The current ruling dispensation in India which is helmed by our PM Mr. Narendra Modi & the Home Minister & his defacto 2^nd man Mr. Amit Shah, have by all means proven to be the most successful political duo in Independent India’s history, by far, so far. Particularly after winning the 2^nd term 2019 elections with such a vast majority, they are most arguably the numero uno in politics today in India & even have made a global foot-print, their ‘hero of politics’ positioning is quite strong & their influence in global politics cannot be ignored by the most powerful nations, even.

Most of the key factors behind their success has been debated from time to time, be it the Political charisma of Mr. Modi himself, the ‘chanakya’ brain of Mr. Shah, the key role played by bodies like RSS, considered to be the guiding force behind their & BJP’s overall success in current politics, most of these have been debated in length, with political pundits throwing multiple views in support as well as against any such theories…though most of such debates, be it in small groups, WhatsApp groups, Facebook or on TV debates, generally turning out to get hot & ugly in the end.

This also clearly shows a strong bias of love & hatred towards this personality who undoubtedly are the Political supremoes & considered to be the hard-core ‘Political Doers’ in the Indian Political Dispensation today.

The most commendable as well as criticized approach (depending on which side of the political centre you belong to) has been their high handedness when it comes to making decisions based on ‘ideologies’ (the nationalistic approach & for the country thinking is generally neglected/ downplayed by the opposition pundits quite often) & quickly converting them into law & getting them passed through, the recent ones which have been in news at International level include- the Article 370 subrogation act for Jammu & Kashmir, the Triple Talaq law for Muslim women, the conduct of the Babri Masjid case & the favorable judgment given by the Supreme Court of India to allow construction of Ram Temple @ Ram Janam Bhumi in Ayodhya & the recent & the most controversial being the Citizenship Amendment Bill which just got passed in both the Houses of the Parliament & is now converted to become an Act (CAA) after being signed by the President of India & has now become an integral part of the Constitution of India.

You may be hearing & reading multiple theories around it, most of them talking of the ‘controversial intent’ of ‘trying to divide the country on religious grounds’, never done before by any Political Dispensation & how this will fuel disintegration of our country best known for its ‘undaunted image of an ideal secular nation’, how we have always lived with peace & harmony in spite of such a vast diversity in religion, ethnic backgrounds, language & cultures, making us the most diverse nation living with unity & love which is broadly quite commendable.

And the 2^nd theory which you will see floating around, is of – why (& how) the current govt. is diverting attention of the public at large from the important, burning issues of economy, onions getting costlier than mighty, the joblessness all around, the falling GDP (even if 99% of these opinion-makers would have no clue on GDP, how it is measured, what it actually means & what relevance it would actually have with various aspects of the economic parameters of a country & the livelihood of the people there)…& then someone ‘half-educated’ would come from the top & start shouting- ‘see this will also be another flop as the demonetization exercise, done in haste & without proper homework’…so this ‘CAB would also be another doomed exercise like Demonetization’ & that’s it…period. As if we actually know what Demonetization ended into & what CAB would actually result in…but since ‘Opinion Making & Commentary’ seems to be the birthright of most of us Indians, mainly the half-cooked youth, so be it!!

This Bill also comes in such a sensitive zone that it was bound to create a ‘divisive debate’ & a much more ‘divisive atmosphere’ that even its interpretation also clearly seems to done by the Experts based on their inclinations (mostly not done on FACTS)- for those with the ruling dispensation, this Bill & Act has nothing to do with the existing Citizens of the country—it’s a Bill of ‘inclusion’ & not ‘exclusion’ & for those who are sitting on the other side of the fence (& this comprises all Muslims & the so-called Secular Hindus, Jains & Sikhs, manly the new age youth—for whom India is only about living life, fun & party…India was never about a culture or about a religion or religious beliefs & of course, let’s not talk of history, as our History is only 300 years old, before that we don’t know neither we want to know…)- the CAB is about ‘giving citizenship on religious discriminatory grounds’, it’s about a ‘sochi-samjhi ran-niti’ of making the Muslims deprived of their rights & taking away their citizenship rights to make them weak & less important- politically (meaningless no. of voters is equal to less influence on the Political Playground & vice versa) & for them, it’s clearly undemocratic, so this is a ‘draconian Act which should be immediately withdrawn’ by the Govt!!??

We recently saw the Protest flaring up, starting with the Jamia University unrest which was strongly presented as ‘suppressing the voice of the students- the youth of the country, their right to raise their own independent voice towards anything undemocratic & not in citizens’ interest or the country’s interest…’ & believe me, this act itself created a unison of sorts in the students/ youth community across the country, students & youth of all religions & caste & ethnicity voicing their support to the ‘so-called draconian act of the Delhi Police towards the Jamia University students/ youth’ & it almost started becoming a ‘student movement/ youth movement’ & this credit purely goes to the BJP top-shots who started their day by committing this blunder, rather I would say- ‘they inadvertently got caught in this trap’ & it almost has started working good for the opposition…a point where they see the YOUTH getting united. On the other hand, the intelligent/ sensible handling of such protests at Aligarh, be it at AMU or in the city,  by the SP there was equally praised/ lauded all over.

