The Economic and Political Weekly
September 11, 2004
Commentary
CAN THE LEFT CONFRONT THE BJP?
It is about time that those who still believe in the workability of parliament in India (its numerous failures notwithstanding) realise that the BJP is a party which is persona non grata in the Indian parliamentary system. The party has demonstrated on more than one occasion that it is committed to values and norms that are totally alien to those that underpin our Constitution. It is necessary to recognise that those committed to building a theocratic Hindu Rashtra have to be defeated. This is the real challenge before the Indian Left today. But is the Left willing to pick up the gauntlet?
by Sumanta Banerjee
Some years ago, the CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu described the BJP’s L K Advani as ‘uncivilised’. It provoked a lot of umbrage, not only among BJP-supporters, but also within the liberal intelligentsia who felt that Basu had breached the protocol of ‘bhadralok’ politics. One hopes that members of this intelligentsia now, watching the unseemly performance of Advani and his party MPs in parliament, realise that the word Basu used was too civilised a term to describe the ill-bred norms that are intrinsic to BJP leaders (including the ‘elder statesman’ Vajpayee who publicly sanctions such behaviour). As is clear from their repeated announcements, they are bent on sabotaging the functioning of parliament, as long as the present UPA government rules. It shows how little they care for the norms of parliamentary democracy.
Lest I may be accused of picking up only the BJP MPs for parliamentary misdemeanour during the budget session, let me acknowledge that MPs from the then opposition parties had been no less disruptive in the Lok Sabha during the BJP-led NDA regime. But then, as an editorial in one national daily pointed out: “Even during the days of Tehelka and the furore over Kargil coffins, parliament was never disrupted to the extent of blocking debate and transaction of business for days on end” (The Times of India, August 26, 2004). It is this difference in the tactics of the BJP-led opposition in the present Lok Sabha that should alert public opinion about the long-term strategy of the party. Reduced to a minority in the Lok Sabha, and failing to carry out its agenda of Hindutva through parliamentary means, it is now bent on undermining the institution of parliament itself, and forcibly implementing the agenda through street violence. Its plans to bring out ‘tiranga’ processions in protest against Uma Bharati’s arrest, recall the murderous ‘ratha-yatra’ of the BJP leader Advani.
Incidentally, both Uma Bharati and Advani are still on the list of the accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case – just as Laloo Yadav, Shibu Soren and some ministers of the present cabinet appear on lists of other crimes. One surely cannot justify the induction of these unsavoury characters in the UPA cabinet by specious arguments like – they may be criminals, but ‘secular criminals’, or that their crimes were of a less heinous nature than those committed by the BJP leaders. Such arguments are akin to the same fallacious claims made by the BJP that Advani and Uma Bharati did not indulge in ordinary crimes, but were leading a ‘political’ movement! If Laloo Yadav is charged with a scam involving crores of rupees, the BJP leaders stand accused of provoking riots (in the course of their ‘political’ movement) that led to the killings of thousands of innocent people. Both should face trial. But to be fair to the RJD and the JMM – although thoroughly unscrupulous and opportunist in their politics – they seem to have accepted the judicial system and are awaiting the verdict, instead of urging their followers to take to the streets to protest against the arraignment of Laloo Yadav, Taslimuddin or Shibu Soren – and thus create a law and order problem.
In contrast, the BJP had shown scant respect for any of the institutions of our parliamentary democracy – whether it is the judiciary, the executive or the legislature. It gave a pledge before the Supreme Court, and violated it with impunity by demolishing the Babri Masjid. When its leaders were charged under the law for the act, its cadres launched forth a nation-wide carnage of Muslims. Still later, in Gujarat the BJP chief minister Modi surpassed even Indira Gandhi (of the emergency period) in the art of manipulating the police and the state judiciary to suppress news of his misdeeds – which are now coming out, thanks to persistent efforts made by human rights activists who compelled the Supreme Court to probe into happenings in Gujarat under the BJP regime. The BJP therefore has no locus standi to complain about ‘tainted’ ministers in the UPA cabinet as long as it itself shelters criminals in its folds. Its latest act of impudence is its total disregard of the electoral verdict by refusing to accept its defeat, and take on the role of a responsible opposition in parliament.
Adult Delinquent
The present behaviour of the BJP is not surprising. It has not been able to get over its delinquency from its juvenile period (when it was known as the Jan Sangh). Its leaders and followers had always an uneasy relationship with the provisions of the Indian Constitution, which they are fond of flouting every now and then. They never accepted the goal of a ‘secular’ republic that is enshrined in the ‘Preamble’, and openly propagate (in the guise of ‘pracharaks’ of the RSS) the goal of a ‘Hindu Rashtra’. They are also opposed to the provision in the Fundamental Duties chapter of the Constitution which enjoins Indian citizens to ‘develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform’. Their minister in the NDA government, Murli Manohar Joshi, tried his best to subvert this provision by introducing subjects like astrology and palmistry in educational courses. Such attempts were not personal quirks of an individual minister, but deeply embedded in an ideology to which the BJP is committed. We should not dismiss the BJP as a party of ruffians looking for immediate gains. The ruffians are being employed by the leaders for a long-term political objective that is motivated by an ideology – the ideology of a theocratic state based on the most obscurantist norms of a Hindu religion that parallel the Talibanised interpretation of Islam.
