ON TO GUJARAT POLLS

 Nation’s Unity, Secular Democracy At Stake

Harkishan Singh Surjeet

 VARIOUS forces have already started their campaigns for Gujarat assembly polls, slated to take place in a single round on December 12. As for the significance of these polls, one media commentator has rightly said that if the Jammu & Kashmir elections were important for their possible international ramifications, Gujarat polls are likely to have a bearing on the very foundations of our society and polity. The fact is: few elections in the country had had our very national unity, our secular democracy at stake.

STRING OF DEFEATS

AS for the BJP that was ruling the state and is leading a coalition at the centre, it appears desperate beyond measure. That is understandable. The party and its allies have suffered a string of defeats in assembly polls in the last four-odd years. The latest in the series is their rout in J&K where the National Conference lost for the first time and the BJP was wiped out even in the Jammu region where it has a sizeable base. The BJP lost all the 8 seats it had in the last assembly, managing to win just one elsewhere.

The BJP’s debacle in J&K came barely 8 months after its defeat in Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Punjab, Manipur and Pondicherry. Soon afterward, it failed to gain a mandate in Goa too, though it managed to form a government there by purchasing some independents. In the same way, through unabashed opportunism, it joined a coalition government in UP, as a junior partner, and is now facing unprecedented dissidence there. In fact, as we said last week, the BJP’s fate in UP will have a direct impact on its performance in Gujarat and elsewhere, and this is what is giving the BJP leaders sleepless nights.

For, the party is at present leading only four state governments --- in Gujarat, Jharkhand, Goa and Himachal Pradesh. (It is a junior partner in Orissa and Haryana.) Thus, if it loses Gujarat, it will not only be the loss of its biggest state but also its defeat in a state where it has been strong since long.

 That is the reason the RSS and its outfits like the VHP and Bajrang Dal have been concentrating on the state for a long time.

 BJP ENCASHES DISCONTENT

 THIS has had its own disastrous impact on a state that has been known as the land of Gandhi. As even a school child knows, it was from here that the Mahatma, after his return from South Africa, began his work with a strike in Ahmedabad textile mills and soon emerged as the tallest leader of India’s struggle for independence from the British. But the RSS-controlled outfits left no stone unturned to turn the state into a bastion of communalism, so much so that Ahmedabad saw a horrendous communal riot in the Gandhi centenary year (1969), not to talk of the riots there before or after. According to a calculation, the state has witnessed the maximum number of riots after independence.

This sad fact has its own lessons. The anti-people policies of the Congress party that ruled the state and the centre for a long time generated widespread discontent, and this very discontent found reflection in Gujarat movement in mid-1970s --- a movement that preceded the JP-led movement in Bihar. But, unfortunately, no secular alternative to the Congress could emerge in Gujarat and it was the Jan Sangh (later the BJP) that capitalised on this discontent. No doubt secular non-Congress regimes were formed in the state on occasions, but their failure to provide a credible alternative to the Congress policies only further contributed to the rise and consolidation of the saffron brigade in the state.

To put it more bluntly, the very forces who created the political climate that led to the Mahatma’s assassination, came to rule the roost in his own land.

The moral of the story is: if a political formation keeps pursuing anti-people policies, it would not be able to keep the communal forces at bay --- at least for any long time. This is true not only for Gujarat but for any Indian state.

 BJP FACES DISCONTENT

HOWEVER, as if by a queer turn of history, if the BJP capitalised on the discontent generated by Congress policies, its own policies are now giving rise to all-round discontent in the state and the country. For, the BJP’s policies are no different from those of the Congress. If anything, the BJP is only following the World Bank-IMF policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation with a vengeance. As this aspect has been dealt with in these columns in various ways, we would not go into details. Suffice it to say that all sections of the working people are gradually rising to register protest against these policies --- now sporadically, now in an organised way.

Significantly, those rising to resist the BJP policies include the urban middle classes that used to be its solid base. It was not without reason that even some saffron outfits began to bay for the earlier finance minister’s blood and Vajpayee had to perforce replace Yashwant by Jaswant. It is another matter that, as is clear from the tenth plan approach paper, this change of minister is only cosmetic.

