By Arun Srivastava
Any political party which has acquired incisive skill and expertise in double standard and speak, blowing hot and cold at the same time, is none else but the BJP of Narendra Modi. There is serious lack of consistency in its stance and utterances. In the past the party had resorted to this strategy, but not on this large scale as is seen today. The best example of course has been the issue of declaring the sacred religious sites of Jains as the tourist places.
The Modi government’s forest ministry, on August 2, 2019, declared the Sammed Shikharji in Parasnath Hills in Jharkhand as a tourist place. On its part the Jharkhand government had declared it as an eco-sensitive zone. Angry with this decision of the Modi government the Jains, since then have been agitating and demanding revocation of the order, since then. But Modi government refused to take their agitation seriously and mitigate their grievances.
Declaring Sammed Shikharji as the tourist place has been the part of the same design to fatten the rank of the Hindus. The jains are separate identity and do not treat them as a part of the Hindu community though they have very cordial relation with the Hindu community.
With the agitation getting spread across the country and having gathered wide range of support, Modi government on January 5 made a tactical retreat and directed the Jharkhand government to immediately take all steps necessary to protect the hill’s sanctity. Incidentally it is yet to notify cancellation of its 2019 order. It simply stayed all tourism activities on Parasnath Hill where the most sacred pilgrimage site of the Jains is located.
This was purely a move to bestow Modi with the credit to come to the support of the Jain community and restore the sanctity of their religious place. It is worth mentioning that the previous BJP government of Jharkhand, headed by Raghubar Das had accorded the status of tourist place to the religious site. At that point of time the Jains had objected to the move, but it was overruled by Das, the then chief minister of the state.
The Union environment ministry had sent an office memorandum to the state in this regard following directions from Prime Minister Modi. In fact on Thursday Hemant Soren, chief minister of non- BJP coalition government had written to the Centre drawing the attention towards snowballing of discontent and urging to cancel a Union government notification.
While warning the Jain leaders to be cautious of the BJP design, not to fall in its tarp and be aware of the machinations of the Modi government and BJP, the JMM central general secretary showed to the media in Ranchi a letter issued by the tourism department in February 2019 under the Raghubar Das-led BJP government declaring the Parasnath Hills as a tourist spot in the form of a gazette.
He also requested the Jain community members to identify the real culprits, the BJP, behind declaring the sacred place as a tourist spot way back in 2019. He said “Instead, we are seeing a narrative being presented in the media, that there are rallies and protests across the country against the Hemant Soren government for trying to belittle the sacred place of the Jain community. We would request the community members against falling into the trap of the BJP government”.
The community leaders point out that 20 of their 24 Tirthankars (saviours and spiritual teachers) had attained Mahanirvana (salvation) at Sammed Shikharji. Obviously how could this sacred place be declared as a tourist site. Sources maintain that the Das government had planned to allot the vast chunk of land near the religious site to some corporate house. Members of the Jain community have been protesting against the move to promote religious tourism on Parasnath Hill.
Meanwhile Congress leader and former Union minister Pradeep Jain Aditya and party spokesperson PawanKhera had alleged that BJP wants to “commercialise” the pilgrimage centres of Jain religion like Sammed Shikharji, Palitana’s Shatrunjaya hills (in Gujarat), Mount Girnar (also in Gujarat) and make them a medium to fill the state coffers.
The dichotomy in the BJP’s approach and action is also evident in the case of paying compensation to the Dalits and Muslims killed in Kashmir in militant attacks. An association representing Dalits and other persecuted sections had alleged caste bias in paying compensation. Several Muslim families in Kashmir have also alleged that they faced discrimination on the basis of religion in compensation payments and job offers after their relatives were killed by militants.
“The families of panchayat members who died before 2019 were given a pittance but faced no discrimination on the basis of religion. However, there has been a brazen display of discrimination after 2019,” alleged Shafiq Mir, chairman of the All J&K Panchayat Conference. He alleged that family of slain sarpanch Ajay Pandita, a Kashmiri Pandit, received an ex gratia of Rs 20 lakhs, but the family members of the Muslim victims are still struggling. These Muslims had stood for democratic institutions in the most difficult times. Dalits and wage labourers who migrated to Kashmir are the most vulnerable. After their deaths in terrorist attacks they seldom get enough support from the government.
Classic example of double speak has come from Shillong. While the Catholic Association of Shillong had expressed severe resentment on the December 16 letter issued by the Assam police’s special branch to all districts seeking information on the number of churches and religious conversion, among others, in the neighbouring state, the chief minister of Assam, Shri. Himanta Biswa Sarma instead of initiating any action against the officer expressed his innocence saying; “I would like to clarify the position of the government of Assam: we don’t want to have any survey on any church or, for that matter, on any other religious institution…. In short, I completely dissociate myself from the letter. It was never discussed at any government forum”.
No doubt Sarma’s statement underlines his attempt to conceal involvement of his office in the wrongdoing, it also points to lack of consistency in the government functioning. This step has been initiated coinciding with holding of assembly election in Meghalaya, a Christian-majority state.
Shillong-based Khasi Jaintia Christian Leaders Forum observed ; “The deafening silence of the Prime Minister on atrocities against Christians over a long period of time in different parts of the country is significantly notable.” The Catholic Association of Shillong has also called upon the Modi government to “protect the lives and properties of Christians and other minority groups all over the country.” It also pointed out “the seven particulars sought by the department specifically targeting Christians in the state… are nothing short of attempts to intimidate and threaten the community at large”. (IPA Service)
