Jingoism’s casualty: Truth - Uma Bharti episode (NC Gundu Rao)

(Deccan Herald - August 31, 2004)
Uma Bharti episode
Jingoism’s casualty: Truth
If secular and democratic sections of society stay firm, the BJP’s attempt to whip up ‘patriotic’ frenzy will fail

BY N C GUNDU RAO

The reactivation of the 10-year-old criminal case in the Hubli court against Uma Bharti, former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, may be construed as the Congress trying to even its political scores with the BJP at the national level. But the million dollar question is what will be its political price to be paid for this in Karnataka. The reports that the entire episode has left many a leader of the Janata Dal (S), a coalition partner in the State, with furrowed eyebrows cannot be just dismissed with glib denials.

There can be little surprise in the crude and cussed attempts by the BJP and its supra, nay, pseudo cultural affiliates to exploit this issue to whip up the frenzy of patriotism, phoney or of other ilk. The virtual resuscitation of the nearly 30-year-old Shibu Siren case and the 10-year old Uma Bharti case has one common thread running through and that is the underlying purpose of this revival process is a narrow political move and no lofty idealistic consideration.

As regards the L’affaire Uma Bharti there might be few takers to the orchestrated and overexuberant arguments advanced by her proponents that patriotic sentiments and nationalistic fervour symbolised by acts like unfurling the national tricolour are being deemed as an act of heresy, if not much worse now. If such assertions lack a ring of authenticity that is because none from the Sangh Parivar has a convincing reply to the countercharge that there is pathological allergy among the RSS functionaries to unfurl the national tricolour at their headquarters in Nagpur. This is precisely what lends a touch of dualism to the patriotic sermons preached perpetually to those on the other side of the communal divide heightened by the BJP leaders now and also in their earlier political incarnation along with their cohorts.

Strongly emotive nature

No doubt, the emotive potential embedded in the national flag, national emblem and the like cannot be downplayed. But at the same time those noble sentiments cannot be turned into a smokescreen for the purpose of obsfucating the truth which by any standard cannot be deemed less sacrosanct than respect for patriotism and nationalism. But the sneaking fear in the Uma Bharti episode is that there is a not so clever attempt to distort or even disregard truth. In plainspeak the truth of the matter in the episode under discussion is that the cases against the firebrand BJP leader in the Hubli court actually pertain to an attempt to murder, arson, instigating riots by delivering inflammatory speeches. Given the gravamen of the charges and their criminal ilk the imperative need for a fair and fast trial should never have been diluted under any circumstances. But it is lamentable that the case of such serious nature had been kept almost dormant for a decade.

The other equally disheartening feature of the entire issue is that Ms Uma Bharti herself showed little qualm or scruple when she failed to make any mention of the status of these cases in her affidavit filed along with her nomination papers during the Assembly elections of Madhya Pradesh. This may be just another example to show how the respect for truth among the members of the political class in general and those who assume the attitude of holier than all in particular, is less than skin deep. The congenital cynics of course may snigger that such a predilection among politicians to be economical with truth would just cut across the party barriers. Even then the point that one cannot afford to miss is that this kind of utter disregard for facts in a solemnly sworn affidavit filed with the Election Commission would make them vulnerable to the accusation of perjury and push them down deeply in the esteem of the people at large.

Perceptive electorate

Be that as it may, the electorate of Karnataka who have often seen through the game of these self-styled champions of super patriotism have missed no opportunity to halt them in their tracks. This is the exact reason why their attempts to draw political mileage by using the issues like the Hubli Idagah Maidan, the Bababudangiri Datta Peetha controversy and other similar stratagems of divisive politics and sectarian hatred fell like ninepins all along and the party’s ambition to come to power remained only a pipe dream. It bears repetition that the seemingly phenomenal improvement in the numerical strength of the BJP in the recent elections in the State is more on account of the chinks in the armour of its political opponents than on its intrinsic clout or merit if at all it has any. So each round of electoral setback has succeeded in deepening its sense of frustration, pushing it deeper and deeper into the obscurantist and revivalist groove. It little realises how such a course would render it clearly anachronistic in a pluralistic society with its composite culture and that too in this ultra modern day and hi-tech age. The fate that might befall the renewed attempt to whip up patriotic frenzy would not be much different from that of the past provided those guiding the destinies of the secular democratic sections of the polity would not prove that they are men and women of feet of clay.