‘Padmaavat’ & the escape of vote-bank politics

India’s richest man produces a film directed by one of India’s biggest directors with two of India’s bigger stars. Based on a poem, the movie shows a Rajput King who marries a second time because he finds a Rajput princess beautiful. It then shows an evil Muslim King pining for the same beauty and hence mounting an attack on the Rajput Kingdom. It ends showing the Queen asking the King’s permission to commit suicide for honour and then proceeding to do so.

Muslims don’t oppose the movie. Human rights activists don’t oppose the movie. Feminists don’t opposite the movie. Even Pakistan’s censor board passes it without any cuts. But some of the same Rajputs who are glorified in the movie oppose it. The reason they cite is that they believe there is a dream sequence in the movie between the Queen and the evil Muslim ruler. Even if there was, so what! But what is laughable is that there isn’t even such a scene in it. It is pure imagination, probably like the original script itself.

Then those same Rajputs make open violent threats, leaders of the ruling party do too. Demands for the actress’s & director’s heads are made. Bounties are laid. Ruling party CMs declare a ban on the film. Its release gets stayed. The film gets tens of forced cuts. Money is lost. Hundreds of women threaten self-immolation like in the movie. Vehicles are burnt. Stone-pelting occurs, malls & cinemas are ransacked. A Children’s bus, yes Children’s bus is attacked. Bandhs are declared, highways are blocked, a nation is brought to a standstill, the average citizen is scared of going to watch one harmless movie. And yet hardly any arrests are made, no intent to stop this is displayed whatsoever!

The Prime Minister – the single most powerful man in the country is silent, in fact even complicit given the facts that his party leaders also made threats, his CMs banned the movie, the law and order in his party’s states are failing. The unofficial leader of the opposition, the heir to the opponent’s throne is silent as well, no political challenge, no plea to maintain law and order, nothing. Not even any capitalization on this clear opportunity to gain political points over the ruling party. As usual, Sanjay Leela Bhansali has to remain mum on how he was first manhandled, then threatened for so long, how he lost money, how he feared for his and his loved ones’ lives, he has to fight court battles, he has to appease the censor board, he has to appease the very people who are threatening him, he has to request Akshay Kumar and R. Balki to shift the release of ‘Padman’ so that his film can finally release and recover some money with fewer hurdles. This country and its leaders won’t support him. He, as an average citizen has to once again endure, remain silent & somehow get his work done.

Why, I wonder? Why are our leaders so scared? “Vote-bank politics” is the usual answer a lot of people have. “That they will lose votes because Indians vote on religion” is the general explanation. I disagree. I think that’s giving our leaders an easy escape. Imagine this. What if – Our Prime Minister who has established a strong Hindu and authoritarian identity, held a press-conference citing peaceful instances from Hinduism and establishes that as its true meaning. What if he gets strong Hindu leaders, human rights leaders, Rajput leaders on the same stage stating in unison that this is unacceptable and the true meaning of what they stand for is entirely contrary. What if after establishing this legitimacy over Hinduism, he cites the constitution and calls it as important a set of rules, if not more, than religion. What if he made it clear that not one law and order violation shall be tolerated, what if he then empowered his CMs and all police forces to make strict examples of any criminals. Would that not dissuade these fringe elements? And yet would that not keep his Hindu vote-bank intact? Would that not still get him a lot of votes, both from those who consider themselves Hindus first and those who consider themselves humans or citizens first. Doing this would be a practical solution, one that is not as disconnected & cynical as dogmatic Facebook activism, but a very realistic, wide-spread one. He did this with demonetization, right? Made himself appear the crusader, put himself on the side of the victims, made the nation believe it was for the universal good! Why not the same strategy here!

This strategy can work, I firmly believe so. The average Indian will understand this language, I firmly think so. Don’t discount our leaders so easily saying “Oh they don’t do this because they will lose votes”. No. They don’t do this because they have come up on identity politics, they don’t do this because they have no intent of ending this, they profit from further pumping up these identities. They didn’t become leaders for nation-building, they did for power. Hate, fear and false pride bring them faster returns than true development & peace. They made their choice, what’s yours!