Bengaluru: In a stinging rebuke to the Narendra Modi dispensation on its attempt to impose an "Orwellian, majoritarian" structure on an India until "only one view, one faith and one viewpoint" prevails, former home minister P. Chidambaram said: "real issues have been swept aside and momentous issues are represented as the government model. This is a hegemonic and a majoritarianism system, nothing but a reframing of Hindutva."
He was speaking at the launch of his book Fearless in Opposition in Bengaluru on Saturday. Asked about the all pervasive hold of the RSS-BJP on the electorate, the old time Congressman while acknowledging that the Congress was in the midst of a leadership crisis, said that if the recent assembly polls showed one thing, it was that the regional parties were losing their voice, and that it was either the BJP or the Congress that was in contention.
"The loss in Goa showed that the Congress was not fast enough on its feet, we were slow. Only the fastest win. Although, if one goes by that definition, then the man who should have won should be Usain Bolt," he said as the largely youthful audience at St Joseph's College erupted in laughter.
Explaining the rise of the BJP, he likened the grass-roots structure of the RSS-BJP of today as being similar to the village to village presence that the Congress had through the 50s, 60s and 70s.
"Ours is not so much a leadership crisis as an organizational crisis. Once we start building our base up from the bottom, we can start reversing the tide," he said, predicting that the fight in all the forthcoming assembly elections from Gujarat to Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, the battle would be between the Congress and the BJP.
He reserved his greatest ire for the change that the government was making on the use of the Aadhaar card. Calling strongly for firewalls to protect personal privacy as authorities stepped up moves to access all personal data by making the Aadhaar card mandatory for all transactions, Mr. Chidambaram who also served as Finance Minister under the Manmohan Singh government said "We are moving too fast to an Orwellian state."
"Nobody realizes the magnitude of invasion of privacy. If Aadhaar extends to travel, insurance we need a firewall to protect the privacy. Why should the Government know my medical history or my bank account details? If this is the Government, I don't want to be part of it," he said.
Acknowledging that the UPA government was indeed instrumental in instituting Aadhaar, he said," We started this to provide subsidy, scholarship, LPG, MNREGA bank account, to avoid duplication of identity cards.
But the NDA government has changed the parameters... It's gross!" he said, in response to a question from the mainly youthful audience at St Joseph's College on the perceived "misuse" of Aadhaar.
In response to another question, he said, "If the state stokes fear, concentrates on what you eat, what you wear, who you love, marry, talk to, it promotes a sectarian identity. This is not our problem. The fact that the average child drops out of school at the age of 12 years is our problem," the Minister said.
"We celebrate gods, cows and neglect our children. 58% of children in India are anaemic. One out of three are undernourished or stunted," he added during a lively question and answer session that focused on the perception that the central government was using draconian measures such as slapping sedition cases to quell unrest in universities.
"Dalits were killed on allegations of cow slaughter. They were again beaten up when they refused to skin the animal. It is a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. Dalits, Muslims, Minority, girls and boys, women live in fear today," he said.
"Nehru earlier said that the Sedition law must be removed. Even if it remains, it must be followed according to Supreme Court interpretation. If someone raises their voice against someone, it is not sedition. Only violence is," he added, citing the example of Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid.
He also accused the ruling party of controlling media houses. "There is a systematic, all pervasive, entrenched control of media ownership by the BJP.
The survey by NSS revealed that out of 2 crore promised jobs, BJP has only generated 1,09,000 jobs. This story came out in only one paper," he said.
The launch of the book, was followed by a panel discussion with Rajeev Gowda, MP of Rajya Sabha, Dr. Aditya Sondhi, Additional Advocate General in Karnataka and Dr. Richard Rego, Assosciate Professor and Director of Research Centre, St. Joseph's College as well as Veeraraghav of The Hindu.
