Hate speech, like violence, has been a political weapon in the hands of ‘the party with a difference’. One hate speech after another is dished out to polarise the fairly peaceful atmosphere, especially when time for election comes. This is the Machiavellian lesson on politics. The disciples of Machiavelli know perfectly well that they have to go on telling a lie until it gains currency, and they practise this lesson with utmost diligence, recharged zeal and gusto.
Since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power at the centre, various cases of hate speeches, which in some cases resulted in communal riots, have come to the fore. Recently BJP MP from Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath was pulled up by the Election Commission for hate speech during campaigning for UP bye-polls. Adityanath had courted controversy in Noida by equating the rise in communal violence in western UP with the increasing population of Muslims. Now another BJP MP from Unnao Sakshi Maharaj on 14 September dubbed madrasas as “hub of terror”.
This political gimmick is nothing new. In 2002 when the senior BJP leader L.K. Advani was Deputy Prime Minister and Union Home Minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee cabinet, he employed the same trick to attack the largest minority community in the country.
Those who are in know of the functioning of madrasas would agree that madrasas are centres of religious education for Muslims. Only a minuscule number of Muslim students opt for madrasas while the rest prefer to study in schools, colleges and universities. The expenditure of running these madrasas falls largely on the shoulders of the community. Madrasa students receive religious education in subjects like the Qur’ān, Hadīth (traditions of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be to him), Fiqh (jurisprudence), Islamic history and criticism, etc. Most of the madrasas have included in their syllabi modern subjects like English and Mathematics, etc. It is their fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution and no one should bother about it.
The BJP has clear majority at the centre. It does behove the party leaders to go back to their basics. Since their clear win in the Lok Sabha elections, the party was expected to concentrate on developmental work across the nation, shunning old tricks based on violence and communal riots. But it does not seem to be happening. There is still time for the party to realise the sacredness of madrasas which have been contributing a great service to the nation. The civil society should pressurise the government to declare hate speech as a cognisable offence.