As VHP And Bajrang Dal Release Helpline Numbers, The Indian State Needs To Reflect On Its Inadequacies

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal launched helpline numbers for those getting threats from “jihadist forces” over their social media posts. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated outfits released 35 helpline numbers on Twitter for various states. This announcement was met with celebration and scepticism alike.

While Hindu society mobilises to protect itself from radicalised Islamists, it is a sombre moment for the state machinery to reflect on its failures in protecting its own citizens, so much so that they had to resort to means that would ideally not be required.

True to their character, the leftist forces and armchair intellectuals rushed to describe the provision of these helpline numbers as ‘India’s slide into lawlessness and anarchy’. They called the VHP and Bajrang Dal ‘vigilante groups’ and appalling comparisons were made with the Ku Klux Klan and the Proud Boys in America.

While the left is undeserving of being reasoned with, this article attempts to clear the air about the VHP-Bajrang Dal initiative.

Background

The murder of Kanhaiya Lal by Islamists in Rajasthan for the sole ‘crime’ of supporting Nupur Sharma sent a chill down the spines of people around the country. Not that his was the first such murder. Scores of men and women were murdered by Islamist jihadis in the last few years alone.

Now, in such an instance, where the state has failed in its duty to protect its citizens, who can the people turn to? Neither is everyone important enough in the authorities’ eyes to be provided with personal security nor is an average Indian rich enough to be able to afford full-time security.

In the resultant vacuum created by the capitulation of the state before jihadi mobs, community-centred organisations like the VHP, Bajrang Dal, and Hindu Yuva Vahini step in. It’s essential, even if not ideal.

Need For A Helpline

The idea of a free society is senseless if the mere expression of one’s religious or social or political beliefs can get one beheaded. The root cause of the issue is the Indian Islamist’s first loyalty to the global supra-nationality Islamic fraternity — the Ummah.

The idea of a nation-state governed by laws is antithetical. And if nations don’t matter, neither do their laws.

The brazen calls for violence up to and including murders have a chilling effect on the Hindus who may desperately want to voice their thoughts but are horrified of the potential consequences. They also cannot bank on the state to protect them based on its own chequered past.

That is where such Hindutva organisations provide relief and confidence to the general population.

Even psychologically, a jihadi would be more inclined to murder an isolated, lonely Hindu rather than one in a group. ‘Stay together’ is a strategy that works against bullies. The VHP is just expanding its scope to potential murders too.

Not A Parallel Government

The Hindutva organisations come out clean in this regard because their purpose is to invoke deterrence by the display of numbers alone. No weapons, no fees, no punishments, nothing illegal. This is simply a large number of Hindus exercising their fundamental right of non-violent assembly in the proximity of a Hindu being threatened.

These Hindutva organisations are not running around dispensing justice. They’re not anointing themselves as guardians of law and order. No, this is a scared community seeking comfort in larger numbers.

The left doesn’t complain when entire hordes of Islamists coalesce around an illegal masjid or mazar. That a peaceful Hindu mobilisation for self-protection provokes the left to make daft correlations reflects more on their hatred and fear of Hindu awakening than on the actions of such groups.

Nobody is terming it the ideal solution. Doing so would be incorrect. In a civil society where freedom of expression is respected, a citizen should have the liberty to ‘blaspheme’ and still walk freely. Sadly, that’s not the case with this 75-year-old nation that houses one-sixth of all humanity.

The ideal solution being sought here is a massive Constitutional overhaul — administrative makeover, legislative revamp, and judicial reformation. Hindus meanwhile cannot merely shut up and wait for the state to bring about a change.

The creation of a supra-caste Hindu identity, Hindutva, is already in progress, but is far from over. Islamic reformation too will take time. Maybe it won’t even happen. Are the Hindus supposed to wait in silence for that utopia to be realised while getting in line to the slaughterhouse?

The logical, obvious answer is no. And that explains the need for innovative and ingenious solutions like the one VHP and Bajrang Dal have come up with. Till such time the state gets its act together, consolidation of the Hindu identity remains the only hope for Hindus.

There is strength in numbers; Dharmic folks will do well to realise that.