Serenading the regionalist - Shurhozelie :::: Namaste India - loudspeakers to uniform code - communal politics thrive

Serenading the regionalist - Shurhozelie ::: The last surviving 'Naga regionalist' neta 

Blogger with a native Angami Naga

New Delhi    

Of the three original regionalists of the 1990s - Vizol Angami, Vamuzo Phesao and Dr Shurhozelie - all three had distinct virtues and characteristics. 

Chalie Kevichusa was the fourth but he fell out with them when Vamuzo decided to join hands with the Congress and became Chief Minister. Late Chalie never mixed politics with his journalism or his role as Editor of 'Ura Mail'.

So interacting with him was always educational.

Often he would say that of the three senior colleagues he had in NPC, Shurhozelie was the 'craftisest' of all while Vamuzo with his flamboyant style was the most ambitious. 

Vizol was of course the idealist and despite his exterior meekness and soft spoken nature, he had the guts and ability to sack S C Jamir from his UDF cabinet.

But somehow luck did not favour Shurhozelie for long. Both Vizol and Vamuzo were his seniors and so he remained overshadowed. 

But when it came to real politicking, Shurhozelie was the brain behind the trio.

After many years when he became Chief Minister replacing T R Zeliang for a brief period; even a hardcore pragmatic politician Neiphiu Rio told me in Delhi, "It's all destiny Nirendra....he had the crown in his luck".

Initial rumour was Rio would be replacing T R Zeliang.

Crafty, cool: Shurhozelie

Shurhozelie has been an excellent debater in the assembly too. As Jamir and Vamuzo usually indulged in personal attack against each other and K L Chishi used his eloquent and unique sarcastic flavour against opponents, Shurhozelie would deliver the real knockout punch.

Well, Shruhozelie is in the news and thanks to two of his young friends Rio and T R Zeliang. 

A typical fighting cock that he is, even after losing 21 MLAs - he remains a defiant and fighting old war horse. He says the four people who did not desert him are the 'real heroes' of the NPF.

His shrewd mastery of real politics comes to light when he says the NPF would continue to be in the UDA but chairmanship and one cabinet berth must be given to his party of four legislators.

Only a man of his coolness and crafty style can ask for these when Rio was reportedly snubbed

when Shurhozelie declined to give up organisational leadership of the united NPF and NDPP.

Of some of Shruhozelie's oneliners one remembers is - "You cannot teach new tricks to old dogs". In fact, even Chalie Kevichusa also used to say so. The statement referred to frequent defectors - a menace Nagaland politics was synonymous for years.

Paradoxically the old defection game - political head hunting is back again. 

Of the 21 some are well known turncoats. Likes of T R Zeliang and Neiphiu Rio himself have done business with Congress and lately touted themselves as best of regionalist fighters. Even otherwise NDPP is full of opportunists.

In Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma was a key Congress leader and now he is in the Lotus party and is among the most trusted lieutenants of Amit Shah.

Once a Congressman can easily adjust being BJP man either in Assam or any other state. Former BJP leader Bansi Lal Soni used to say whenever he visited Nagaland.

The problem is with political protagonist like Shurhozelie. While he approved Vamuzo's power share formula with Congress; he would personally find doing any business with the BJP almost an impossible phenomenon.

But politics is strange. The rolling stones and those who know the art of sleeping with enemies often flourish.

Amit Shah has almost institutionalised it. Look at the likes of Kiren Rijiju and Himanta and even Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh.

Shah and his compatriots privately call this 'political conversion'. This scribe does not mind more surprises from Naga politicians especially 'friends' who have been Congress torchbearers. 

We need not call it opportunism either.

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Namaste India - loudspeakers to uniform code - communal politics thrive

New Delhi 

There is no let up in communal politics in India. Who is chiefly responsible for this
is either a national debate or is a well known secret.

Now there is a major loudspeaker row with a parochial leader from Maharashtra
Raj Thackeray setting a deadline that all loudspeakers from atop Masjids should be down by May 3, Tuesday.

“I won’t be responsible for what all happens after the May 3 deadline to remove the loudspeakers from the mosques," said Thackeray, who heads a fledgling linguistic outfit Maharashtra Navanirman Sena.

Thakeray, first cousin of Maharashtra Chief Minister Udhav Thackeray (of Shiv Sena) was addressing a rally at Aurangabad in the western state.

There is more of communal politics in India. Two Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have triggered another row pertaining to introducing Uniform Civil Code for all citizens.

In fact, Uttarakhand has already officially 'introduced' it. Himachal Pradesh goes to the polls by December this year and hence Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has mooted the same.

Like Uttarakhand, the state of Himachal Pradesh in the northern hills along Himalayan ranges is a Hindu majority state and wherein people are religious. 

Needless to add, the BJP has substantial base in these two states.

Minority or Muslim population in both the states are not much. 

The proportion of Hindus in Himachal is much higher than most Indian states: 95.17 percent are

Hindus while only 2.18 percent are Muslims.  Compared to this, in Uttarakhand, there are more

Muslims. The state of Uttarakhand has around 14 percent Muslim population out of its 10 million total

population.

"The Uniform Civil Code is a good step and will be a good start. We will examine the outcome of 

UCC in other states and then make a decision. We are open to implementing it in Himachal Pradesh. 

The implementation of UCC in the neighbouring state of Uttarakhand has sent a good message," Thakur said

last week.

