Swatantra Bhardwaj and the BJP’s Politics of Violence

Swatantra Bhardwaj is today one of the most talked-about names in India. Let us add: one of the most talked-about Hindu names. Or, if you prefer, one of the most talked-about “upper-caste Hindu” names. This tells us something about the condition of this country, this religion and this “caste group” today—that Swatantra Bhardwaj can emerge as one of their most popular and representative faces. But there is more. Swatantra Bhardwaj also represents a certain kind of person whom India’s present state apparatus regards as its most trusted friend, someone it has chosen from among the people as its ally. And this is the most disturbing part for us: the merger of the state with men like him.

Do you remember that slogan: “Delhi Police, rain your lathis; we are with you”? Hindu young men like Swatantra Bhardwaj were shouting this slogan in 2020, when the violence of the police was directed at Muslims. The Delhi Police never condemned the slogan. Never did it say that it was not wielding its lathis on behalf of these goons. On the contrary, it perhaps accepted such slogans as an endorsement, even an expression of appreciation, for the work it was doing. Its attitude towards Muslims became still harsher because a section of the public was applauding it, telling the police that it was carrying out this violence on their behalf.

The alliance between the police and Hindu lathi-wielders like Swatantra Bhardwaj became visible on January 5, 2020, when goons attacked students and teachers inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus for hours while the police stood by silently. Everything was recorded on video. The goons entered the campus under police watch and proceeded to rain their lathis on the students and the teachers at leisure. The police refused to stop them. After finishing their work, the attackers walked out and stood around near the police. Their faces are clearly visible. And yet, six years later, the Delhi Police has still not been able to arrest them. It would not be unfair to say that it has no interest in arresting them. It seems that it believes that these goons had done nothing wrong.

Then the lathi that the police had been wielding found its way into the hands of Swatantra Bhardwaj. The police boots, too, appeared to have found their way onto his feet. He was now wielding the lathi on behalf of the police. But this time his targets were not Muslims. He was wielding it against young people protesting against the government. Swatantra Bhardwaj was wielding the lathi against the government’s opponents on behalf of the government and its leader, Narendra Modi.

Given Swatantra Bhardwaj’s history, he apparently saw no reason to hide what he was doing. After all, he belonged to the favoured class of young men of the BJP government. There are photographs of him with senior BJP leaders. They may say that it is not necessary for them to know everyone who gets a photograph taken with them. But Bhardwaj offers us something more than a photograph: evidence that he was invited to Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony. Not only that, he was also invited to a Ministry of Defence programme. This means that Swatantra Bhardwaj had managed to establish a foothold within the Indian state apparatus.

Many videos of Bhardwaj appearing on TV shows have appeared. It also means that he was not a loony. He was treated as a normal spokesperson of an ideology.

Swatantra Bhardwaj was so confident of his position within the Hindutva state that he had no hesitation in publicly boasting that he had committed violence and that it could have resulted in a killing. And yet, even after such a serious admission, he was not arrested.

Not only was he not arrested. He also declared, on record, that he had spent no time in custody at all, and named the leaders he credited with his release—Kapil Mishra, Chirag Paswan, and, he claimed, Narendra Modi himself. Delhi Police’s own account of the incident sat uneasily alongside his boast: officers had described the victim’s injuries as minor, caused by a steel bracelet, before the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was later added to the case.

He is not merely a man of Chirag Paswan and Kapil Mishra; he is, in a sense, a man of the police too, without having had to pass any examination for that privilege.

Chirag Paswan had to immediately distance himself from him because those whom Bhardwaj had attacked happened to be Dalit. It would be politically damaging for Chirag if Dalits were to believe that an anti-Dalit goon was close to him. But so far neither Kapil Mishra, nor Manoj Tiwari, nor the BJP has felt the need to distance itself from Swatantra Bhardwaj. A party that is quick to tweet on every conceivable issue has not condemned Bhardwaj’s statement. On an issue that is being debated across the country, it has chosen to remain silent. This silence is itself a statement of support for Swatantra Bhardwaj.

If, at all, the BJP is ever forced to criticise Swatantra Bhardwaj, it will mean only this: that it did not really want to do so, but that the enemies of Hindutva are still strong enough to force it into doing so. The implication is that there is nothing inherently wrong with following the path taken by Swatantra Bhardwaj. What is really needed is to create a safe environment for people like him. That can happen only when the BJP acquires unfettered power and the obstacles in its path—the “dimagi Naxals”—are weeded out. Then the BJP’s true friends, people like Swatantra, will have nothing to fear.

Journalists have pointed out that Swatantra Bhardwaj is no exception. Before him, goons such as Daksh Chaudhary, Pinky Chaudhary, and Monu Manesar have openly committed acts of violence while making videos of themselves. Their targets have invariably been Muslims or Christians, and sometimes Hindus whom the BJP and Narendra Modi describe as “Urban Naxals” or “Dimagi Naxals”. Most of these goons are “upper-caste” Hindus. Their confidence is of a different order because they have inherited, across generations, a licence to abuse Dalits and to use violence against them. The Constitution has now declared the violence that was once treated as their right to be a crime. Today, a new generation of “upper-caste” Hindus is demanding the return of this traditional right to violence.

This is extremely convenient and useful for the BJP. That is why it has not even opened its mouth on the anti-reservation agitation at Jantar Mantar, where goons like Swatantra Bhardwaj were present.

The alliance between the BJP and Swatantra Bhardwaj is dangerous for India, but it is also unsurprising. The real danger to India, however, lies in the alliance between Swatantra Bhardwaj and the Indian state apparatus. And this is the most disturbing part for us: the merger of the state with goons like Swatantra Bhardwaj.

Apoorvanand teaches Hindi at Delhi University and writes literary andcultural criticism.

Also Read | How the RSS stops the young from becoming students