#NotInMyName: Déjà Vu Wrapped Inside An Echo

While watching the #NotInMyName protests which were conducted in a few cities last week, one cannot help but wonder how this sudden uptick in the social consciousness of India’s chattering classes came about. Considering the timelines of the campaigns and ‘protests’, it might seem as though it has something to do with the government at the Centre and the man who heads it - Narendra Modi.

Since May 2014, India has been periodically treated to various bouts of self-sanctimonious preaching and wailing from the ‘intellectual’ glitterati. The Award-Wapsi and intolerance campaigns, the absurd ‘Church attacks’ protests, a half-baked media driven one against internet trolls, beef festivals accompanied by silly internet memes, the deification of Kanhaiya Kumar (remember him?) and now the #NotInMyName protests are just a few examples. In between, one also recollects there being some protest march organised by leading journalists for a reason which not even its participants would be able to articulate today.

Viewing these protests being played out on television, one can’t help but get a sense of déjà vu – it’s getting hard to tell one protest apart from the other, and one struggles to get a sense of when the old one ended and the new one began. This could perhaps be because all of these campaigns are more or less the same one – conceived with the same intent, by the same people and executed in the same way. And while these similarities cannot be said to sufficient enough to discredit these farcical protests, there are other protests which do serve this particular purpose.

The first is the fact that none of these protests have much of factual merits backing them. Truth be told, even a cursory study of the statistics linked to any of these campaigns would demonstrate that they are nothing more than cases of selective indignation.

Take the #NotInMyName campaign as an example. As Newslaundry columnist Anand Ranganathan has pointed out through his Twitter handle (as have many other writers through this very magazine), mob lynchings have been happening in India in greater numbers even before the current government took over and are not restricted to any particular religious group.

The very fact that many of today’s social champions stood silent when these attacks occurred during previous regimes and had, even during these recent protests, chosen to ignore the cases of lynchings where Hindus have been victims and Muslims the aggressors exposes the sad truth that their extravagant shows of moral outrage are driven more out of political and religious aversion than anything else.

Which brings us to the second commonality, the fact that all of the protests and demonstrations we have seen over past 36 months have been engineered with the sole intent of inflicting some measure of embarrassment on the Modi government and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).

While the #NotInMyName protests were sold as a non-political, ‘spontaneous’ show of social consciousness in the beginning, as the motley crowds which gathered for the demonstrations began to reveal their true colors to journalists and over the social media, it became evident that the demand for any systemic improvement in policing or some measure of justice for the lynching victims was farthest from the minds of the gathered participants. Most posters, slogans and soundbites one could gather from the day were centred on the vile hatred that the participants had towards the Prime Minister and the political ideologies of his party. In between all the anti-Modi chanting and screams, there was hardly a voice to be heard for the victims in whose name these protests were supposedly organised.

And the final commonality, perhaps most worrying for the masterminds behind these events, is that despite the rather indulgent manner in which the media and other ‘opinion makers’ have treated the protests, they haven’t, as yet, found much traction on the ground.

Ever since the BJP declared Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate and began its march towards electoral dominance, the larger Congress-Left ecosystem – which believed that its stranglehold over India’s power structure was impregnable – has been dealt with blow after blow.

Over the past four years, not only has the BJP managed to wrest control of Governments across the country, but it has also managed to effect a change in the psyche of the Indian public. No longer are symbols of India’s heritage like the Bhagavad Geetha or Yoga kept away from the realms of political discourse. In the areas of both international diplomacy and internal security, Modi has shrugged off the overly deferential approaches of the past and pushed a proactive, nationalistic agenda which has resonated with the sentiments of a rising India.

The personal popularity of Modi has been synergic with his party’s efforts on the ground. Over the past three years, the BJP has successfully managed to effect another leap in its core electorate – weaning away sections of Dalits, Tribals and Other Backward Caste from other parties and dealing a lethal blow to that grand secular dream of the ‘Dalit-Muslim’ constituency.

In effect, this has left the Congress and the secular brigade with nowhere to turn to, and instead of responding with a political narrative of their own, the Opposition has thought it fit to wage a guerilla war by activating whatever is left of its network of privileges. And while these campaigns have not been able to have much of consequence on the popularity of Modi thus far, it has not stopped them from trying their luck again and again.

What the Opposition and their activist brigade do not seem to have realised is that their message of outrage has not travelled much beyond their own echo chambers. This is because today’s India prefers to appreciate political intent and action much more that sanctimonious preaching.

Consider this – in between the time they spent complaining about a meat ban in Uttar Pradesh and organising the #NotInMyName protests – Modi announced a presidential candidate, secured support for him from at least four major opposition parties, concluded a successful visit to the United States, rolled out the Goods and Service Tax and then, embarked on a path-breaking visit to Israel.

In the eyes of the ambitious Indian, the contrast between the Government and the Opposition could not be starker. And as long as the latter continue to base their strategies around manufactured outrage and internet memes, one can expect electoral verdicts to stay the same for some time to come.