The uproar in Parliament over Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti’s derogatory remarks and the fire that gutted a Catholic church in Delhi must be seen in the context of increasingly vocal stances adopted by various Hindu right wing groups and the anxieties that have been building up among minorities. Jyoti, the Union minister of state for food processing, called on Delhi voters to decide if they want a government of Ramzaadon (descendants of Ram) or Haraamzadon (illegitimate offspring) during a BJP outreach event in West Delhi. Christian groups have alleged that the fire was set off by miscreants to polarise voters in East Delhi in view of the upcoming assembly elections. They also accused the  Delhi Police of laxity in summoning forensic teams which has possibly led to destruction of critical evidence. Interestingly, the Opposition gunned for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament on Wednesday after training their guns on the Sadhvi for much of Tuesday demanding her resignation from the Council of Ministers and an FIR for making communally provocative statements. 

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For quite some time, PM Modi’s silence on communal incidents and the provocative statements made by leaders of his party has been too obvious to ignore. His reported address to the BJP Parliamentary Party on Tuesday, restricted to saying that such comments were “not acceptable” and asking party MPs to not “address the nation” and refrain from statements giving a bad name to the party and government, does not assuage the hurt feelings.

Modi, who regularly tweets on national and international developments, surprisingly steers clear of contentious issues of national importance. In Delhi, the church fire was preceded by a communal riot at Trilokpuri and religious tensions at Bawana over denying permission to a Muharram procession from passing through a majority-dominated village. Before that, Yogi Adityanath, the BJP’s flagbearer in the UP bypolls, was accused of hate speech and raising the discredited love jihad bogey. In Chhattisgarh, the VHP has ordained that Catholic priests will henceforth be called “Pracharya” or “Sir” by students in schools run by the church. An attempt at sparking communal tensions in Pune led to a young Muslim techie’s murder by a fringe Hindutva outfit in early June. The election campaign before the Lok Sabha polls also witnessed hate speeches by many in the BJP firmament including the current party president Amit Shah.

PM Modi did not see it fit to comment on or condemn any of these incidents even as he demanded a moratorium on communal violence during his Independence Day speech. He must remember that India was a country born amid intense communal violence on its north-western and eastern borders. India’s promise and prestige as a democracy has stemmed from its subsequent commitment to multiculturalism and minority rights. As Prime Minister, the onus is on Modi to continue a 67-year-old tradition of secularism, over which even his ideological forebear AB Vajpayee had no quarrel. The BJP, which repeatedly stalled Parliament during the UPA regime demanding statements from then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over umpteen issues, big and small, like ceasefire violations by Pakistan, missing coal scam files, Commonwealth Games irregularities, and the Wal-Mart lobbying controversy, will find it difficult to wriggle out of such repeated controversies. The demand for the Sadhvi’s resignation is not a case of the Opposition overplaying their hand. Only recently inducted into the Modi government, the Sadhvi must know that the accountability expected from a minister is far higher than from an MP. That the Opposition, despite its depleted numbers and inherent divisions, is finally showing the stomach for a fight, bodes well for Indian democracy.