'Collective surrender: The story of New India is not being written by Narendra Modi alone': "Cumulative Radicalisatiion"

[Sukla Sen]

A remarkably perceptive piece.

Offers a highly enabling insight into the dynamics underlying the unfolding doom by bringing out in bold relief one of its very important dimensions that rarely catches our attention in spite of being out there very much before our eyes.

With the help of a notion - an analytical tool, "cumulative radicalisation".

<<This ‘cumulative radicalisation’ is nurtured by the strategic silence of Modi, allowing his underlings and followers to interpret his will and compete for his favours, while escaping responsibility if things go sour. His vision of a ‘Hindu rashtra’ is never explicitly spelt out, but only signalled, especially through appointments to high office. Perhaps the most consequential policy decision of the Modi years has been installing Yogi Adityanath, a controversial monk then mainly known for running a violent anti-Muslim outfit, to the throne of Uttar Pradesh. As the political journalist, D.K. Singh, has written, Yogi Adityanath has since emerged as the model for all other BJP chief ministers and seeded a perverse competition among them on who can go the furthest in clamping down on dissent and persecuting Muslims.

A good example is Himanta Biswa Sarma, who has started the first six months of his tenure as chief minister by imposing a stringent cow slaughter ban, allegedly encouraging fake encounters, slapping UAPA charges over social media posts and intensifying eviction drives of Bengali-speaking Muslims. Since Sarma comes from a Congress lineage, it stands to reason that personal advancement in the party rather than purely ideological motives lie behind his radicalism.

The story of ‘New India’ is not being written by Modi alone; some of its pages are being written by people like Himanta Biswa Sarma and Yogi Adityanath; and still others are being written by innumerable obscure Indians, be it a judge denying bail to dissidents or Dalit activists, or a journalist spreading invidious propaganda against farm law protesters, or a policeman arresting Muslims on trumped-up charges. Yet, all of them are, in a sense, ‘working towards Modi’ and towards his party. ‘New India’ is being constructed on the building blocks of ideological extremism and is cemented by the greed of those who wish to prosper from it. This is the ‘cumulative radicalisation’ which opens the door for all kinds of atrocities.>>

(Excerpted from: <https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/the-story-of-new-india-is-not-being-written-by-narendra-modi-alone/cid/1834691>.)