As the country is fast gearing towards the Lok Sabha election mode to elect a new government at the Centre, there are tell-tale signs of the electoral strategies the two main contenders – the BJP and the Congress – seem to be getting ready to adopt. The hype over the Ayodhya temple leaves no one in doubt that the BJP will try to cash in on the religious sentiments of its main constituency. To reinforce it, it appears, the BJP MLA from Rajasthan’s Hawa Mahal, Balmukund Acharya, has raised the hijab issue once again, objecting to girls wearing hijab at a government school. Taking a cue from him, a Cabinet minister of the state Kirodi Lal Meena said he would talk to Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma about enforcing a ban on the head covering in all government and private schools in the state.
After Acharya visited the Government Girls’ Secondary School in Jaipur’s Gangapol locality 29 January, a video surfaced showing him pulling up a school administrator over some students wearing the hijab. In another video he is seen asking school authorities to stop students from wearing the hijab in school, which has a mix of Hindoo and Moslem children. He was so determined to show his religious predilections that he led the students in chants of Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Saraswati Mata Ki Jai. In the video that went viral he was heard taking note that some girls were not joining the chorus and then he asked them whether they were silent as per instructions.
The Moslem students were so enraged by the outrageous behaviour of the MLA that they gheraoed the Subhash Chowk police station, demanding that the MLA stop “vitiating the atmosphere in schools” and apologise for his actions. One protesting student even raised a pertinent point that since the MLA goes to the Assembly wearing a saffron robe why he was discriminating against the hijab.
After the incident, Moslem and Hindoo students submitted separate complaints to the police. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Jaipur North) Rashi Dogra said the complaints had been forwarded to the District Collector. “Both groups are alleging that they are not being allowed to follow their religious practices in the school,” she said.
Minister Meena went further and parroted the BJP’s favourite line of political argument that because of “the fanaticism in the Muslim community” and “the appeasement politics” of the Congress, the community has not been able to progress. He also insisted the dress code in schools should be followed. He shared his pearl of wisdom that if a girl goes to school wearing a hijab, there would not be discipline in school and students will wear any dress in schools.
In fact, a controversy around the hijab in educational institutions raged in December 2021 in Karnataka when six college students in Udupi district were denied entry because of the head covering. The then BJP government of that state had also issued a circular that pre-university colleges must adhere to the dress code. Six students approached the Karnataka High Court, which upheld the state government’s order. The case is now being challenged in the Supreme Court. With the change of government the Congress Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he had instructed officials that there would be no restrictions on wearing the hijab. However, a day after saying this he did a volte-face and said that the state government was only contemplating such a move.
Meanwhile, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi 29 January saying that he would bring dictatorship if voted back to power. Addressing a rally in Bhubaneswar, Kharge appealed to people to save democracy, and expressed the fear that if Modi wins this coming Lok Sabha polls, there will not be another election after that. He even compared the situation in Russia with India. “Like (Vladimir) Putin’s presidential election in Russia the same will happen in India.”
Ironically, Kharge seems to have conceded defeat when he said the BJP will get 200, 300, 400 and 500 seats. Then in an act of desperation tinged with despondency he told voters that they can either save democracy or become slaves “like under the British regime.”
The Congress appears to have messed up the attempts to stitch together a viable Opposition by denying Nitish Kumar the post of the convenor of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). The post is coveted in the sense that it puts the leader occupying it ahead of others in the bloc in the race to become the next PM in the event of victory. Kumar had been sulking for some time for having been sidelined in the INDIA bloc. It now is clear that all this while he was secretly clinching a deal with the BJP. The Congress’ obduracy to puncture Nitish’s prime ministerial ambition on rather the flimsy ground that Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee had reservations about him proved to be the last straw. It may be viewed by some as a rank bad move.
Whatever Nitish’s credibility, it is no denying the fact that his departure from the Opposition camp makes the task of overthrowing the BJP even more difficult. Kharge was economical with truth when he asserted that Nitish’s exit from INDIA would not weaken the bloc. How these acts play out on the broader election screen will be seen by all of us very soon.