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Express View on Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s new politics: Mamaji’s crude manifesto

He wants a fifth term as CM. Stoking divide, shutting down a school, won’t help him

Shivraj Singh Chouhan, MP politics, Madhya Pradesh BJP crude manifesto, Shivraj Mama, Bulldozer Mama, indian express, indian express newsThe Chief Minister himself wagged a stern finger at the school for “teaching the poetry of a man who talked about the division of the country” (Express Photo)
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Express View on Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s new politics: Mamaji’s crude manifesto
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THIS is the story of a Chief Minister looking for a fifth term in power and a school. The school is the only one that is English-medium in the vicinity, where students, Hindu as well as Muslim, are mostly first-generation learners. This is a story of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the leader who rose by becoming the beloved uncle or “Mama”, the caring CM who is an earnest distributor of welfare schemes, now battling anti-incumbency by courting a different sobriquet, “Bulldozer Mama,” and bragging about the divides he stokes.

The heavy-handed ways in which his government has come down on the minority-run Ganga Jamuna Higher Secondary School in Damoh, which caters to children of farm hands, beedi makers and labourers — for the soulful Iqbal verse that its students recited as part of their morning prayers and for the poster celebrating its academic successes in which they wore head scarves — is a case study of what a state should not be.

After right-wing groups ratcheted up noise on social media, alleging religious conversion, the state’s Home Minister ordered a probe. The Chief Minister himself wagged a stern finger at the school for “teaching the poetry of a man who talked about the division of the country”. Taking the cue from their political bosses, the education department de-recognised the school – suddenly finding that it had “no proper library” and “no proper practical materials”. Now the police have arrested its principal, maths teacher and security guard. And as of Tuesday evening, a bulldozer has trundled in.

Surely Chouhan knows what is at stake here. After all, he has often acknowledged and propagated the importance of good education for making the good citizen. In April, his government announced it will deposit fees of children of families with annual income upto Rs 8 lakh — raising the ceiling from Rs 6 lakh. Last year, the CM even expressed a wish to teach schoolchildren. Now as he lends a collusive ear to conspiracy-mongering on religious conversion to shut down a school for children from families that struggle to make ends meet, Chouhan must know that the costs of pandering to prejudice are high. What is more, it may not even bring in the votes in the elections later this year. Even though the two states are different, Chouhan must note that the hijab controversy could not come to the rescue of the unremarkable Basavaraj Bommai government in Karnataka.

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The attack by the mighty state of Madhya Pradesh on the small school in Damoh is part of the hawkish rush by the CM — the politically timed review in an election year of illegal madrasas that “teach fanaticism”; the hardening of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act 2021 in response to clamour worked up against “love jihad”; the bulldozing of homes of those alleged to have been involved in communal violence after Ramnavami in Khargone. Chouhan wants to paint a better, bigger picture of himself on the national stage, he wishes to be taken seriously in his state and outside. For that, he needs to decide: Does he play the divisive card pandering to the fringe, hoping his base doesn’t desert him? Or does he do the right thing: Recall his oath of office, listen to the girl crying that she isn’t being allowed to go to school. In politics, the conscience may not be eternally vigilant — but the voter with a stake in her child’s future is always watching.

First published on: 14-06-2023 at 06:45 IST
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