One thing which I clearly see is that the Ruling Party & their so-called strategists totally failing to understand that the success of the Protests doesn’t come from just one community i.e. the presumably affected community of Muslims & their Political Patriarchs coming together & marching on streets, putting inflammatory posts & making them viral, mobilizing their communities to voice their concerns & create an administrative log jam for the Govt. The very clear-cut example is the next act at Seelampur locality of Delhi where one community came out for protests, also tried to create mayhem but to no avail…they did not get much sympathetic support & could not connect with the masses.

Whereas, just one forceful suppression of students & youth @ Jamia Milia got a majority of Youth connected across religions & the Facebook & WhatsApp campaigns on these lines are clear-cut proof of this connect & the initial success garnered  by the Opposition…& this is where the Communication & the Strategic wing of BJP miserable failed…they didn’t realize this ‘Youth Power’ & the fact that when the youth of the country see any ‘suppression act for voice of freedom’, they have a tendency to unite, as the Youth & the Students are a ‘united community in themselves’, generally anti-establishment in their thought process, rebellions in their action & the image of ‘this govt. not able to do enough for their jobs & building the economy up’ ignites another fear & the reason for them to unite on any issue- even if it be an issue of CAB, which directly may not affect any of them.

Then the Ruling Party also has miserably failed to be able to build the right kind of sensible conversations around the CAB (they should have done it much before they started planning for bringing the Bill) & the co-relation between CAB & CRC (Central Registry of Citizens), the issue which started from Assam & now engulfed whole of NE belt and has become a strong ground of reasoning & creating fear amongst the Muslim minority population that both CAB & CRC would be linked & how the Nazis started with side-lining Jews & then ended up eliminating the Jews ….same would happen to the Muslims of India in the long run!!

Here the Leaders like Mr Amit Shah (as Home Minister) & his team, be it in Govt. or the Party should take responsibility of this failure of not making any organized & result oriented efforts with respect to:

• Educating the population about CRC, the difference between the CAB & CRC & how they are not inter-linked
• And most importantly on building trust amongst the large community of Muslims, their Leaders & their Influencers on their safety, security & the fear of non-inclusion of this vulnerable community into the mainstream (which was already there since BJP came in power, now this Fear just got multiplied by trillions, with this Act being enacted in totality).

That’s why, I would call this a big failure of the ‘Strategy & The Communications Team’ (which is generally termed as the PROPAGANDA team by the Opposition & the BJP/ RSS baiters), the point I wanted to make in the beginning of the column that this- Strategy & Communications Team’ of BJP (mainly run by Mr. Modi & Mr. shah duo) is one Team whose capability to turn opinions in their favour, create the right kind of Propaganda for their winning, has never been questioned in the past, they have invariably won in the toughest of the situations, be it winning the UP assembly elections 2 years back in most adverse situations or winning the last national election – the hottest, most severely fought election by Congress party for their survival & the way this team turned around the ‘Chowkidar chor hai’ jibe in their favour by widely building up the ‘nationalism flavour across the country’, winning hand down…it’s all history now, though…

But here the BJP & the RSS, both may need to do some more introspection of where they have gone wrong in putting their best foot forward, over such a sensitive issue like- the Citizenship Bill & which will presumably affect a large minority chunk of the population- the Muslim Political class who are bound to revolt now & convert this opportunity into a movement of the deprived, having seen a series of Bills & Enactments not going in their favour… the ‘Communication Strategy’ of the ruling dispensation definitely seems to be in a LOG-JAM, as of now.

As expected, the Opposition already have started committing mistakes, be it Owaisi & Party coming on Jantar Mantar & trying to enforce the idea of ‘Muslims-Sikhs-Dalits’  getting united on this issue, or our great Madam Mamta Bannerjee trying to make it a power show by doing a filmy road march in the centre of Kolkata…we will see a series of blunders coming in through minds of Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejariwal, Uddhav Thakrey & likes, who will always remain confused on ‘how far to go with whom’, failing to take any side much openly. & they already seem to miss the bus of ‘failing to make this a pure students/ youth-drivenmovement’, which would have been a winning stroke for them by all means.

So there definitely be another chance, only that the top brass of BJP & RSS come out with a better strategy to come out of this  ‘Communication Log-Jam’ & not let this become a movement of masses, as also in the words of Jama Masjid Imam- this Bill doesn’t affect the Muslims who are Indian citizens…& this needs to be communicated all over, with all good intentions & clarity…as no community should every live with the ‘fear of unknown’, this would not be good for the future of our country, our new India, our Bharat.