PK Row: Dear Amit Shah, 'right to protest' is ok, Hindutva vandalism isn't

BJP President Amit Shah said that ‘people had a right to lodge protests’ when commenting on the furore surrounding Aamir Khan starrer PK. According to this report in the Times of India, “Shah said that in a democratic set up, a film-maker was entitled to his freedom of creative expression. At the same time, he said people, too, had the right to lodge a protest” He did not elaborate if said ‘right to protest’ included the freedom to unleash acts of violence against cinema halls and movie watchers. It is quite possible in fact, that he was merely referring to the slew of court cases that have been filed against the makers of the film, asking for it to be banned because it outraged religious sentiments. [caption id=“attachment_2028593” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP[/caption] But if that were the case, he should have made a distinction, because the the ruling party, literally cannot afford to keep turning a blind eye to the violence perpetrated by hardline Hindutva groups. The criticism that hardline Hindutva is flourishing under the Modi sarkar is not the muttering of a few disgruntled ‘sore losers’ still smarting at the size of the BJP victory, it has become a full fledged national concern, that people are openly worried about. In a Times of India IPSOS survey conducted across eight Indian cities, it was revealed that 62% of respondents were of the opinion that hotheads of the Sangh Parivar were adversely affecting the government’s development agenda.  As pointed out by _Firstpost_ editor Sandip Roy , “Indians, whether conservative or liberal, start getting nervous about the perception of a government’s own rank and file running amuck.” If Shah and the BJP want to make it beyond one term in power — and everything suggests that they do — they need to at least start giving people the impression that they are not only selectively applying the rule of law to everyone but themselves and the ideological outfits that support them. And as BJP President, Shah should have led by example. Shah could have made at least one comment condemning the mob violence. Especially because as the head of the ruling party at the centre, law and order is his party’s responsibility. And while no one is disputing the right of the people to protest, what can be disputed is the manner in which people choose to carry out their protests, especially when such protests endanger life and property and are aimed at intimidating people against exercising their right to free will.  This is not something that should be tolerated by any responsible government, and by choosing not to comment on it, and instead making a vague reference to the ‘right of the people to protest’ Shah is essentially giving Hardline Hindutva parties a nudge and a wink, telling them that whatever they do is essentially alright by him. And while it may well be that the government does not want to upset the RSS, given how crucial their support proved to be in terms of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP could make the mistake of missing the wood for the trees. The Lok Sabha election was won on an agenda of development, nothing else. In its bid to appease its ideological partner, will the BJP end up alienating the common voter, to whom law and order still mean something?