Consider how these potential WhatsApp shares may have gone down if Scotland was Islamophobic…
“The number of Muslims in our country has doubled in the last 10 years”
“5% of Glasgow is Muslim now”
“58% of Muslims living in Scotland are of Pakistani origin”
In a country that is over 95% white, where Muslims are now 2% of the population, rising sharply from just 0.9% in 2001, if islamophobes had their way in Scotland, as they increasingly do in India, they would have used these statistics as great raw material to spin conspiracy theories like ‘Population Jihad’ and ‘Parliament Jihad’.
These would have then been repeated at Scottish Dharam Sansads and Sakal Scottish Samaj rallies, which would have been patronised by some mainstream politicians as well. And all of it would have been amplified by the Scottish versions of media-men like Suresh Chavhanke.
Except… Scotland is not Islamophobic. In fact, it is very evidently, quite ‘Islamo-Embracing’, to coin a word.
Lessons from Scotland...
The latest head of the Scottish government, and the leader of Scotland’s biggest political party, the Scottish National Party, is Hamza Haroon Yousaf, just 37 years old, Muslim, the son of Pakistani immigrants. If you hear his gruff Scottish accent, you’d think its Sean Connery speaking.
It was as recent as 2007 that the Scottish Parliament elected its first Muslim MP, Bashir Ahmad. Just 16 years on, it has picked a Muslim as the leader of its country.
And just so that we don’t dismiss Yousaf as a political flash-in-the-pan thing, the leader of Scotland’s third largest political party, the Scottish Labour Party, is another Muslim of Pakistani origin – Anas Sarwar.
Which begs the question, yet again – if Scotland can get it right, along with several other countries whose democratic values we share so deeply, then why are we in India so badly out of step with the rest of the world, especially when it comes to hate speech?
...That We Should Now Emulate
Yet again, our Supreme Court, while hearing a contempt petition against the Maharashtra government for failing to act against allaged hate-speeches during the Sakal Hindu Samaj rallies, observed: “State is impotent, state is powerless; it does not act in time. Why do we have a State at all if it is remaining silent?”
Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna even observed that hate speech was thriving in utter contempt of repeated SC orders.
They were referring to individuals like extremist Hindutva leader Kalicharan Maharaj who has delivered multiple alleged hate speeches at recent Sakal Hindu Samaj rallies, despite being out on bail on a charge of making a hate speech against Mahatma Gandhi in 2022.
He has faced no fresh police action, clearly upsetting the Supreme Court, which also observed:
Here's How the World is Practicing Inclusivity
Meanwhile, the world, is galloping towards inclusiveness.
Sadiq Khan is Mayor of London, Rishi Sunak is England’s PM, Leo Varadkar (half-Irish, half Maharashtrian) is the Premier of Ireland, Kamala Harris is USA’s Vice President, and Sikhs are, of course, everywhere in Canadian politics.
Each of these countries could have chosen to exploit statistics about the sharp rise in their immigrant populations, and built their politics around scary, spurious racist narratives.
But they have NOT done that.
In fact, as we can see, quite the opposite. And ironically, it is Indian immigrants that have benefitted most from the inclusive ethos of these countries, be it politics, business, culture, sports, you name it.
These countries are also not wary of allowing their newly or recently arrived culturally diverse citizens to refine or update their laws and attitudes.
Just see how the city of Seattle in the US, recently chose to ban caste discrimination. Seattle recognizsd that with many more citizens of Indian origin living there, it was important for their local laws to be updated. One can only applaud this as being pro-actively progressive and inclusive.
No one is saying for a moment, that these countries are squeaky clean. They have their histories of racism too, they have their share of politicians and political parties that have blatantly racist and phobic agendas.
England’s ‘Stop The Boats’ anti blue-collar immigrant policy being championed by Sunak himself, is a current contentious example.
And yet, the simple fact is, that inclusivity is now irreversible in these countries. After picking Sunak as PM, there’s no going back. After France has had Zidane and Mbappe as their football captains, there’s no going back.
But here in India...we are sliding back. Steadily. By choice. One hate speech at a time.
And again, Justices Joseph and Nagarathna nailed the problem (not that it’s rocket science) in their recent observations, saying:
“Hate is a vicious circle. State will have to initiate action… the moment politics and religion are segregated, all this will stop …The major problem is when politicians make use of religion for power.”
When we read the now familiar statistic – Not a single Muslim MP among ALL of the BJP’s 400 MPs in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha - what’s the takeaway? That the ruling party is perhaps not too keen on inclusivity.
To be fair, the BJP has not ducked the charge. They dismiss ‘inclusivity’ as ‘minority appeasement’.
In part, the BJP is not wrong either. Several of our political parties are driven by narrow political agendas, serving a certain community or caste or region.
Why 'Merit' is Important
The word we are looking for is Merit. If we look for merit, then inclusivity is sure to follow, because ‘Merit’ is a truly secular value.
It would be unrealistic for any country or society to simply wish away or even legislate away long-standing social divides. But should that interfere with what’s best for the country, should that interfere with choosing the best talent to run the country, to run its businesses, or to play in its national teams? From Scotland, to England, to the US, several countries have successfully shown that it should not, and does not.
To India’s credit, while inclusivity may be elusive in politics… we have been effortlessly ‘inclusive’ in the spheres of Sports and Entertainment.
For all the bashing that ‘Pathan’ got from haters, the audience responded by helping the Shahrukh Khan film earn over Rs 1000 crores at the box office.
Merit trumps all else when we select our national teams in every sport.
We cheer for every medal won, whether its Nikhat Zareen or Mary Kom, we cheer for every wicket taken whether it falls to Mohammed Shami or Ravichandran Ashwin. Sports has been a great glue and starting point for other countries. It could be for India too.
BUT where the biggest void exists, and where the biggest push is needed - is Indian politics. To my optimistic mind, here’s where the BJP can actually take the lead. It is perhaps possible now, more than ever, for this seemingly invincible party, to change the way politics is conducted in India.
Why BJP Can (And Should) Adopt a 'Merit Only' Culture
With so much daylight between them and a still not-yet-united political opposition, they can take the unprecedented supremely bold call to dump communalism, dump casteism, dump regionalism, dump dynasty and nepotism, dump misogyny, dump obscurantism, dump the bulldozer-raj, dump the UAPA-raj, dump all forms of radicalism – and make it MERIT ONLY.
If anyone can, the BJP can.
But, it will have to start this ‘merit only’ culture within its own party first.
In the US, when the Democrats and the Republicans, both uphold the practice of no more than two terms for a President, what is the message? It simply, but crucially, tells every aspiring politician that there is no glass ceiling.
If the BJP adopts this leadership principle at every level of their party structure, they will be telling every person wanting to be a part of the BJP, that they can also aspire to lead it. That there is a transparent template for that process which is cut in stone.
To my mind, it will not only be transformative for Indian politics, it will also benefit the BJP the most, as the nation’s best young political talent would flock to it.
But with the temptation of staying with the talismanic Narendra Modi to lead them to an unprecedented third consecutive term in power, the BJP is unlikely to bite this bullet. And so, it may well be back to business as usual, and fighting elections using that familiar divisive rhetoric.
And that’s why we may not emulate the inclusivity of Scotland any time soon.
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