It has been 72 years since India became independent from the British Raj. But their tactic of “divide and conquer” remains deeply ingrained in the rhetoric of our politicians. And why? Vote-bank politics.

We remained silent when demonetization took the country by storm and left many homes broken, we said nothing when Kashmir was gagged, and we watched silently, and sometimes even championed, the appointment of criminals into Prime Minister Modi’s cabinet. But India found itself getting angry when news of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) broke.

The controversial CAA, which since its conception has spurred protests across the country, allows the naturalization of undocumented immigrants based on religion: Sikhs, Christians, Hindus, Parsis and Buddhists from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan will be granted fast track citizenship within six years instead of the 12 year period . Thousands of Indians have taken to the streets to protest its absolute defiance of India’s secular nature by adding a religious filter to the process of naturalization, which very blatantly excludes Muslims.

While initially the aim was to stop the bill from turning into law, the snowball effect led to people everywhere protesting grievances that were swept under the rug for far too long. Politicians and representatives of the ruling party have since labelled the dissenting population “anti-national” and “traitors”. The hostile rhetoric of politicians against protestors has increased tensions and has manifested into terrifying tales of violence.

While a gaping divide already existed between the Hindus and Muslims of our country, the messages from our politicians have created a much larger space for communal rifts and discrimination in the public arena. It should be established that when politicians, servants of the public, spew hatred and Islamophobia through television screens, they are influencing scores of people to hate those who have the courage to speak out against a bigoted government.

Why is BJP’s rhetoric so influential, one may ask. It is simple: their ideologies put Hindus first. By simple deduction and a little bit of intuition, anyone can figure out that the automatic effect of this will be that the Hindus - the majority of BJP’s voter base - will immediately express their gratitude toward the BJP. When one party uses a tool as powerful as faith to take a hold of voters, it is understood that communal sentiments will escalate and latent feelings of Islamophobia will begin to surface in the public arena. So, when leaders like Anurag Thakur chant “Desh ke gadddaron ko goli maaro saalon ko” (meaning “Shoot the protesting traitors”), there are scores of radicalized Hindu partisans chanting right back — this rhetoric translated into gun violence.

On Jan. 30, a 17-year-old Hindu boy, who has since been identified as a vehement BJP supporter, disrupted a peaceful protest held by students of Jamia Milia Islamia University — one of the few Muslim universities in India. He screamed “Yeh lo tumhari aazadi” (meaning “Here’s your freedom”) before shooting a student, rendering him injured. About a dozen police officers stood idly watching as this incident unfolded. Within the next two days, another man armed with a gun shot at Muslim protestors in Shaheen Bagh in Delhi. The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh did not shy away from saying “Boli se nahi to goli se maanenge” (meaning “If not to rhetoric, they’ll listen to bullets”) when referring to protestors in Shaheen Bagh, Delhi, who have been relentlessly protesting against CAA, day in and day out since Dec. 15, 2019. A BJP spokesperson also commented on these protestors in Shaheen Bagh, especially since the role of women in these protests is being highlighted increasingly by the media, and called these protestors rapists and murderers.

These have not been the first attempts at crushing dissent, be it rhetorically or physically. Jamia was broken into in December and students were heavily beaten up by the police for conducting a peaceful protest. JNU, a highly prestigious university famed for its politically active students who have not shied away from making their voices heard before, was also broken into by the youth division of RSS, the far-right parent organization of BJP, and students were subjected to brutal confrontations.

Why is it that students are being targeted like this? Because they have an education, and hence, a foresight into the disastrous consequences of BJP policies. They are the only sector of society motivated enough to actually cause change, since current politics is most relevant to those who will lead the future of our country and face the brunt of decisions made purely as power-grab tactics by the politicians of today.

The most interesting part is that these incidents of dangerous rhetoric are a result of the Delhi Elections happening on Feb. 8. Our politicians have taken it upon themselves to further their party agenda and garner votes by creating fear and instigating violence. If BJP politicians have to resort to using hate against dissenters and educated citizens of their country as the base of their campaign, should we be electing these people at all? Should we, citizens of a country that was founded on principles of secularism and tolerance, be complicit in the hate and communalism being propagated by the BJP? And finally, should we be putting those in power who do not believe in our right to dissent when we see injustice and misuse of power?

The answers to these questions may not be clear to some people. But one thing is for sure: the British tactic of “divide and conquer” finds itself deeply rooted in our politicians seven decades after independence, and we all remember what happened the last time we were divided and conquered in 1947.