Even before Bidhuri could reply to a proforma show-cause notice to him, the party nonchalantly appointed Bidhuri as in charge of the Tonk assembly constituency in election-going Rajasthan.

Political observers surmise that Bidhuri has been sent to polarise voters in Tonk as the newest “icon” of hate speech against Muslims. Technically, though, contrary to popular belief, Bidhuri had a similar role in a few constituencies, including Tonk, even in the last Rajasthan assembly election in 2018. Apparently, his role as election in-charge in Tonk had been decided about ten days before his abusive behaviour in the Lok Sabha.

However, it is an inescapable fact that the Tonk constituency has a sizable Muslim vote – estimates suggest that of the 245,000 voters, Muslim voters are about 62,000, Scheduled Castes 45,000, Gujjars 35,000, Malis between 16,000 to 18,000, Brahmins 15,000, Jats 12,000 and Rajputs 5,000. As a prominent Gujjar MP in the Lok Sabha, Bidhuri is expected to cut into the Gujjar vote base of the Congress party in Tonk, which Sachin Pilot represents. It is expected that the Congress will field Pilot again from Tonk. Bidhuri remains a useful instrument for his party despite his unpardonable speech in Parliament.

If the BJP had taken genuine action against Bidhuri, it would have opened a Pandora’s box. Hate speech is so endemic amongst its rank and file that the party would have to plan for ideological retraining of its cadre. Not that there is any indication that the BJP is looking for ideological reorientation. Indeed, the abusive epithets Bidhuri used in Parliament are slogans openly raised at public meetings by political leaders of the BJP.

The perfunctory show-cause notice and subsequent political rehabilitation is nothing new for the party. The BJP had distanced itself from its spokesperson Nupur Sharma in July 2022 after she made controversial remarks about the Prophet in a TV debate. The Supreme Court had criticised Nupur Sharma, saying “her loose tongue has set the entire country on fire” and blamed her for “igniting emotions across the country”. Her comments led to a ghastly incident in Udaipur when two Muslim men beheaded a Hindu tailor who supported Sharma on social media platforms. After a year in hibernation, Nupur Sharma is back in political circulation. Bidhuri’s distancing barely lasted a few days.

A report of hate speech from the first half of 2023 by the Washington DC-based Hindutva Watch shows that hate speech in India spikes in the run-up to elections. The report, sourcing information from verifiable social media and news outlets, claims, “Most hate events occurred in states governed by the BJP. Furthermore, a significant proportion of these incidents occurred in states scheduled to hold legislative elections in 2023 and 2024, highlighting the potential use of anti-Muslim hate speech events for voter mobilisation. Disturbingly, the majority of these hate speech events also propagated dangerous conspiracy theories targeting Muslims, along with explicit calls for violence, calls to arms, and demands for socio-economic boycotts of the Muslim community.”

It may not come as a surprise, but the report also found, “Around 52 per cent of hate speech gatherings in BJP-ruled states and union territories were orchestrated by entities affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang Dal, the Sakal Hindu Samaj, and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Overall, 42 percent of all hate speech gatherings in 17 states, which includes two centrally controlled territories, were organised by groups affiliated with the RSS.”
 

The news channel NDTV used to track hate speech by political leaders before its ownership changed hands. Its findings from 2009 to 2022 were astounding. Hate speech by high-ranking politicians surged under the BJP government by 1,130 per cent since it assumed power in 2014 compared to the preceding regime. NDTV’s VIP Hate Tracker also found that hate speech incidents see a sharp spike in the run-up to elections – noting that in January 2022, in the run-up to elections in five states (Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand), hate speech by VIPs increased by 160 per cent in three months.

Those who indulge in hate speech have thrived in the BJP’s top leadership structure, emboldening others to do so. No one feels guilty about hate speech because the BJP never acts against it with any conviction. Bidhuri may be a small fry in the larger calculus of the party. Yet, in his blundering and uncultured way, he was voicing in Parliament what has already been normalised on the streets.