Stop being Janus-faced

There have been Vijay Shahs before and there will be again

Alok Tiwari

Despite his growing legal difficulties, Madhya Pradesh minister for tribal affairs Vijay Shah need not worry. The minister is in the eye of the storm over his crass and hateful remarks about Col Sophiya Qureshi who, along with Wg Cdr Vyomika Singh, became the face of Indian armed forces during Operation Sindoor. The government move to let two women officers, a Muslim and a Hindu, conduct the daily press briefing was seen as an attempt to project a united, secular image of the country confronting religiously fuelled terrorism and its sponsors. It went swimmingly well until Vijay Shah opened his mouth. Within a few seconds he laid to waste the image-making exercise of the government by, among other things, effectively calling Col Qureshi sister of terrorists. He went on to disparage entire Muslim community in other ways too.

Had the country been having a more normal government, this would have invited immediate rebuke from the higher ups. In more normal times, an act like this would likely lead to minister’s resignation. But we are not living in normal times. The entire saffron establishment chose to remain eerily silent on the matter. It was left to a conscientious judge of MP High Court to order an FIR against the minister. It was him again who took the MP government to task for filing a diluted FIR that was designed to be quashed at first challenge. For relief, the minister ran to the Supreme Court which ended up setting up an SIT probe into his hate speech.

Still, Shah need not worry. The courts can only do so much. Implementation of the court’s order is still in the hands of executive. It gets to appoint the officers who will conduct the probe and write the charge sheet, the prosecutor who will conduct the probe. It appears to be standing solidly behind Shah and not behind Col Qureshi. Throughout this period, even as the minister’s remarks caused a national uproar, there has not even been a hint of reproach either from MP chief minister Mohan Yadav or any national BJP leader. The party’s state unit merely said it would conduct training session for leaders on speaking appropriately.

How can I be so sure about Shah’s impunity? There is a pattern to it. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has perfected the art of being like Janus the Roman god of duality. It lets loose its attack dogs that cater crassly to its radicalized base while the top leadership maintains plausible deniability. Remember the brutal 2017 murder of activist journalist Gauri Lankesh? The dead woman was described in crassest terms by the IT cell trolls including by an account followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Despite criticism, the PM did not stop following the account. The message was clear, you do your thing, the establishment will have your back.

Forget that one unknown entity. In 2018, Jayant Sinha, then a Union minister, garlanded and got himself photographed with eight persons convicted of murdering Alimuddin Ansari on suspicion of carrying beef in Jharkhand. Sinha did not even express regrets for his action and continued to serve in Modi ministry. In 2019, the then BJP candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency Pragya Thakur caused a stir by calling Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse a patriot. Even PM Modi was forced to say he would never forgive her for her utterances. He was so unforgiving that Thakur duly got elected and completed her term as MP. Not just that she remained on bail in Malegaon blast case in which she is an accused on health grounds. NIA never once challenged the bail even though Thakur was travelling all over the country and was even seen playing football. Anurag Thakur of “goli maro saalo ko” fame has only flourished in the party.

More recently, another loud-mouthed MP Nishikant Dubey had uttered unspeakable words about Muslims in Parliament. Speaker Om Birla, who is quick to switch off microphones of opposition members and expunge even their inoffensive remarks, remained a mute witness. An emboldened Dubey recently blamed the Chief Justice of India, no less, of causing ‘civil wars’ in the country when a judgment went against the party-appointed governors. Fearing repercussions, BJP president J P Nadda distanced the party from Dubey’s remarks but stopped short of condemning the act. That did not stop Vice President Jaideep Dhankhar from cautioning the top court not to act like a super parliament.

There are numerous such examples involving leaders, some prominent some ordinary. Was any action taken against those who enabled early release of and then felicitated Bilkis Bano case convicts? What about those who glorified so-called gaurakshaks who spread terror on streets? The only person who got a mild rap on the knuckles for hate speech was BJP national spokesperson Noopur Sharma who made vile remarks about Prophet Mohammed on national TV. She was removed from her post only because of intense pressure from Gulf nations on whom the country depends for energy supplies and market for labour. She otherwise continues to occupy a prominent position in BJP’s ecosystem.

There is an obvious reason for this. Whatever the top leadership of BJP and Sangh may tell the world, the foundation of party’s electoral success is continued radicalization of Hindu vote bank. This requires its leaders to continually create Muslim bogey and delegitimize any attempt at building bridges between Hindus and Muslims. The party may on occasion put forward a Col Qureshi or send Eid gift to Muslims, but its fundamental approach remains of polarization. The party has never acted and will never act against those spreading communal hatred. Hence, Shah should feel safe. Only people like Ashoka University academic Ali Khan Mahmudabad who call out its hypocrisy need to worry.

This column appeared in Lokmat Times on May 21, 2025