People's Democracy

Defeating BJP In Gujarat Is Imperative

Harkishan Singh Surjeet

THE country is today faced with a piquant situation. While the Sangh Parivar is out to undermine our national unity, harmony and civilised way of life by all means at its command, it appears that some of our politicians are still trying to play their petty games for narrow ends.

PEOPLE UNMOVED BY BJP ANTICS

ET’S take the Parivar’s depredations first. After their veritable dance of death in Gujarat for months together, the Parivar tried to get the assembly polls held at the earliest, in the hope that the BJP would be able to encash the communal polarisation obtaining there. But the thing to note is that even after the Election Commission called their bluff and though the Supreme Court refused to oblige them by giving a ruling for holding polls before October 6, the Parivar has not yet given up its hopes.

This was evident from the way the state BJP took out a so-called Gaurav Yatra, with Modi in the lead. The VHP even went to the extent of terming it as the "Hindu Pad Padshahi Yatra," and said it would not only cover the whole of Gujarat but even "go on to Delhi" (The Statesman, September 10). It is apparent that the people are not much enthusiastic about the yatra. As The Times of India reported (September 9), when the yatra started from village Phagvel, as an intended challenge to state Congress chief Vaghela, the crowd consisted mostly of outsiders, many of them hired. Children formed a sizeable chunk of it. Similarly, in Becharji village of Mehsana district, the crowd "did not respond to Modi’s communal remarks in the way he would have perhaps wanted and expected them to" (Hindustan Times, September 10). Even though the BJP tried its best to present Modi, who patronised the butchers of human beings in the state, as "Hindu Hridaya Samrat," it seems the people of Gujarat are not much eager to buy his diatribes against the minorities and secular parties.

True to the style perfected by the fascistic RSS in the last 77 years, Modi did not spare a single abusive word against his opponents. Paying no heed to what the population statistics say, he talked of teaching "a lesson" to those who "believe in multiplying the population." The insinuation is clear. For long, the RSS has been propagating that Muslims want to take over the Hindus’ country by sheer numerical force!

The yatra again gives a glimpse of the kind of cheapest possible language the Parivar is capable of employing. And, understandably, Modi is using that language primarily against Mrs Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress party. For the BJP fears that the latter may well spoil its game in Gujarat.

DISTORTING THE MAHATMA

HAT exceedingly low levels the Parivar is able to descend to, is evident from the way Modi tried to misappropriate Gandhi’s name for the Parivar’s purposes. Referring to Mrs Sonia as "Italy ki beti," this RSS-variety ‘learned man’ said in Phagvel: "Mahatma Gandhi, the most famous son of Gujarat, had fought against the domination by white-skinned people in our country. The Congress’s ploy to bring Sonia Gandhi…. is an insult to the Mahatma" (Hindustan Times, September 9).

It is said that even the devil may quote scriptures for his purposes. Modi is a living testimony to this saying’s correctness.

It is not difficult to expose what Modi has learnt in the RSS school; a very simple question will do the job: Did Gandhi fight against the "white-skinned people" or against British imperialism? It is clear what kind of ‘history’ the RSS wants our schools and universities to teach!

Moreover, the Mahatma’s assassins who are today invoking his name will also have to reply to the question: Did Gandhi ever teach anybody to go and kill the minorities in cold blood? On the contrary. One may disagree with Gandhi on this point or that. Yet, one will have to acknowledge that (1) he realised the importance of communal unity and harmony for India’s independence better than many others; (2) it was he who staked his life and rushed to Delhi, Calcutta and Noakhali to quell the riots there; and (3) it was for his advocacy of harmony that the majority communal forces did away with him.

It is clear that the Mahatma’s assassins are only distorting his socio-political vision. It is another matter that this thing only contributes to exposing the real character of the RSS.

During his yatra, Modi is also harping on the asmita (identity) of five crore Gujaratis; it is one of his pet themes. But the question is: Do the likes of Modi deserve to define the Gujarati identity? Long back, famous Gujarati poet and social historian Narmadashankar Lalshankar (d: 1886), popularly called Narmad, wrote a poem "Jai Jai Garvi Gujarat" in which he listed with a sense of pride all the cultural symbols that go into constituting the Gujarat identity, and these symbols include even the things non-Hindu. In reply to a question as to whom Gujarat belongs to, Narmad explicitly said it belongs to all the castes, communities, races, religions and sects that inhabit Gujarat; that Gujarat as much belongs to Parsees and Muslims as to Hindus, as much to lower castes as to higher ones. It was this devout Jain poet whose debt Gandhi acknowledged for his philosophy of non-violence.

By Narmad’s time, historical research had not revealed how some Gujarati merchants had collected a fund from among themselves and got a mosque built for the Arab traders who used to come to Gujarat. This was way back in the 12th century and the Gujarat people used to call that mosque "Allah Devalaya." If only Narmad had known about it, he would have certainly included it in his list of icons that go into the making of Gujarati identity.

If you ask, this is what Gujarat really is; this is what India really is! Whom does Modi and his likes hope to befool by their hollow talks of Gujarati pride and Gujarati identity!

