'While suppression of information is acceptable for the government, the Opposition's efforts at pinning the government and its leaders is labeled anti-national,' points out Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The Maha Kumbh Mela has ended.
Despite being blemished by tragic deaths of imprecise number of poor devotees in search of salvation, we have seen a series of laudatory speeches and statements by leaders holding different offices in the Union and state governments.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi too used an unconnected official function -- the foundation laying ceremony of a hospital being promoted by a religious trust in the Bundlekhand region of Madhya Pradesh -- to make a series of claims and assertions which convey to the event having been a grand success and lauded to the highest degree by the people.
'When we observe this Maha Kumbh,' he started and continued, 'a profound realisation dawns upon us -- it is truly a Ekta Ka Mahakumbh (Maha Kumbh of unity)....(it) will continue to inspire generations to come as a symbol of unity, strengthening the collective spirit of our nation like an eternal stream of nectar.'
A simple question emerges from this: In a multi-religious nation, how can a ritualistic event or festival of one religious community, be presented as a symbol of unity?
By making such an assertion, is not Modi merely propagating the central belief of Hindutva, fiercely disputed by non-adherents of the ideology, that every citizen of this country 'is a Hindu'?
Even if questions are raised ad nauseam, they must be asked: Can a prime minister speak at an official function to further a political belief?
Media reports of the event and Modi's speech after the religious ceremony, however, did not use this claim as its 'news-point'. Instead they focused on an accusation leveled by Modi, against (who else but) the Opposition parties.
The prime minister started with the charge that people have noted that 'a certain section of leaders who mock religion, deride it, and engage in divisive tactics. On numerous occasions, foreign powers also attempt to weaken our nation and its spiritual foundations by lending support to such individuals.
'Those who harbour animosity towards the Hindu faith have, in some form or another, existed for centuries. Those who remain trapped in a colonial mindset persistently attack our beliefs, our temples, our saints, our culture, and our values.
'They show utter disrespect towards our festivals, traditions, and customs. They even dare to cast aspersions upon a religion and culture that are inherently progressive. Their agenda is to fragment our society and disrupt its unity.'
Let us break down the charges sequentially. One, that some sections of leaders (undeniably he is alluding to those from Opposition parties) have (or continually do so) mocked or derided religion and resort to divisive tactics.
Obviously the provocation for Modi to level this allegation is Mamata Banerjee terming the event 'Mrityu Kumbh' and Akhilesh Yadav backing her.
Additionally, Mallikarjun Kharge had charged after Amit Shah's holy dip before multiple TV cameras, that such acts will not 'remove poverty'.
Banerjee had questioned flawed arrangements that led to the fatal human crush while Kharge hurled a barb at a political adversary.
Point number two in Modi's list of contentions: That 'foreign powers weaken our nation and its spiritual foundations.'
On this, Modi's trigger is Donald Trump whose multiple statements on USAID's questionable funding have meant differently on different days and yet no one is certain what the United States president is aiming to state.
Modi is not alone in his use of such tactics. We have seen Trump too making a series of imprecise allegations.
Modi is not the first one from the ideological stable of Hindutva. In the course of the Ram Janmabhoomi agitations, its proponents had first wanted to prove that Ayodhya was Ram's birthplace.
However, news reports appeared in the late 1980s on the Archaeological Survey of India's excavations limiting human presence in the town to the period after events described in the Ramayan epic were believed to have taken place.
These reports established that even if the Ramayan was 'history' not mythology, the events did not occur in the current era's Ayodhya.
Thereafter. the agitations leaders, Lal Krishna Advani downwards, formulated a common answer whenever asked to 'prove' their claim: Ram and his birthplace being Ayodhya (and the site of the Babri Masjid) is a 'matter of faith'.
Populist leaders abhor facts and figures. Not just they themselves, but even their appointees too follow the same path.
On the night of February 15 when the stampede in New Delhi railway station took place, Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena's edited/deleted his social media post over the stampede.
His first post on X accepted that there had been an 'unfortunate and tragic incident of loss of life and injuries', at the station when misinformation and unscheduled decisions of the Indian Railways staff caused panic among anxious passengers heading for the dip at the Sangam.
In barely half an hour he altered this post and it thereafter made no mention of any deaths and the incident was described as 'unfortunate' a term the officialdom uses to avoid describing incidents as 'serious'.
Paradoxically, Modi condoled the deaths in his post. Only thereafter did Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw change the description of the accident in his post from 'sudden rush' to acknowledging the deaths.
Such an admission by the railways minister was only after the prime minister wrote that he was 'distressed by the stampede' and his thoughts were with those 'who have lost their loved ones'.
Likewise, the Uttar Pradesh government has yet not provided precise and factual information on the stampede in Prayagraj.
While suppression of information is acceptable for the government, the Opposition's efforts at pinning the government and its leaders is labeled anti-national.
Furthermore, Modi said that the Opposition leaders are driven by the objective to 'fragment our society and disrupt its unity'.
The regime has been tardy with data which shows it in a poor light and liberal with those figures that showcase claimed competence.
For instance on the Kumbh, while the state government and chief minister has been prompt in releasing so-called figures of the numbers who have taken the dip and those that braved traffic jams for tens of kilometres, it has not yet provided complete details of the tragedy on the night of January 29 in Prayagraj.
Modi is probably not to be blamed for disallowing truth to come out repeatedly across sectors and subjects.
After all, one of the principal accusations that the Sangh Parivar has hurled without precise data is that there is an Islamist conspiracy underway in India with the objective of rendering the Hindus 'into a minority' in 'their own country'.
This has become particular shallow an allegation given the fastest declining Total Fertility Rate among Muslims.
But probably the most blatant evidence of the Sangh Parivar's dislike for truth or facts and figures is the non-existent Census operations for the year 2021.
This is the first time in the history of census operations in India since they were started in 1872 by the colonial regime that we do have the latest head count despite being half way through the decade.
Is this because the government fears that the data would establish the untruthful figures of fatalities that were put out during the COVOD-19 pandemic? This is just one of the numerous questions which remain unanswered because a populist leader's narratives cannot be woven on the basis of truth and actual data.
Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay is an author and journalist based in Delhi-NCR.
His latest book is The Demolition, The Verdict and The Temple: The Definitive Book on the Ram Mandir Project.
He is also the author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com
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