BJP must first rein in loose cannons

Voices airing criticism against the climate of intolerance are rising to a crescendo and the BJP, a party elected to rule with the biggest mandate in over three decades, has not been seen to be doing enough to tackle the symptoms, leave alone finding a lasting remedy to India’s ancient disease. The fact that Shah Rukh Khan waded into the debate on his 50th birthday simply added more fuel to the fire as he is a leading example of Indian society’s diversity. The war of words consequently got more personal with BJP hotheads spewing verbal venom at an easy target. The Bihar polls added a political dimension to the controversies.

The pattern of events should have suggested to the BJP long ago that the image of the country is at stake. The tone of the debate leaves a lot to be desired but what makes it considerably worse is that motormouths in the BJP are using the idiom of the street, although it must be said that some among the intelligentsia, too, are guilty of the same. An intelligent response from the party and the government would have been to call for calm and rein in the hotheads so that the climate was not vitiated. In simply chanting that the party does not subscribe to these crass views — which are also not in consonance with those of the Prime Minister — not enough is being seen to be done to make a difference to the challenge being posed to national values. Let us not forget our pluralism enabled India to be an island of secular sanity in a region beset by religious and ethnic bigotry, even barbarity.

As a citizen, Shah Rukh Khan had a right to air his concerns. A counter would have been to appeal to him as well to not be carried away by a chain of incidents that is minuscule when seen in the historical perspective of an ancient land that boasted one of the world’s earliest civilisations. While the highest in the land, like the President and the Prime Minister, have spoken, the former on many occasions, what the BJP has not been doing is to walk the talk.

As the government in power, the NDA has a lot more to lose from any slippage in tolerance levels. By taking a combative tone against those who raise concerns rather than acting firmly to control the spill, as Union finance minister Arun Jaitley has been doing, the government is shooting itself in the foot. The current situation is not one in which to be scoring debating points. Also, regardless of which party is ruling in which state, clear cases of murder, as in Dharwad in Karnataka and Dadri in UP, should have been solved with far greater alacrity and the culprits brought to justice.