So, PM Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is easily pushing the UCC through its party governments in smaller states such as Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

"It is a case of testing ground. The BJP has started according to certain plans," says Father M.D. Thomas of the Delhi-based Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies. 

"But on the whole communalisation and polarisation of politics do not augur well for India. For decades this country has cherished pluralism, but we are going off track in the new century. Some correction both social and political ought to be made before it is too late".

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray set May 3 'deadline' for removal of loudspeakers atop mosques and said all Hindus should henceforth play 'Hanuman Chalisa' a lengthy text dedicated to Hindu deity at "double the volume of azan or Muslim prayers" from May 4.

He said the truth of the matter is that the loudspeaker is a social issue and not a religious one.

“But if you attack us with religion, we will also counter with religion… If they (Muslims) don’t understand nicely, we will show them the power of Maharashtra,” asserted Thackeray, who still calls himself the genuine admirer and disciple of Late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.

"If Uttar Pradesh can take down loudspeakers from mosques and temples, then why Maharashtra cannot," Raj Thackeray asked.

In fact, the loudspeaker row kicked off in Maharashtra has spread to other states as well.

The BJP-government in Uttar Pradesh removed thousands of loudspeakers from religious places, including temples, in the past few days. 

One of the first to bring down their loudspeakers was Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura on April 20.

The controversy was initially stoked by Raj Thackeray last month when he said his party workers will play Hanuman Chalisa on the loudspeakers of mosques if those are not taken down across Maharashtra.

Two Maharashtra politicians decided to chant Hanuman Chalisa outside state chief minister Uddhav Thackeray's residence in Mumbai and Navneet Rana (MP) and her husband Ravi Rana were arrested and are still in jail.

Tushar Bhadra in Prime Minister Modi's parliamentary constituency, Varanasi, says: "All these

seek to achieve polarisation in politics. This would certainly suit BJP's political games as elections are

nearing in two key states of Gujarat (PM Modi's native province) and also Hindu-majority Himachal

Pradesh".

Agreeing with him, Ramakanto Shanyal from the state of West Bengal, says: "Polarisation politics actually conceals PM Modi's failures in ensuring jobs to thousands of educated youths and also more serious issues like fuel cost and normal price escalation".

In Delhi, trader Naushad Ali Khan says, "I have no issues with their politics; but the BJP has no programme, no strategy. There is only a frantic search for diversionary tactics from real issues".

So, is Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) encouraging all that ?

Shiv Sena spokesman and MP, Sanjay Raut, squarely blames BJP for inciting Ra Thackeray into this loudspeaker row.

He said, Raj Thackeray has himself "become a loudspeaker" of BJP after securing "amnesty" from Central probe agencies for various economic cases.

But Shiv Sena-headed state government in Maharashtra has issues and inherent contradictions within itself. Supported by Congress and another regional party Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the state government does not want to play into Raj Thackeray's games and target Muslims. But Shiv Sena itself has solid 'Hindutva based' support and hence it has to do a tightrope walk.

Clearly on the defensive on the loudspeaker row, the Maharashtra government has urged the federal government headed by PM Modi in Delhi to frame appropriate rules on use of loudspeakers atop Masjids and temples.

But the BJP is playing another game. In a week, as many as 21,963 loudspeakers have been removed from religious places including Hindu temples. Further, under the state government under monk-turned-politician Yogi Adityanath, the volume of 42,332 loudspeakers has been regulated.

This message has spread to other states. In another BJP-ruled state of Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has backed the idea of bringing down the loudspeakers from Masjids.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also said - "ugly public display of faith to inconvenience others" will not be acceptable.

Opposition leader in the state, socialist Akhilesh Yadav, called the drive a "ploy" to distract people from joblessness and farm distress.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Personal Law Board of India has opposed uniform civil code.

It has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi opposing the same. 

In the letter, Dr. Moin Ahmed Khan, National general secretary of the Board, argued that religious groups will not accept the Uniform Civil Code without discussions because its implementation would affect the Muslim community’s right to property, including marriage and divorce.

"Rights of the Muslim community in religious matters like marriage, divorce, property rights of women have been established in the Indian Constitution since the Muslim Application Act of 1937. Then what is the need for tampering under the guise of the Uniform Civil Code? Trying to force it would not be justified," the letter said.

The Uniform Civil Code has been one of the three contentious issues in Indian politics- along with Ram temple at Ayodhya and abrogation of a special Article 370 in Kashmir. 

From time to time, the Supreme Court of India has of course favoured UCC. For its part, the BJP has achieved two contentious issues - Article 370 was abrogated on August 5, 2019 while Ram temple is now a reality as the Supreme Court gave its ruling in November 2019.

According to many Indians including Hindus, there is a difference between BJP's Hindutva as a political ideology and 'genuine Hinduism' as a religion. 

This topic is often debated in India. But there could be good reasons to encourage political polarisation by the ruling dispensation and other pro-Hindutva organisations such as RSS.

Needless to add, BJP's opponents say the affron party's ultra-nationalist rhetoric and encouragement to lumpen elements in the name of 'Hindu nationalism' actually threatens India's much cherished secularism.

This might be the foundation of India's constitution, but it is also true that the BJP's continuous reliance on an aggressive Hindutva plank especially against Muslims has given it mega electoral success in the last decade. 

A new battle for the 'idea of India' is on.

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