” the second wave under his “able and inspiring” leadership.
And all this while, Indians will be mourning the loss of their loved ones to COVID, waiting for the even more deadly third wave.
