BJP's Overtures
To Minorities
By Ram Puniyani
25 April, 2004
Issues In Secular Politics
This election (April2004) is very crucial
to survival of Indian democracy. Its also crucial for those who want
to bring in Hindu Rashtra, as having been in the seat of power from
last six years, the victory in this election will give them a lever
to push forward their agenda at a higher speed. To ensure this BJP has
already spent millions from public exchequers to create an image of
"feel good" and Shining India. The campaigns were a fair bit
of advertising 'success' as a large section of middle class was taken
in by this propaganda of economic betterment despite India being amongst
the bottom few Nations in the scale of social indices. The fly in the
ointment came from the unexpected quarter. The Saree disribution function,
organized to lure the poor voters in the constituency of Prime minister
himself, on the pretext of the birth day function of his regular election
agent, Lalji Tandon, spoke the truth of India's shining and feeling
good.
In this function,
Rs. 20 were charged from those who wanted to receive the saree whose
worth may have been close to Rs 40. The deprivation and destitution
of the women in the area came forward eloquently as thousands
of women thronged to the site and in the stampede, which resulted twenty
women, and one infant lost their lives. Any way no doubt that section
of Indian Middle class is feeling good with mobile to flaunt in their
hands and shopping malls to spend their money and time. But that's not
all of India. So in addition to the loss of sheen in the BJP campaign
majority of Indians were not game for being bought over by the Feel
Good, projected in the shining face of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The campaign was
backed up by the claims that BJP itself is set to sweep the polls as
the leader like Vajpayee are a big asset for the country and the
nation wants to see him as PM again. Somehow these claims seem to be
biting dust with the indications coming from exit polls results of phase
one of the elections. Mostly there is a likelihood of decline in the
total seat share of NDA and even BJP may bite the dust as far as its
projections are concerned. So midway between the campaigns the efforts
are being unleashed to win over Muslims and Christians, more aggressively,
for the electoral purposes.
Just to recount,
with the beginning of the election campaign many a showpieces from the
minority communities were bought over by BJP to adorn its electoral
campaign. Arif Mohammad Khan being the major acquisition while and odd
Christian father here and there also started praising the BJP and the
'great' achievements of its rule during last six years. The attempts
are being reinvigorated midstream to win a larger section of the minority
vote.
Meanwhile one of
the firebrands of BJP, its nominee from Gorakhpur, Yogi Adityanath spoke
the true heart BJP. In a forthright manner he spelt out that he will
accept Muslim votes but after washing them in Gangajal (Water from Ganges).
In Brahminical Hinduism Gangajal incidentally ranks very high on the
scale of holiness and spiritual purity, its only competition in the
holiness coming from cow's urine.
Yogi's utterance
coming at a time when Vajpayee's head is regularly
being adorned with green turbans is no surprise. The RSS progeny is
capable of talking in multiple languages at the same time. That it is
capable of assuming multiple strategies at the same time, is not any
news for the social analysts. RSS is an outfit, which has not only been
championing the cause of Hindu Rashtra; it has also outlined the problems,
which it is faced in its agenda. The second Sarsahgnchalak of RSS, M
S Golwalkar, wrote in one of his major ideological outpourings that
the Muslims, Christian and Communists are the internal threats to Hindu
Nation.
And who knows it
better than the Shining Vajpayee, who stated in Staten Island in US
that he is first the loyal volunteer of RSS than anything else. Who
knows it better than Vajpayee and Advani who broke Janata Party in the
post emergency phase when they were asked to clarify their stand on
dual membership? Meaning that either they should be a part of RSS or
Janata Party. The duo with their cohorts chose RSS and severed their
links with Janata Party, breaking the party in the process. Who knows
it better than
Vajpayeeji who in one of the previous victories said that they could
come to power even without the Muslim votes? Who knows it better than
Mr. Advani who unleashed the whole Hate Muslim campaign at a broader
level by taking up the Ram Temple issue and duly went to demolish the
Babri mosque.
Surprise is not
that BJP is talking sweat language for minorities; surprise is that
few minority leaders want to believe in that. All those who have some
sanity left should take pre-electoral promises, with more than a pinch
of salt. It is not too far in the back that Gujarat violence happened
and the butcher-in-chief of the violence, Narendra Modi, called it as
the glory of Gujarat. It is not too much in the past that Pastor Stains
was brutally burnt and Mr. Advani subtly defended the Bajarang Dal to
which the killer Dara Singh belonged. It is not too much in the past
that in the aftermath of Gujarat violence and defending Modi at that
time that our PM went on to say that wherever there are Muslims, there
is problem.
It is only during
the election time that the poison spewing Dr. Pravin bhai Togadia has
been sent on a sabbatical to keep the minorities under the illusion
that BJP means Vajapayiji, and Vajapayiji is great man of peace, protector
of minorities etc. No doubt Muslim and Christian votes do matter for
the BJP if it wants to come to power to usher in its agenda of Hindu
Rashtra. No doubt there are week-kneed characters amongst minorities
who will like to bend to the BJP in the hope that they will be protected.
This illusory thought process gives a lot of legitimacy to the party
like BJP, which essentially does not believe in democracy but is using
it as a means to come to power to be able to abolish the democracy itself.
It is time that
minorities should realize the true character of this party. The sweat
pre electoral talk of Muslims being part of the mainstream etc. will
last as long as the elections are not over. And it is then that the
Togadia's will take over again to demolish the threads of harmony and
to make a makeshift Hindu
Rashtra, waiting and pressuring for making India Hindu Rashtra in due
course. One has to recall the that Gujarat was not an aberration, it
was the logical out
come of Hidnutva politics, one has to remember burning of Pastor Stains
was not an aberration, it was the Hindutva in action. No doubt other
electoral
formations have committed lots of mistakes in living secular values,
but it is possible that a vigilant society can ensure that those parties
do not slip
again to commit those mistakes. But for BJP that is not a mistake, it
is their political program.
In these times,
one is seeing many faces of the PM. He can wear different turbans with
ease while hiding the RSS black cap with great cleverness. He can wear
many a masks to suit the occasion. He has crafted his political face
in a way that while keeping the basic Hindutva loyalties he can wear
any mask to fool the people for some time. One hopes he knows that you
can fool some people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people
all the time. The prayer is that Indian people see the true character
of BJP in its horizontal connections with VHP, Bajarang dal etc., the
prayer is one locates the vertical control of BJP in the RSS which is
doing the background work to see that its
political wing comes back to power again so that its upper caste/upper
class agenda, its goal of abolishing the liberal democratic space from
the society is implemented and India follows the 'glorious' path of
nation building as laid down by Hitler, their ideological mentor in
chief.