FASCISTIC MINDSET

N his speeches, Modi is also harping on the theme that his yatra is for the Gujarati pride that the Congress has hurt. But in fact, as The Hindu editorial commented on September 10, the use of the word gaurav indicates the "fact that the BJP insists on celebrating the violence unleashed by the stormtroopers of the Sangh Parivar for weeks on end after February 27."

This thing only reveals what a fascistic mindset the Sangh Parivar leaders have got. The fact is that, during the last four years in particular, they have crossed all limits of humane behaviour and descended to the level of savagery. When a missionary and his minor sons were burnt alive in an Orissa village (incidentally, it took place on Netaji’s birthday), RSS men’s eyes shed not a drop of tear on this gory event that put entire humanity to shame. What to talk of hawks like Advani, even the supposedly "moderate" Vajpayee revealed his real face. At a time when taking stern action against those launching attacks on the Christians and against those abetting such attacks was the need of the day, Vajpayee magnanimously advised us to have a "national debate" on conversions!

Similarly, when the fascist hordes were killing Muslims in Gujarat in cold blood and thereby taking their barbarity to perfection, our "moderate" prime minister was busy taking his ‘moderation’ to perfection. Not a single word of condemnation for the butcher hordes! Not a word of caution to the state government! Not even a low-key apology for what his party men were doing in Gujarat! When there is a constitutional breakdown in a state, the centre has to intervene there to protect national unity. Here, even when the National Human Rights Commission categorically said the constitution had been thrown to the winds in Gujarat, Vajpayee moved not even his little finger to save the secular foundation of our body-politic.

The Hindu editorial, referred to above, says: "The systematic manner in which Mr Modi and his associates in the Sangh Parivar have been distorting the democratic discourse and running down institutions (the vicious campaign against the chief election commissioner being the latest), only confirms the sinister designs and the extent to which the BJP as a party is willing to go to implement its majoritarian agenda."

The paper explicitly said the BJP’s moves at every stage clearly indicate "that the end game is not restricted to mobilisation on communal lines alone but extends to destroying the democratic structure as such."

"Destroying the democratic structure as such" are the key words today. For, it symbolises nothing less than a strident attempt to institute a fascistic regime in the country. This is what all the secular and patriotic political parties, non-government organisations, citizens’ fora, mass organisations and individuals have to keep in mind while deliberating on what course to adopt. The paper’s warning in this regard in clear and full of concern:

"The reality being what it is, it is imperative for the parties opposed to the Sangh Parivar (the Congress in particular) to realise the dangers ahead and plunge into a campaign that does not stop with the immediate concerns of the assembly polls in Gujarat."

Here one would do well to keep in mind Ashok Singhal’s words that the VHP would repeat at the all-India level the "successful experiment" of Gujarat where "whole villages have been emptied of Islam" and Muslims "dispatched to refugee camps" (The Indian Express, September 4).

TODAY’S IMPERATIVE

T is in the context of this reality that the ongoing talks of a "third front" have to be viewed. One must not confuse the current talk with the idea of a third alternative that the Left has put forward. The CPI(M) has already made it clear that any third alternative has to be based on policies. Moreover, as the contrasting cases of Left Front in Bengal on one hand and of the fronts at national level on the other go to show, while an agreement on a set of pro-people policies is the minimum requirement for a front, this itself is not sufficient for the durability of any such front. A deep sense of commitment to the people’s cause is needed for it. It is precisely such a sense of commitment that holds the secret of the Left Front’s stability.

To put the matter more bluntly, any "third front" without an agreement on policies and without a commitment to the people would be as opportunistic as the so-called National Democratic Alliance has been. How far it would go to provide an alternative to the major bourgeois-landlord parties and their policies is not difficult to judge.

But that is for the long run. In the short term, one has to keep in mind the grim situation The Hindu editorial has pointed out. If the BJP is leaving no stone unturned in Gujarat, it clearly realises that it is the only major state left to it, and its defeat here would give it a shattering blow. But precisely a shattering blow to the BJP the secular forces have to ensure --- in Gujarat in the near future.

This brings us to the hard reality that, whether one likes it or not, it is the Congress party that is the major anti-BJP force in Gujarat. Therefore, if the aim is to give one-to-one fight to the BJP here, the secular parties have to necessarily come to an understanding with the Congress. However, such any such understanding must be based not only on the issue of defeating communalism but also on a set of certain minimum policies in other fields.

This means that while other parties must not put forward any exaggerated claims in seat distribution, the Congress too cannot afford to think that it alone will be able to defeat the BJP in the state. A spirit of accommodation is what is the imperative of today, insofar as Gujarat is concerned.

In plain words, thwarting the BJP game in Gujarat is a must to prevent the party from spreading its venom in the rest of the country. For nothing less than our national unity, our secular way of life, our syncretic culture and our civilised existence is at stake today. Any act on part of any party that enables the BJP to survive, as it happened in Goa recently, would be an unpardonable act in the people’s perception.