Almost a year after his overt hardline stance was first noticed, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra managed to hog national limelight for the same reason earlier this week.
Mishra's open warnings to one of the biggest Indian multinational companies, Dabur, and fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee made news as both withdrew their 'objectionable anti-Hindu' advertisements in quick succession. Also, his 'suggestion' to director Prakash Jha to rename the 'anti-Hindu' title of web series 'Aashram' after Bajrang Dal activists vandalised the shooting site in Bhopal around the same time, got much attention. Jha, who had ink thrown on him during the attack, did not even file a police case against the vandals.
Political analysts feel Mishra, 61, has finally managed to get noticed as a pro-Hindutva leader at the national level and thereby, keep himself firmly in the list of contenders for the chief ministerial post in Madhya Pradesh when the time comes.
The minister has been making local headlines for quite some time with his almost daily briefings, where apart from making some official announcements or comments as the government spokesman, Mishra often gives lucid statements on contentious issues, especially those related to communal or religious issues. He also regularly targets senior Congress leaders including the Gandhi family, ex-CM Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh.
These contentious statements are mostly made on a personal level and circulated widely through his social media accounts and by his PR team. But the tag of home minister and government spokesman give the statements that much additional credence and space in the media. The fact that the government or the BJP as party never negates these statements, if not support them, helps Mishra's cause.
“We can say that now people even in Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu who do not have any connection with Madhya Pradesh politics, will recognise his name and this is probably what Mishra was looking for,” political commentator Manish Dixit said.
Mishra, a six-time MLA and a minister in successive BJP governments since 2005, is known to be close to Union Home Minister Amit Shah. He has been a strong Brahmin face for BJP in Madhya Pradesh. So, when BJP returned to power in the state in March 2020 after the Jyotiraditya Scindia-led coup, Mishra's name was among top contenders for the chief ministerial post. However, the fact that the BJP had already made a Brahmin (Vishnu Dutt Sharma) the president of the state unit of party just a few months ago, and the overreaching popularity of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, prevented Mishra's ascension.
However, when the government was formed, he was among the first five (including two Scindia loyalists) ministers to be inducted in the cabinet and later given the home portfolio, considered one of the most coveted and powerful. However, as in previous terms, Chouhan continued to overshadow almost all his cabinet colleagues as far as popularity and visibility went.
But after the party's bypolls win in November 2020 and consolidation of the government, Mishra seemed to make it a point to remain as much in news as possible. The fact that he had been the public relations minister earlier and was easily accessible to the media gave him an edge.
The first move came on November 17, 2020, when he announced, during his routine morning briefing, the intention of the state government to bring in the contentious 'love jihad' law. CM Chouhan had only hinted at this earlier, but the announcement coming from the home minister, backed by details of the provisions in the law, naturally made headlines. Chouhan was on one of his rare holidays then and, therefore, Mishra grabbed all the attention till the chief minister took over the issue later.
Later the same week, Mishra took on the web series A Suitable Boy, asking the home department to look into the legal options against OTT platform Netflix and director Mira Nair, after a controversy erupted over an 'inter-religious' kissing scene shot in a temple in Madhya Pradesh. He also said then that the shooting of films and web series at religious places will be video recorded to ensure that there was no offensive content. However, the issue died out later.
In January 2021, even as a communal situation erupted in Ujjain, the home minister talked of demolishing the homes of those (minority community members) who had allegedly hurled stones at a right-wing organisation rally, while remaining silent about the allegations that the right-wing members had raised provocative slogans and targeted religious places of the minorities.
More recently, after a video of a minority bangle seller being assaulted by right-wingers caused lot of national outrage and a police station in Indore was gheraoed with demand of their arrest, many thought that Mishra's statements showed his pro-majority tilt as he focused on the point that the bangle seller had used fake identity, and linked the demonstrators to 'anti-national' organisations. Some of the demonstrators, including Congress leaders, were also served externment notices by the Indore district administration later.
These issues kept Mishra in the news, yet they were largely local.
On October 25, Mishra directed the MP police to probe the Dabur ad showing a same sex couple celebrating Karwa Chauth (a Hindu ritual for married couples) and convey to the consumer goods company to withdraw it, failing which there could be legal action. Dabur, which had stood by its ad till the day before, decided to withdraw it with an unconditional apology on October 26.
On October 31, the home minister issued a 24-hour ultimatum to Sabyasachi Mukherjee for his 'objectionable and obscene' ad involving mangalsutra—a traditional neck jewellry worn by married women in India—which, Mishra said, symbolised Goddess Parvati and Lord Shiva and their blessings to married couples. Hours later, the fashion designer pulled it down and apologised too.
As for the Aashram controversy, following the vandalisation of shooting set on October 24, the minister said that "there have been deliberate attempts to target Hindu religion in the name of web series for a long time", while calling upon Jha to rename the series. He added that guidelines will be issued in the state for film/series scripts to get district administration clearance before being shot, a sort of repeat of the point he had made during A Suitable Boy controversy.
A day after Mukherjee withdrew the mangalsutra campaign, Mishra issued a statement that showed further hardening of his stance. “There will be no warning to those playing against religious sentiments now. There will be direct action,” he said. He added that the mindset to consider Hindus as soft targets is wrong and would not be tolerated anymore.
Mishra seems to have decided that a pro-majority stance was probably the best way in the current situation to remain in the good books of senior party leaders and also the majority of voters. “Mishra's chief ministerial aspirations are clear and he probably finds this the best way to keep himself in contention, especially as there are repeated talks of a likely change of guard in Madhya Pradesh. The latest bypolls result may once again put any such moves in abeyance, but Mishra certainly has earned brownie points at party level,” Dixit said.
Congress says that many of the statements made by Mishra are totally immoral and improper, especially coming from a home minister. Party spokesman K.K. Mishra said, “He wants to become the Narottam Shah of Madhya Pradesh”, indicating that the state home minister was following in the footsteps of Amit Shah as far as Hindutva agenda was concerned.
“Several of his statements seem to be attempts to push communalism and cause disharmony in the society that could in future lead to class struggle. It is the moral duty of the home minister to maintain communal harmony as per the Constitution, but his stand puts a question mark on the future of the state,” Mishra said.
He added that the home minister never speaks about the bleak law and order scenario in the state and the fact that the state topped in crime against women and children. “He [Narottam Mishra] just wants to hog the limelight by giving statements that are divisive and controversial with the hope that it adds to his profile as future chief minister candidate,” the Congress spokesman said.
Narottam Mishra could not be contacted for comments. BJP state secretary Rajneesh Agrawal, however, said that it would be wrong to say that Mishra had turned a hardliner. “He is merely trying to put words to the sentiments of Hindus who are offended by the targeting of their religion. He never goes beyond the legal purview in his statements and speaks about action as per law. Also, he has never intentionally targeted other communities.”
As for chief ministerial aspirations, Agrawal said that it is natural for a leader to lead and raise social issues that address his constituents. “He [Narottam Mishra] does the politics that he stands for and that his supporters stand for. A leader will always try to forward his politics that way,” he said.
