Advani Reveals BJP’s Mindset --- Once Again

 Harkishan Singh Surjeet

A SERIES of recent events prove beyond doubt that after being in power for six years, the BJP is unable to digest its defeat in the Lok Sabha polls. It is no one’s contention that, as the main opposition party, the BJP has no right to raise issues in parliament. But the thing is: they are not raising issues in a democratic way; rather they are trying to subvert our parliamentary democracy. For example, even though the UPA government had assured them that a discussion on the “tainted” ministers issue could be organised, the BJP simply spurned the offer and, instead, went on disrupting the proceedings in the houses. And now the party has taken the extreme step of boycotting the standing and other committees of parliament, which weapon should be used in only extreme cases of impropriety on part of the government. This has rattled even their allies though they are not protesting against the big brother’s unilateral decision. Only the TDP indicated that it would not go by the BJP decision.     

THE BOOT IS ON THE OTHER FOOT

THE BJP charge that the government is adopting a “confrontationist” course is, to say the least, ludicrous. Arun Jaitley cited one ‘proof’ of a confrontationist attitude --- that the government is bent on removing Atal Behari Vajpayee’s photos from offices and other public places. This, according to Jaitley, amounts to insulting Vajpayee. But if one goes by the logic, the present prime minister would appear to be insulting himself by not allowing his own photos to be publicly displayed.

And what about the 48 crore rupees which the earlier government (mis)spent on creating, along highways etc, spaces where Vajpayee’s photos could be displayed! Yet, this amount was nothing in comparison to the huge amounts they spent on the ‘Shining India’ campaign during the run-up to the elections. The people have by now more than realised that (1) the BJP-ites are not only power hungry but also publicity hungry, and (2) they can go to any extent to satisfy their lust for power and publicity (and even their lust for money as the Bangaru Laxman and Judeo cases as well as the India-wide petrol pump/LPG scam demonstrated).

The BJP leaders’ frustration gets compounded by the fact that both the print and electronic media, who have been singing paeans to the BJP till recently, are now giving them increasingly diminishing space --- not because of any love for the lofty principles of secularism and democracy but because of the interests they represent.   

In sum, by raising naïve and sometimes childish bogeys, BJP leaders are only showing the people in practice that is not the government that is bent on confrontation. In fact the boot is on the other foot; it is the BJP that is out to prevent the government from functioning by adopting a confrontationist attitude.

UNDERSTANDABLE FRUSTRATION

YET the BJP leadership’s frustration is understandable. If Vajpayee claimed the BJP would make India a world power by 2020, by implication he also expressed the fond hope that his party would remain in power for a long time. However, this in effect meant that if the BJP led regime tried to lay the foundation of a theocratic state in the country in the last six years, the party’s victory would give it a chance to erect the edifice of a theocratic state in the next five years and more.

But this was precisely the game the people saw through and belied the Sangh Parivar’s dream of creating a Hindu Rashtra in this country. About two years ago, Ashok Singhal had boasted that the Parivar’s outfits had demolished one structure at Ayodhya and would soon demolish yet another structure --- that of secularism. However, what has taken place is in the reverse direction. Courtesy the secular-to-the-core people of this country, their plans about prefabricating the edifice of a theocratic state in the country have gone awry, just as their prefabricated temple pillars have failed to reach Ayodhya.

To make the point more explicit, the Lok Sabha poll results were no simple replacement of one government by another --- of the NDA government by a UPA government --- as it happens in a democracy. It was in effect the shattering of a fascistic RSS’ grandiose plans it has been harbouring since its birth in 1925. And the reason was simple. As the CPI(M)’s 16th party congress (Kolkata, October 1998) had pointed out, the BJP is no ordinary bourgeois-landlord party, not one among several such parties mutually competing for power. Rather, behind the BJP stands the communal RSS that aims to create a theocratic, fascistic state in India.          

It is thus natural that if India faced grave threats to its national unity, communal harmony, its Ganga-Jamni culture and its civilised existence, the people of this country, including millions who are illiterate, underfed and underclothed, have launched no less a grave counter attack against this abominable anti-national force.  

The BJP’s and the whole Sangh Parivar’s frustration is truly understandable! 

RSS LINE OF THINKING

BUT the BJP is simply at a loss to understand why it had to make an ignominious exit from the corridors of power where it had reached after propitiating no one knows how many gods. Did the feel good slogan failed to click? Did the overemphasis on modern gadgetry (allegedly by Pramod Mahajan) alienate the people from the party? Did the party suffer in Tamil Nadu because it deserted its allies at the last moment and embraced a dubious ally in their stead? Or was the behaviour of some of the allies, like the INLD or TDP, responsible for the party’s defeat in crucial areas? Stalwarts of the party have advanced a number of theses to explain the party’s defeat in the country as a whole or in individual states. But the party is still unable to pinpoint the culprit.

