Hate Speeches: Deliberate Electoral Strategy?
December 17, 2014
The winter session of Parliament has been disrupted more often because of certain “loose cannons” in the treasury benches. At a time when Delhi elections are round the corner, these ruling party members have made such public comments that could very well create discord in society.
One such hate speech (Ramzada versus Haramzada) was delivered by Union minister, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, during an election rally in Delhi. BJP Member of Parliament Sakshi Maharaj went a step further by eulogising Nathuram Godse – the killer of Mahatma Gandhi and a Hindu hardliner.
Hate Speeches Made More during Elections
Such speeches do follow a pattern and political leitmotif. It is no accident that they are deliberately used by almost all political parties more during elections.
Consider some samples:
• Congress President Sonia Gandhi described (the then Gujarat Chief Minister and the present Prime Minister) Narendra Modi as “Maut Ka Saudagar (Merchant of Death)” in one of her election rallies in Gujarat some years ago.
• National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, during his election campaign in Budgam this year said those who vote for Modi should jump into the sea. He claimed he was reacting to BJP leader Giriraj Singh’s statement that the people who don’t support Narendra Modi should go to Pakistan (Singh was subsequently banned from campaigning by the Election Commission).
• Samajwadi Party leader and Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan, despite being booked by the Election Commission, showed little remorse and kept on spewing venom against Modi, describing him as “murderer” and as someone whose “hands are coloured with blood of innocent people…”in his election rallies during the last General Elections.
• BJP MP Yogi Adityanath was reprimanded by the Election Commission for violating the model code of conduct after he made an inflammatory speech during his campaign for the Assembly by-election in Noida in Uttar Pradesh on September 7, where he said “mikes from a temple were removed in Moradabad but were allowed in mosques and those who protested were sent to jail”.
Hate Mongers Seek to Polarise Votes
Hate speeches cannot just be an isolated case of action versus reaction. This is because certainly political parties don’t miss any opportunity to invoke divisive sentiments during election time in their quest to polarise the votes along communal lines.
What is tragic is that none of the political parties make any attempt to rise above such divisive politics that hinges on hatred and…hate speeches. Instead, rather grimly, they resort to reward the culprits than punishing them. Just consider that Giriraj Singh, despite his hate speech, was rewarded with a birth in the Union ministry by Modi. Similarly, the then general secretary Amit Shah’s provocative speeches in UP before the last general elections had invited the wrath of the Election Commission which had banned him from addressing rallies in UP. After the General Elections, he was made the BJP president!
Laws against Hate Speeches Lack Implementation
There are sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, that seek to put a curb on hate speeches aimed at creating discord in society whether on grounds of religion, ethnicity, language, caste, community, residence, and so on. There are also instances where certain individuals have been booked and punished under the provisions of the law for certain published articles, cartoons and even views on social networking sites, which spread hatred. However, the present legal provisions are not enough in the absence of weak enforcement of the law particularly in cases where influential politicians are involved. This is perhaps the reason why there has not been a single case where a candidate in the electoral battle has been disqualified for making hate speech in the country. The only two instances where the politicians did feel the heat of the law enforcing agencies were when
• The then Shiv Sena supremo, late Balasaheb Thackeray, was debarred from voting by the Supreme Court for his hate speeches in 1999.
• Congress’s candidate from Saharanpur, Imran Masood, was arrested after his statement that he will “cut Modi to pieces” during the 2014 General Elections. (He subsequently lost the elections to his BJP rival).
The grey areas in law need to be plugged through legislations to check hate speeches. But will the politicians oblige? It may be mentioned that during the term of the UPA government, draft legislation was moved before Parliament against communal violence, which included a clause against hate speech. However, the bill did not see the light of the day. The reasons are obvious.
Shouldn’t we look forward to more hate speeches by political parties before the ensuing Delhi elections? Already such speeches had flared up communal disturbances in Trilokpuri and Bawana in the last two months. Still, two more months are remaining for the elections to take place in the national capital, leaving room for more provocative utterances.
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