If there is one thing that binds Union Ministers Manohar Parrikar, Rajyavardhan Rathore, and senior leaders in the Sangh Parivar, it is the alacrity with which they view every protest and strike in the country as a politically motivated move.
As the One Rank One Pension strike entered the 167th day, Defence Minister Parikkar declared that the protesting ex-Army officers were politically motivated, frustrated by the sheer tenacity of ex-service men who have been on strike for a very long time despite the government overruling all their objections.
Running parallel to the veterans’ stir was the strike by students of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune (FTII), finally called off after 139 days. It led Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Mr. Rathore, to observe that it was “a strike that had taken a political turn or was a political strike from the very beginning.” His view was prompted by the presence of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s amidst the striking students.
When artists, writers and filmmakers returned their awards to protest the government’s deafening silence on the lynching and killing of individuals, the government as well as senior leaders like BJP president Amit Shah were quick to label the action politically motivated, implying that the striking artistes had the backing of the Congress.
Says former professor in the Journalism Department of Osmania University, Padmaja Shaw, “What the government is hinting at is partisan politics but I think the problem arises when people are politically disengaged from society. Whatever the government does is political and our existence is political. I think it should be taken as a compliment and an indication of how robust Indian democracy is.”
The position of the BJP results from viewing society as a binary — pro-Congress is anti-BJP — explain media watchers. Media scholar and author Sandip Bhushan says, “Calling every agitation politically motivated shows that the government is reluctant to engage with those who protest.”
In fact, this hint at political motivation behind every stir has prompted the NDA government-appointed chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification to make a film, ostensibly to unearth the hidden political hand behind the FTII students’ strike. As filmmaker and producer Pahalaj Nihalini says: “It is important to understand who backed the strike.”
It does not stop at that. Ministers in the Modi govt. such as V. K. Singh have openly attacked the press/media too for displaying zero-tolerance to criticism. However, seeing a hidden instigator behind protests is not new nor confined to the present dispensation. At the height of the agitation against the Koondakulam Power Plant, the UPA regime hinted at a foreign hand behind the political unrest, a throwback to the times when former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi blamed the CIA for all the ills plaguing India.
