EDITORIAL

BJP Puts Up Yet Another Drama  

THE country was subjected to yet another diversionary drama by the BJP for the whole of last week. The BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu, set the ball rolling by announcing that Vajpayee and Advani will jointly lead the BJP in the forthcoming general elections. The prime minister struck back to assert his supremacy. The party bent over backwards to pay obeisance. Naidu had already earned notoriety of being the "roll-back" president of the BJP. This has been his singular distinction.  

The important issue involved is the attempt to draw a distinction amongst the BJP leader on grounds of "moderate" and "hardliner." Vajpayee is supposed to be a `moderate' compared to Mr. Advani. Advani is a `moderate' compared to Narendra Modi.  Modi is a `moderate' compared to Togadia.  So goes on the charade. The simple fact of the matter is that all of them belong to the RSS stable. 

These distinctions, that are being forced upon the nation and public, are akin to the different faces that Hitler projected in the run-up to the imposition of the Nazi fascist dictatorship.  Nazi fascism required a Goebbels,  a Himmler, a Goering, etc, to cater to different sections of the people. Put together, they constitute the fascist monster. 

Even at the pain of repetition, a part of history needs to be recollected. Way back in 1951, when Shyama Prasad Mukherjee resigned from the Nehru cabinet, he was looking to form a political party.  That was the period when the ban on the RSS, following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, was lifted under the condition, amongst others, that the RSS shall not take part in politics.  Sardar Patel, as home minister, extracted this assurance from the then RSS chief, Golwalkar. Having been denied any political role, the RSS was looking for  opportunities to involve itself in the country's politics. Thus the RSS seized Shyama Prasad Mukherjee's desire to float a political party. Golwalkar sent, amongst others, four prominent pracharaks to assist Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. Thus was born the Jana Sangh in 1951.

Who were these pracharaks?  The late Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Atal Behari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and Shyam Sundar Bhandari. Among those who are alive, one is the prime minister, another the deputy prime minister cum home minister and the third the governor of Gujarat who oversaw the communal genocide in the state. From that date till now, the Jana Sangh (and its later incarnate, the BJP) has functioned as the political arm of the RSS.  These personalities have functioned as the RSS pracharaks within the  political party and government. They continue to function to implement  the RSS agenda of converting the secular democratic  republic of India into a rabidly intolerant fascistic "Hindu Rashtra."

The debate over "moderates" and "hardliners" is thus meant to confuse the people and divert their attention away from pressing problems. A careful perusal of the prime minister's statements, on various occasions, only confirms the fact that he is actually advancing  the RSS agenda.  After all, he had declared with great pride in the United States, some years ago, that he was first a "swayamsewak" and then only the prime minister!  

Through his writings in the past, which he has never either withdrawn or rescinded from, Vajpayee has unambiguously stated that the Muslims  in India will have to accept parishkar (purification) embracing Hindu hegemony (Organiser, May 7, 1995,).  Not long ago, on the floor of  parliament, he had declared that the movement for the construction of  a temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya was a reflection  of "national sentiment."  The fundamentalist `Hindu sentiment' (a large number of Hindus refuse to accept the RSS vision of "Hindu Rashtra") was thus equated with "national sentiment."  This is nothing but echoing Golwalkar, who had chillingly declared that only Hindus  are true  nationalists and patriots and all others belonging to other religions living in India can only be considered as  unpatriotic. 

When the Babri Masjid was being demolished, we are told (nobody has actually seen) that the prime minister was composing poetry!  "The Sangh is my soul" is what Vajpayee has once declared. He has consistently stood by it and continues to do so even today.

Now, he has the temerity to declare that politicians should stay away from the Ayodhya dispute. If that be so, why did his government move the Supreme Court to seek permission to hand over the disputed as well as acquired land to the VHP for the  construction of the temple?  If that was so, why is the movement for temple construction a reflection of "national  sentiment"?  What Vajpayee means is simply this: let the RSS-BJP build a Hindu vote bank by using the Ayodhya issue, to the exclusion of all others!  While indulging in the vote bank politics of the worse kind, the RSS/BJP will accuse all others of playing vote bank politics! In the process of consolidating their Hindu vote bank, they can go to any extent, as seen in the state-sponsored communal genocide in Gujarat. Double-speak, deceit and perfidy are the hallmarks of the fascistic juggernaut. The RSS octopus is  perfecting this by the day.

It is a tragedy that India has such a government today which seeks to divert people's attention by such political dramatics at a time when thousands have  died due to the intense heat wave and lakhs languish in misery in rural India.  The media, preoccupied as they are, with such drama and sensation, have little time to focus on the people's issues. 

If India has to overcome its many problems and advance as a nation, it needs to address its pressing problems -- poverty, hunger, unemployment etc.    This requires a government that is committed to focus on a people's agenda.  This RSS-led Vajpayee government, on the contrary, for its political survival and benefit, seeks to do precisely the opposite. More dangerous is the fact that for the very survival of India, as we know of it today, the fascistic agenda of the RSS has to be defeated.   For the sake of India, i e, Bharat, the sooner these forces are removed from office, the better.