Nor could it be anything else. For, as long as the regime keeps capitulating before the imperialist-dominated institutions, no basic change in policies and hence no lowering down of the level of mass discontent is to be expected. 

The announcement made by trade union activists in Orissa --- that they would chop off the hands of anybody who comes forward to buy the public sector National Aluminium Company (NALCO) --- may not materialise in a literal sense. But, coming in the background of the bitter experience of Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) that was sold to a private party for a pittance, the announcement does underline the gravity of the discontent that is stirring the NALCO workers and employees.

Thus the ghost of discontent has not been laid to rest. It has only gone from one victim to another. Now it is the BJP’s turn to get afflicted.

CHANGE OF STRATEGY

IT was in this background that the RSS decided to replace the chief minister Keshubhai Patel by Narendra Modi, a pracharak. This was indicative of the RSS plan to force the BJP to return to its old groove of strident communalism. As for the pracharak himself, he proved true to his salt. This became clear from the way the Modi government behaved during the carnage in the state that erupted on February 28 and went on for months together. As is known, the brigade started the carnage on the pretext of a condemnable incident in Godhra. But this is also a fact that (1) it was the longest, most planned and most horrendous anti-Muslim massacre in independent India, and (2) at no time in the past was the state machinery so unashamedly misused in favour of the marauding gangs.

Not only that, it was in April itself, when the carnage was still on, that the BJP leadership was contemplating to get the assembly dissolved and force an election on the state. Their hope was that the existing communal polarisation in the state would help them sail through. However, BJP leaders had to shelve their plan for the time being, mainly in the background of discontent generated by budget 2002.

However, when Modi did recommend for assembly dissolution, the BJP tried its best to have the elections at the earliest so as to encash the polarisation. It was its misfortune that the Election Commission did not accept its plea. This brought the BJP leaders in confrontation with the EC, and the union government made a presidential reference to the Supreme Court on the applicability or otherwise of article 174 which the BJP was pressing for. It was to the BJP’s dismay, however, that the apex court upheld in substance the EC decision. It was then that, taking all aspects of the situation into account, the EC decided to hold the polls on December 12.

The fact that these polls will be held in a single round, has also dismayed the BJP and other RSS outfits as they will not be able to move their gangs from one area to another in a bid to affect the poll outcome.

BJP’S DESPAIR COMES TO FORE

BUT the announcement has only brought the brigade’s desperation to the fore. The vituperative attacks being launched by Pravin Togadia and other luminaries of the brigade against their opponents, and the abusive language being employed for Mrs Sonia Gandhi in particular, only betray the mortal fear which has gripped the RSS-BJP leaders. “Italy” (a direct reference to Mrs Gandhi) appears to have afflicted them like a ghost. The way the EC is enforcing the model code of conduct in Gujarat is further aggravating their sense of despair.

In this situation, the saffron brigade is doing whatever it can to prevent its imminent downfall. The VHP announced to take out a yatra in Gujarat, in a bid to increase the tension in the state. It is good that the EC promptly acted and prohibited the yatra.

Be that as it may, the battle lines are now drawn. Now it is high time for the secular forces to close their ranks so that the anti-communal votes are not divided and the BJP is given one-to-one fight in every seat. Sadly, the statements being issued by some Congress leaders as well as those of some other parties are not conducive to realising this objective. Such verbal duels must stop. Whether one likes or not, the fact is the Congress is the biggest anti-BJP force in Gujarat. So it has to take the lead in taking the smaller parties into confidence. The Congress cannot afford to take the view that it will alone be able to defeat the BJP --- a claim made by Kamal Nath. On their part, smaller parties have to desist from making unreasonable claims and come to cooperate in the task of defeating the BJP. The way such claims led to a division of anti-BJP votes in Goa must be an eye-opener to one and all. This is essential to save our future as a civilised nation where a whole gamut of religions, sects, languages and ethnic groups peacefully coexist in a unity in diversity that is the very source of our strength.