Twenty Five
Years Of
Bharatiya Janata Party
By Ram Puniyani
07 April, 2005
Countercurrents.org
Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) completes twenty five years on this sixth April,
2005. Founded in 1980 on the plank of Gandhian Socialism it has traveled
a long journey.
BJP's formation
itself revealed a lot about its loyalties and the political agenda.
Prior to the imposition of much dreaded emergency (1975) its previous
edition, Jansangh, its parent organization RSS and its associates were
permitted to join the JP movement (1975). This was a God sent opportunity
for this outfit, which was being looked down upon by broad sections
of Indian people for their involvement in murder of the father of the
nation, Mahatma Gandhi. It was like having a bath in Ganges for them.
In due course it
dissolved itself into the coalition of forces which came up as Janata
Party, which romped to victory in the elections held after the emergency
was lifted. Having got the portfolios of external affairs and information
and broadcasting, apart from other things it opened the gates of bureaucracy,
media and education for the RSS swayamsevaks in a big way and RSS presence
in the structures of power started becoming dominant from then on.
Later some constituents
of Janata party asked the Jansangh component to severe its ties from
the RSS, the one which stands for Hindu Rashtra, for the principles
which are totally antithetical to the ones of democracy, to social and
gender justice and affirmative action for weaker sections of society.
The Vajpayee-Advani and co. were very clear on the issue that Jananta
party and its likes can only be a vehicle to convert the Indian nation
into a Hindu nation so it does not mean much in the long term. They
broke the Janata party, kept the RSS loyalties in place and came out
to form BJP.
Deception is the
credo of those who have hidden agendas and BJP is no exception. It neither
believed in Gandhian thought nor in Socialism but for electoral exigencies
it did adopt these as its goals. It did
not take them long to show their true colors. Its associates, VHP and
others had started consolidating a section of Hindus around various
yatras post Meenakshipuram, an incident, in which some dalits converted
to Islam as a protest against their oppression by caste Hindus, 'Hinduism
in danger' became the battle cry of VHP. Around this time the Shah Bano
incident, its immature handling by the leadership gave a big handle
to BJP, something which it was waiting for desperately after its electoral
debacle in 1984. It 'manufactured a discovery' that there was a Ram
temple at the place where the Babri Masjid is located. And this transformed
the BJP from the insignificant force, sitting on the margins, to the
contender for parliamentary power over a period of time.
Having dumped Gandhian
socialism it recruited Lord Ram, Ram Temple, to build the party. The
process of its mobilization of Hindus and consolidation of a section
of them into its supporters got a big boost after the Mandal commission
was brought in. The section of society totally opposed to reservations
and social justice thronged the yatras and other campaigns of BJP and
affiliates in a big way. Demolition of Babri, post babri violence, burning
of Pastor stains, Godhra train tragedy's encashment into Gujarat riots
were the steps which went a long way to strengthen BJP electorally and
made its base in section of elite, affluent, upper caste Hindus. Through
the mechanism of social engineering it was also able to rope in a section
of dalits and adivasis as not only its supporters but also as its foot
soldiers.
Its electoral ascendance
in due course led to its grabbing power at the center, first for thirteen
days. At that time the likes of Fernandes, Sharad Yadavs and Chandrababus
did not dare to support such an out and out communal outfit, whose hands
were full of the Babri debris. In due course their own power lust led
them to support BJP, making it possible for it to come to power as National
Democratic Alliance. Its coming to power showed in a tragic way as to
how the democratic space is totally dominated by opportunist and potentially
right wing formations. Through NDA, the total implementation of RSS
agenda went on at great speed, the core of these being the attempt to
tamper with the Constitution and to communalize the education system,
the introduction of astrology, rituals as the courses in universities
and spending of huge funds for RSS affiliated organizations, which in
turn helped the RSS paraphernalia to consolidate itself.
The incident of
Godhra getting turned into the opportunity to unleash an anti minority
pogrom was possible for number of reasons. The first one being the RSS
affiliates' strong presence in the political and civil society of Gujarat,
the second was the persona of Narendra Modi whose shrewdness peaked
the sky during and after the carnage conducted by his state machinery.
The third factor was the umbrella provided by the central functionaries,
Prime Minister and Home minister.
Calculating that
the post carnage polarization will help BJP return to power it called
for general elections six months ahead of time and a media blitkriz
was launched to project its 'achievements', "Shining India"
and all that. Its' voting percentage declined and the number of seats
were reduced in the elections.
Where does it go
from here? Is BJP no longer a threat to Indian democracy? Democracy
is a live phenomenon and any lapse on the part of citizens, the lack
of monitoring and counter pressures to power does reduce the extent
of democracy. Hitler and those who are committed to ideologies, which
are essentially against the democratic values are a different cup of
tea. Those ideologically committed to authoritarian system and those
using authoritarian system in an opportunistic ways are not the same.
BJP belongs to the latter category as it is the political child of RSS,
for whom Rashtra, nation, means Hindus.
Despite sophisticated
presentations of the same it will remain the same, a dictatorial system
opposed to democracy, opposed to liberal democratic values, opposed
the values of liberty, equality and fraternity (community). Its goal
is to use democratic space to bring in an authoritarian Hindu Nation
a la Taliban's agenda in Afghanistan. The threat of BJP and through
it the agenda of RSS has not receded. Its electoral defeat is not total
and it still is acting as one of the major force in Indian politics.
It remains to be seen as to how the progressive parties see through
the danger of BJP power, its core program of abolishing democracy, and
reject it as the alternative pole.
The future of BJP
hangs in balance. On one hand it has facilitated the infiltration of
swayamsevaks into the positions of importance in army, bureaucracy,
media and other wings of the state machinery, on the other it has given
an important space to its affiliates to root themselves in core areas
of Indian society, like Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram and the chain of schools
floated far and wide. In Gujarat what prevails is close to "Hindu
Rashtra in one state." Similar experiment is being tried in MP
and Rajasthan. In many other states, Kearla;Orissa etc. RSS is digging
its heels in stronger way. The other side of the report card is that
by now it stands totally discredited amongst a great section of Indian
people, due to its policies and its blatant communalism coming to the
fore. The counter to this has come at political level in the form of
it being treated as untouchable and its ex allies rethinking the worth
of their association with it.
At another and less
visible level, civil society groups are realizing, with increasing intensity,
the threat of BJP, of RSS agenda of Hindu Rashtra(nation), and have
intensified the campaigns to oppose the politics of Hate propounded
by it. At the ground level, awareness spreading work, cultural work
and the like to strengthen the democratic ethos in the society is also
picking up to a great extent. Which way the tide will turn will depend
more on the consistency of all these efforts in the society.