If the BJP indeed is serious about talks with Shaheen Bagh women, then it must stop pushing the goli maaro brigade
When the women of Shaheen Bagh sat in protest against the Government’s new citizenship law and identity policies, they simply were defending their right to be defined as Indians and not letting the new regime’s exclusionary limits redefine their legitimacy in this country. They swore by the Constitution and lived its spirit, surrounded themselves with the tricolour and demanded they be heard. They developed a drill for sustaining the tempo of a genuine people’s movement, one group taking over after the other and carrying their food from home. And they made common cause with citizenry in general. No politics of gender or religion could tame their impassioned burst which challenges stereotypes of protest sit-ins at many levels. Muslim women, a constituency that is seen as exploited and in need of protection, are leading a rights movement, overturning the need for community leaders or maulvis to plead their case. They have refused to confine their agitation to ghettoised concerns and made it an equally nationalist issue, significantly forcing an “us versus us” war. They are using dialogue and non-violence as the only rule of engagement. And though criticised for blocking traffic, they agree that it is the only disruptor that will draw mass attention to them, though now they have relaxed certain norms for schoolgoers and ambulances. It is the upending of these carefully packed boxes of convention that has unsettled traditional politics. Which is why the vilification of Shaheen Bagh has reached a war cry-like crescendo of goli maaro. The Hindu Right, too, so used to demonising the mullah, has been caught off guard by the women talking mainstream than from their cloisters and seeking a level-playing field. That explains the fury to box it in as a Pakistani conspiracy. Perhaps, that’s what has prompted the Government to make a peace overture through Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad proposing a template for “structured” talks. At least a beginning has been made. However, the Government must realise that it cannot speak in a forked tongue, its senior Ministers themselves guilty of unleashing the most strident rhetoric of the “us versus them” binary. There has to be a reassuring peace and not intimidatory gunfire.
The ruling BJP, which is using Shaheen Bagh to polarise votes for the Delhi elections, is doing far more damage in terms of mainstreaming the crassest form of otherisation politics. If the Congress appeasement of years was one end of the spectrum, then the extreme Right, as embodied by the likes of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath or Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, is not just content stretching the other end. They want to overwrite our civilisational matrix of consensus and embed a mindset of oppressive rather than a compassionate majoritarianism. That can only lead to a conflict-ridden polity that unfortunately works in the short run. History shows that even the victor has not emerged unscathed from the spoils of a genocidal war. The ruling BJP must realise that it could even use the women of Shaheen Bagh as a political constituency, considering it has authored the Triple Talaq Act on behalf of Muslim women in general. Unless it wants to junk that as a political move that has served its purpose. The BJP must also be wary of becoming too transparent in its divisive design so close to the Delhi polls. It would make it look like a party with no difference at all. Yes, it has as much right to defend CAA in a public debate but to stub out all dissent as incorrect, questioning the motivation of these women and denying them their rightful voice could also work against it in a subterranean manner. Simply because Shaheen Bagh will be remembered as the first independent and informed civilian movement against the Modi Government, which is yet to bow down to vested interests. The more these women are cornered by force, the more they can churn up an anti-Government sentiment by holding out. The effect of this is already being felt pan-India with women protesting in Prayagraj, Kanpur, Kolkata, Patna and Gaya, all coincidentally important cities in our civilisational history. The BJP should not forget that Modi first came to power in 2014 only because a civil society movement against corruption had sounded the drumroll of change. Had it not been for rights activist Anna Hazare, neither could the BJP have projected itself as a political agent of a nation’s clean-up, nor could Modi have challenged the Congress’ sense of entitled leadership. Even if the BJP were to break Delhi away from the Aam Aadmi Party’s development goals, it would be mistaken in thinking it has a hold of the aam aadmi’s mind in the long run.
