Is it due to politics or attempts to thwart Modi?

Sudden attacks on religious processions of one community by the other -- from Karauli in Rajasthan to Khargone in Madhya Pradesh and Jahangirpuri in Delhi --  have led to a spike in communal tension during the festive season in eight states. 

These incidents have threatened to jeopardise India's growth story and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's development slogan, "sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas."

An influential section of the thinking class has attributed the tension to the "polarised" campaign in the recently concluded elections in Uttar Pradesh and four other states and the impending polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh this yearend.

However, others believe that a section is demoralised by the return of the BJP in power and is out to foment trouble to thwart Modi's growth narrative.

This section wished to hijack the community, taking advantage of a sense of alienation and frustration due to the decline in the political "clout" of the community as well as concerted attacks on them at some places over the issue of food, dress and political choices.

Those against Modi and the BJP squarely blame the evolving situation to incidents like the beating of a Muslim man for travelling with a Hindu woman, attacks on Muslim street vendors, ban on Muslim shopkeepers in temple premises, and earlier incidents of lynchings.

As expected, the leaders of 13 Opposition political parties have also blamed the BJP and the RSS for what they have called incidents of "hate speech and communal violence" while urging the people to maintain peace and harmony.

In a joint statement, the leaders including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and her Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand counterparts M K Stalin and Hemant Soren, have alleged that the issues relating to food, dress, faith, festivals and language “are being used” by the ruling establishment to polarise the society. So that the Lok Sabha polls of 2024 are settled in favour of the BJP.

But these opposition leaders are silent on an emerging pattern of all the incidents that show trouble has begun by mobs targeting the Hindu "Shobha" yatras, apparently provoked by the communally charged sloganeering by the processionists.

Only Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi wondered aloud by tweeting, "Why can't a procession carried out by Hindus, on Hindu festivals be allowed to do so in peace? Violent reactions to the yatras is saddening & that too in India’s capital. What is wrong is wrong & should be condemned by all, without any ifs & buts." 

Her views closely echoed what many BJP leaders had been saying since the riots over Ram Navami at different places left many apprehensive about the widening divide.

Interestingly, her tweet was preceded by her party colleague Sanjay Raut, who is under probe by the Enforcement Directorate for financial dealings, lambasting the BJP for "stoking" communal fires in the name of Lord Ram.

Being the ruling dispensation, the BJP has been quick to see the opposition playing up its old vote banks tactics while suspecting some conspirators operating on a plan to destabilise the country. As several regions have witnessed violence during the Ram Navami processions, a preconceived plan cannot be ruled out.

In Delhi's North-West where the rioting took place in Jahangirpuri, evidence points towards preparations to foment trouble in the same way that the riots that shook Delhi in February-March 2020 were executed. Rioters had stocked up stones and molotov cocktails as weapons on their terraces.

At all places where the rioting occurred, the attacks on traditional Ram Navami religious processions happened when they reached areas where mosques stood or areas deemed by the Muslims as "out of bound" zones for such yatras though they were permitted by the authorities.

On their part, the Muslim leaders have charged that these Hindu groups leading the yatras made highly "provocative" sloganeering directed at their community, which enraged their youngsters to launch attacks and raise counter slogans.

What is clear is that two factors seemed to emerge from the narratives that have followed these attacks since April 2 across many states.

One, there is growing shrillness in the campaign by parties that are snowballing into localised tension spots between the communities.

Secondly, the involvement of hardline and extremists among the community-based groups is a matter of serious import, which can no longer be viewed in isolation.

In this context, the role of groups like the Popular Front of India (PFI) has come under the scanner. It is said two days before the riot in Rajasthan’s Karauli on April 9, PFI wrote to state’s chief minister Ashok Gehlot suspecting trouble during the Ram Navami procession passing through a Muslim locality --when it was for the first time the Kerala-based group became known in the state.

That the PFI seemed to have attracted many Muslim youths who are impressed by its suspected role in speaking up for the community and organising protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Delhi in 2018.

Since then, the unrest in the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh in 2021 and the hijab row in Karnataka have enhanced its traction within the community. Of course, the PFI admits that its network has grown in 20 states for “effectively intervening in the rights issues of minority communities."

Of course, the mushrooming of Islamist outfits began after the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 as attempts were made to exploit the “hurt sentiments” of the Muslim community. One of these groups was the Islamic Seva Sangh (on the lines of RSS) by cleric Abdul Nasser Madani who was held in connection with the Coimbatore blasts (in which more than 58 people were killed) before the visit of senior BJP leader L K Advani in 1998.

Later, many ISS leaders joined the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which was in existence since 1977. In 2001, the SIMI was banned after it was declared a terrorist outfit. These leaders then formed the National Development Front (NDF).

Hard lessons are now needed to be drawn by all sides.

It is more than two years since riots in North-East Delhi that left 53 people dead and more than 200 others injured. A Delhi Court had even described the riots as 'worst communal riots since Partition'. Coinciding with the visit of then US President Donald Trump, the riots were billed as clashes between those who backed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and those opposed to it on the grounds that it discriminated Muslims.

Perhaps, it may be time for the Muslim community to drop its anti-BJP stance and for the BJP to expand its outreach to the community. The Muslim voters may have played a decisive role in the revival of the opposition Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. But a community cannot just remain permanently an anti-BJP political class for the sake of the political narrative. It is time for a new ecosystem that puts everyone at ease and as a rightful participant in the democratic process of India.