(India’s Right wing Bajrang Dal’s flag with a Swastika)
In India while the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has
started its second consecutive term, the main opposition party, Bharatiya
Janata Party which faced an enormous defeat this time, has not been able to
come out of shock. Instead, there are daily incidents of accusations on one
another within the party, for defeat in the elections.
Even some party
leaders have questioned the main agenda of the party i.e. the radical
Hindutva. Strategists of the BJP gave it the name ‘Party with a difference’.
By the use of this strange adjective, the ‘proficient’ leaders of the party
tried to tell the people that their party is very much different from that
of other political parties. Party strategists tried to establish the
identity of the BJP as the most disciplined and incorruptible party of
India. But, since the party came to power under the leadership of Atal
Bihari Vajpayee, and till today, the realities which people have witnessed
of the BJP, it has proved wrong, all the claims of the party strategists. In
fact, after the recent defeat of the party, it seems that the BJP has become
the ‘Party with differences’, rather than the ‘Party with a difference’.
Voices of dissent which we are hearing today perhaps are unprecedented
within any political party of India.
Strategists of the BJP now seem to be trapped in their
own net. The journey of promoting aggressive Hindutva started with the
controversial ‘Toyota’ Rath Yatra by Lal Krishna Advani in 1990, which
ultimately helped the BJP to reach its culmination of 183 seats in 1999
general elections. As a result, the party strategists assumed the policy of
radical Hindutva as evergreen success formula. Since December 6, 1992 to
Godhra carnage and post-Godhra massacre, the BJP continuously tried to
polarise the Indian politics on communal lines. Thousands of innocent
Indians, both the Hindus and the Muslims, lost their lives in this dangerous
game of communalism, played by the party. Even though the people of the
country might not have liked it, but politicians like L.K. Advani, Narendra
Modi and organizations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) blindly continued their mission of spreading
venom of communalism.
People of India ultimately taught a lesson to BJP that
this is the country of ‘Unity in Diversity’. The nation wants development
instead of entangling in the anti-developmental issues like temple, mosque,
religion, casteism and communalism. The party strategists completely tried
to follow the path of radical Hindutva and to get results out of it, the
party taken support of the RSS and its sister organizations, the VHP and the
Bajrang Dal. Besides this, the party used two young Muslim mascots, which it
repeatedly presented via media to show the nation and the world, its
‘secular’ credentials. But in recent elections, this ‘disciplined’ and
‘party with a difference’, was ruined so badly by the people that the same
party strategists of the party started rendering each other responsible for
this defeat.
The biggest question facing the BJP today is- what is the
future of the party hitherto surviving on the Ram Temple issue, aggressive
Hindutva and communal riots? On one hand, the BJP defended Varun Gandhi for
his hate speech against the Muslims, on the other side; by adopting double
standards, the party tried to distance it from his objectionable
comments. This same tendency of double standards has got the BJP at such
position, where only differences seem to exist. Advani, who during the
entire election campaign tried to prove Dr. Manmohan Singh a weak and inert
Prime Minister is now apologizing for his uncivilized language. Differences
in the party have reached to such an extent that some leaders, differing
from the policy of Hindutva, have started questioning the relevance of
radical Hindutva. Many such leaders are of the view that the defense and
support of Varun Gandhi proved costly to the party.
Not only is the BJP thinking on the policy of radical
Hindutva, even there is debate within the RSS, the source of Hindutva,
itself. A senior leader of the RSS has too favored a rethink on Hindutva by
the BJP. Indeed many strategists of the BJP and the RSS are now thinking of
the future strategy to be followed for extending its support among the
Indian masses. In the journey of communal churning, since last two decades,
from their commencement to conclusion, these communal forces have understood
that a bullet can be fired only once. So, there is need to take a new
‘slough’. These forces have understood that the voter of the nation is
getting more aware by the day. The issues of Amarnath shrine land allotment,
Sadhvi Pragya and Col. Purohit’s involvement in Malegaon bombing, Varun’s
venomous speech, Gujarat of Narendra Modi and the Ram Temple, Common Civil
Code and Article 370 are not seen by the people in the way the party wants
them to see. Instead, people have understood the all the communal issues
like these are just the electoral tools and propaganda of the BJP.
Consequently, the party is today far away from power.
The BJP, hitherto proud of the aggressive style of
speaking of Narendra Modi, is now in the position of serious thought that
which style is acceptable to the voters- Aggressive and uncivilized or
soft-spoken and cultured? The BJP stands unmasked of its Hindutva. People of
the country have understood that in fact the main objective behind following
the path of Hindutva was to come in power by suppressing and insulting the
minorities, particularly Muslims. Besides, the aware voters are also of the
view that nation can’t develop in the atmosphere of communal and religious
tensions. The BJP might be trying to show any picture of Gujarat through
publicity and advertisement, but by seeing the adverse effects on business
of Gujarati people as a result of communal riots, their ruined homes, and
refugee camps; one can imagine where the Gujarat formula would take the
country.