Yet, the RSS has made clear that the BJP is free to offer any excuse for its defeat; only that it must not blame the Hindutva philosophy for it. This became more than evident after Vajpayee went to Manali on a holiday. There, instead of indulging in any musings as he used to do when he was the prime minister, he issued a statement blaming the Gujarat massacre of Muslims for the party’s debacle and demanded that Narendra Modi be removed from the chief ministership.

Now, there are indications that the RSS was itself thinking of removing Modi from the post in a bid to tide over the inner-party squabbles, but it simply refused to accede to Vajpayee’s demand that linked the party’s debacle with a communal holocaust. The subsequent seven-star drama in Mumbai, the patch-up effected there and Vajpayee’s volte-face are now known to the people and have also been commented upon in these columns.  

The episode did bring out Vajpayee’s real character. Even if in frustration, the man did point to one correct reason for the party’s debacle, the other reasons being the NDA regime’s economic policies, corruption, foreign policy follies and the like. But as soon as the RSS adopted a tough stand on the issue, Vajpayee effected a 180º turn-about.

Be that as it may, the RSS has made its thinking clear: if you like, go to the North Pole to find a reason for the debacle but don’t even hint that it was because of Hindutva. In the process, the poor Modi got a (temporary) reprieve.

RELIGION & POLITICS

IT is in this background that Advani has sought to further strengthen his position in the party by arguing in favour of mixing religion in politics. At a ceremony in Ahmedabad, July 26, this leader of BJP hawks spoke against those who say politics and religion should not be mixed. He said, “I disagree with them. If there is no religion in politics, it is of no use to me.” In course of his pontification, he even said, “In India, religion is also ingrained in politics as it is in Indian culture.” This is typical of RSS reasoning, rather its very raison d’etre.

One can certainly not be much enthusiastic about how much Advani knows of Indian culture. Just to take one example, out of the nine schools of Indian philosophy, as many as six are atheistic, and these include three “Vedic” schools!

Then, if one leaves the precept behind and comes to the practice, India was never a theocratic state even if certain rulers sought to use, misuse or abuse religion for narrow purposes. Still later, since 1857 or even earlier, our struggle for freedom was based on secular tenets. The pre-Gandhian Moderates as well as Extremists were religious people but despite their weaknesses they were also secular, for their religion was not directed against any other religion. Hindus and Muslims both fought against the partition of Bengal in 1905 and, one decade later, we saw Swami Shraddhanand being invited to address a huge crowd from the pulpit of the Jama Masjid in Delhi. Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs shed their blood together in Jallianwala Bagh in 1919 and Gandhi made the cause of Khilafat his own. The Ghadar revolutionaries, Bhagat Singh and his comrades, the Congress socialist and communist movements, and many other trends testify to the eminently secular character of our freedom struggle. Advani ignores this precious legacy of ours.

THUS SPAKE ADVANI (NOVEMBER 2002)

HERE it won’t be out of place if we remind Advani of what he himself had said in Lok Sabha on November 18, 2002. Replying to the debate on an adjournment motion on Gujarat issue, the then home minister cum deputy prime minister had made certain correct points that we summarise: (1) India has always been and will always be a secular country; (2) when the Constituent Assembly was preparing a constitution for independent India, not a single member demanded that India be declared a theocratic state; and (3) India’s secularism was not a gift from any party or leader, rather it is a product of India’s secular masses.

To repeat, these points were eminently correct. Yet, as they were made under duress and to ward off the opposition’s attack, Advani took no time to forget them. It is another thing that hawks like Singhals and Togadias could not digest even this tactical move by Advani and began to bay for his blood.

In the same speech, however, Advani had repeated the Sangh Parivar’s cliché that only theirs was “genuine secularism” while others were “pseudo-secular.” Clearly, he had cleverly ignored and still ignores that the Supreme Court had defined secularism as the complete separation of religion and politics, and described secularism (in this very sense) as the very foundation of India’s constitution. He is yet to make clear whether he subscribes to this conception of secularism or not.

Yet the point is that even without Advani making his position clear, our people do know who stands where. As for those who still harbour some illusion about the BJP, the ‘moderate’ Vajpayee’s, Advani’s and Vankaiah’s pilgrimage to RSS headquarters in Jhandewalan, Delhi, and their promise that they are for “going back to the basics” should be enough to dispel all illusions about the party.

POSTSCRIPT (JULY 2004)

AT the Ahmedabad meeting on July 26, Narendra Modi also thought it necessary to prove that he has no less wisdom. This is what he said at the meeting, “A new trend has come in Indian politics. Politicians are emerging from barrel of guns instead of freedom struggle.”

This is a ‘gem’ of its kind. Modi did not take trouble to illuminate us as to who in the Sangh Parivar --- from K S Sudarshan to Vajpayee and Advani to Modi --- had emerged out of our freedom struggle. As for Modi himself, we know he got gaddi not because of any role in freedom struggle but because of RSS bosses’ ashirwad and tried to consolidate his position with guns, knives, daggers and what not. Modi’s ‘pearl of wisdom’ would certainly go in Indian history as the biggest joke of the year 2004.