Why Bilkis Dadi Is No Icon
“What does Bilkis Dadi’s place among TIME Magazine’s list of Top 100Most Influential People mean for the Shaheen Bagh movement and the future of democratic resistance in India?” So asking, The Wire journalist Arfa KhanumSherwani launched a moderately aggressive attack on the “authoritarian” tendencies of the current ruling dispensation in the country.
The whole article is the same regurgitation of lies, half truths and paranoia that the Indian Left has been peddling about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, CAA, and the much feared (and non-existent, so far) National Register of Citizens, NRC. These have been debunked thoroughly, time and time again, bylawyers and legal experts. But it’s not for nothing that they say that you canwake up a sleeping person, but not one who is pretending to be asleep. (I personally think the best way to wake such people up is by using old smellysocks.)
Let us think about this authoritarianism for a while now. Giving the charge itsdue consideration, or steelmanning, as opposed to strawmanning, is only fair. Modi govt has arrested a lot of people involved in the “student protests”. Thesheroes of Jamia, who even defended their male colleague froma brutal beating by the police, were vilified as anti-nationals. In fact, almost everyonewho so much as dissents against the CAA and the govt’s narrative behindit is labeled as anti-national. Sharjeel Imam, an IIT-B CSE graduate pursuing a doctoral degree in JNU after having worked in the West for some years, has been arrested for raising slogans against the govt and for his vague threats tocut off Assam from the rest of India.
But this is not the limit of the despotic tendencies of the BJP, or its ideological mentor and parent organization, the RSS. The larger dreamof forming a Hindu Rashtra by demoting minorities to a secondary status us closer nowthan it ever was. It is evident from the pace with which Modi 2.0 has passedseveral crucial laws and carried out Hindu supremacist activities, viz MuslimWomen (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, also known as the Triple TalaqBill, the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, and, of course, the Ram
Mandir of Ayodhya. These are all arguments we usually hear fromthe Left as evidence of India going from a secular liberal democratic nation to a HinduRashtra.
And, supposedly, the resistance to all of this is represented by the figure of this82 year old lady, Bilkis Dadi. The helpless senior citizen might probably haveno concept of how big the world is and what the TIME Magazine just did. Andall the attention being showered upon her is slightly strange. Here’s why.
Upon examination of the video interview that Arfa herself conducted of Dadiji, it is clear that she does not talk about CAA or Shaheen Bagh nearly as muchasone would hope, but she instead talks about fighting against Corona. Dadiji even calls Modi her son. No love lost there, apparently. If a layperson were towatch that video, it would scream at them the internal struggle of Arfa to get one hostile statement for Modi or CAA. Dadiji apparently doesn’t even knowany specific reason as to why she and other senior ladies had gathered at Shaheen Bagh in the harsh winter of Delhi, for any number of days. However, she vehemently denies the claim that they were there for free food.
What is more bothersome, however, about the whole gimmick by TIMEMagazine is what is being made out of the seemingly simpleton Dadi’s innocence. And TIME is a repeat offender, when it comes to such antics. Somemonths ago, Atish Taseer had written another opinion on how Modi was India’s divider-in-chief, which made the cover page feature of the magazine.
But, since it is an opinion piece, it can be given a wide berth. People withmoreextreme views also find platforms, meaning those who equate every non-Left head of state, be it Donald Trump or Modi, with Hitler and their followers andsupporters (even voters) with Fascists, getting even their references jumbled, by the way.
The entire protest in Shaheen Bagh is a sham, because the basis of all the fear is either imagined or concocted by the organizers. Bilkis Dadi may not evenknow that she stands absolutely no chance of getting affected by the CAA. As
for the NRC, no one even knows what it is going to be like. Meaning there is not rational reason to preempt any danger of “becoming stateless overnight”. To block a busy road for 90 odd days on the basis of this is not just an impromptu show of an indignant rebellion. It is planned and executed withafairly clear motivation. Dadiji may not even be aware that she is but a pawninthis game of chess.
With her name being mentioned in this context in TIME, this appears to be aconcerted attempt to portray India as an illiberal country on the verge of a civil war. And it is not without reason. The Left’s hatred for Modi is of such
proportions that they lie. Blatantly. They have lied so many times in the past 6years, one loses count, church vandalism, cow-related lynchings, intolerance, Rafale, undermining of institutions like the judiciary and CBI.
If one were to guess the motives of the people driving these movements, it would turn out that the motives are not lofty aims like replacing Modi withamore liberal, benevolent Prime Minister, who would bring India back onthesecular liberal track that it was supposedly walking on for some 70 years. It would be to portray themselves as the next Martin Luther King Jr or Gandhi, one who stood against the injustices of the powers that be and be knownas some kind of saviors.
These people desperately want the next Civil Rights movement to come aroundso that they can virtue signal to the largest possible audience that wouldlisten. This, one could argue, is also done at some level, for personal fame. Rana Ayyub, another journalist, was mentioned as a brave face of Indian defiant journalism in the New Yorker. Barkha Dutt is already quite well knowninWestern liberal circles, as is Arundhati Roy. Some lesser known journalists aspire to the same status, but they are too afraid (rightly so) of being provenwrong in public. Hence, they use people like poor Dadiji to shoot fromtheir shoulders.
But Indians today are wiser to their methods and motives. They will not be fooled by such antics. As for India’s image in the world, it can and will be dealt
with, hopefully, if we are able to yank the carpet from under their feet by busting these false narratives. The world will automatically start asking questions when even 10 years from now, there is n0 civil war and whencroresof Indian Muslims do not “become stateless overnight”.