2016- A year of controversies for the BJP

One more day and we will be saying bye to 2016. How was this year to the BJP? The Modi government has moved from one controversy to another throughout this year.

The year began with the tragic suicide of Rohit Vemula. A suicide driven by the entire administration of Central university, Hyderabad and the centre, pushing the Dalit scholar to death for daring to oppose the ABVP(student wing of BJP).

The wave of protest following Rohit Vemula’s suicide brought into focus the exclusion politics practiced by many of our premier institutions. How did the Modi government tackle this giant wave of support that Rohit gained both in India and world-wide? By spinning a web of lies that goes on forever.

They question the Dalit status of Rohit, call it fake

The district administration of Guntur conducted an enquiry immediately after Rohith’s death, when this question of his Dalit identity was first raised and the District collector of Guntur, after a thorough verification of government records, certified his Dalit status.

Instead of punishing the culprits, they were protected and reinstated. The Vice-Chancellor of HCU, Appa Rao was brought back to Central university after a period of hibernation,under heavy police protection and the protesting students manhandled and arrested.

The HRD ministry’s one-man commission report by Roopanwal said that Rohith’s mother, Radhika Vemula had faked her Dalit status by wrongly obtaining an SC certificate. The report further puts the reason behind Rohith Vemula’s suicide as personal frustration and not caste discrimination. By accusing Rohith’s mother of faking Dalit status the report has made a mockery of justice and has tried its best to protect its masters in the ministry and the Central university, who are all liable for immediate arrest and persecution under the SC and ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.

The JNU debacle

In February 2016, Kanhaiya Kumar the President of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union was arrested and charged with sedition by the Delhi police for allegedly raising anti-India slogans in a student rally. This was followed up by the arrest of two more students of JNU. This kind of suppression was unheard of and the archaic law of sedition was questioned by all rational minds. When Kanhaiya kumar was finally released on bail, he addressed the students in JNU and became a celebrity speaker openly questioning Modi in a way no other opposition leader had done till now.

The Una horror and its aftermath

On July 11, four young Dalit men were stripped and flogged mercilessly by “gau rakshaks” in the marketplace in the presence of a large crowd and complicit police, behind an SUV in Una. Gujarat. The youngest of the four Dalits was 17 yrs. A video clip of the whole incident, was put in social media by the “cow vigilantes” and it triggered spontaneous protests throughout Gujarat and neighbouring states.

Massive rallies were taken out in Ahmedabad and the Dalits (Muslims joined them) proudly declared that they will no longer remove dead cows. This was Gujarat-the native state of PM Modi and the protests became a thorn in the BJP’s flesh in the summer of 2016.

Kashmir violence

Violent anti- India protests rocked the Kashmir valley after the killing of young Hizbul commander Burhan Wani, a highly popular local militant on July 8^th and resulted in death of more than 100 people including 2 policemen ,over 11,000 injured people and at least 117 civilians lost their eyesight as a result of pellet guns(according to local doctors). Curfew was in force for more than 3 months in all 10 districts of Kashmir. It is only now , when temperatures have dropped to minus level and even the Dal lake is frozen that things are slowly limping back to normal.

The surgical strikes?

On 29 September 2016, India conducted “surgical strikes” against militant launch pads across the Line of Control and inflicted “significant casualties.”Pakistan rejected the claim. Earlier that month, four militants had attacked the Indian army at Uri on 18 September and killed 19 soldiers. Since then, India and Pakistan have continued to exchange fire along the border in Kashmir and Indian casualities this year has been very high.

The crown of all controversies

However the Modi government’s sudden decision on November 8^th to withdraw overnight 86% of the currency- Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes brought in such chaos that every other problem faded and unprecedented anarchy set in. These “high denominations” (Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes )were replaced by a higher one- the pink Rs 2000 note and everyone struggled to change this new note. Modi’s 50 day deadline for things to improve for the common people has come to end today but the future still appears bleak.

This was the response on the social media to the never ending queues seen in the 2 penultimate months that finally brought down the curtain on 2016.