The BJP is surely entitled to follow its ideology. But then it has to make up its mind whether to operate within the framework of the Indian Constitution, or outside it to gain its objective. It cannot have the cake and eat it too – participating in elections and rejecting the electoral verdict at the same time. All these years it had thrived on a combination of parliamentary politics and street violence. There has to be an end to this. Does the BJP have the guts to reject the parliamentary system, go underground and fight for its objective – as the Naxalites and the various secessionist outfits in Kashmir and the north-east have done? Whatever differences one might have with the ideologies and objectives of these groups, at least they have been more honest than the BJP in the pursuit of their goals by opting out from the system. It is difficult to imagine Vajpayee and Advani, or the Venkaiah Naidus and Arun Shouries in the role of underground leaders in a movement for a Hindu Rashtra! They want to have the best of both worlds – privileges as MPs within the system, and the right of violent assertion of their religious fanaticism outside it.
It is about time therefore that those who still believe in the workability of parliament in India (its numerous failures notwithstanding), realise that the BJP is a party which is persona non grata in the Indian parliamentary system. It has demonstrated on more than one occasion that it is committed to values and norms that are totally alien to those that underpin our Constitution. What is even worse, its religion-based political ideology is contrary to the socio-cultural tradition of plurality of Indian society. It rejects the streams of a multi-religious and multi-cultural Indian past – the only tradition that can be evoked to sustain the spirit of an otherwise fragile Indian nationhood – and instead selectively picks up those components of a historical past which reflect the divisive and orthodox Hindu ideas and practices that suit it to reinforce its arsenal of aggressive Hindutva. During the last five years, the BJP’s cultural commissars bowdlerised history textbooks and re-wrote them as seen through the sleazy eyes of their RSS gurus, calculated to create a generation of fanatical louts. Given this deeply entrenched belief-system of the BJP, it would be futile to try to persuade it to reform its manners (as many liberal intellectuals hope to do), and dangerous to allow ourselves to be persuaded by its hypocrisy (usually represented by Vajpayee who is supposed to give it a ‘moderate’ face). The BJP does not deserve to be treated with kid gloves.
Challenge to Left
After having subverted the functioning of parliament and forcing it to adjourn sine die ahead of schedule, the BJP is now planning to take to the streets – the only arena where both its leaders and cadres can make their mark. In fact, it is their politics of street rowdyism that spilled over into parliament during the budget session. It is adding one excuse after another to its list of pretexts to whip up some sort of mass hysteria in the streets – the issue of ‘tainted’ ministers, Uma Bharati’s arrest, Mani Shankar Aiyer’s comments on Savarkar, and the prime minister’s alleged misbehaviour with its deputation. It is quite clear that the BJP is out to create mischief in the coming days, leading to a violent situation that would jeopardise the existence of the present government. We may be soon witnessing an all too familiar scenario brought about by a well-crafted strategy carried out in stages – jail-bharo movement; demonstrations by frenzied mobs; police lathi-charge and firings leading to the birth of new martyrs in the list of the Sangh parivar; whipping up of public sentiments against the UPA government; pressures on some of the partners of the UPA to quit the coalition and leading to its fall. It is the same strategy that led to the collapse of the V P Singh-led National Front government in 1990.
Even if we may have reservations about the UPA government, surely we do not want it to be replaced by a BJP-led government again. The Left parties have to willy-nilly lend their support to this government – despite their serious objections to its economic policies. They cannot afford to withdraw support and pave the way for the return of the BJP. In such a situation how can the Left make the best of a bad job?
The Congress Party which leads the coalition is susceptible to the blackmailing tactics of the BJP. Some of its former chief ministers had earlier succumbed to such pressures by following a policy of ‘soft Hindutva’. Given the composition of the Congress Party, one cannot expect it to put up a serious resistance against the militant offensive of the BJP. The mantle falls on the Left, which is committed to secular values and has an organised base of cadres and followers. Instead of leaving their leader Somnath Chatterjee alone as the speaker to handle the unruly crowd of cantankerous BJP MPs in parliament, the Left should rally their cadres to preempt the BJP ruffians from going on another rampage as they did in 1992, and again in Gujarat.
In fact, the BJP’s strategy of disrupting the parliamentary system and coming out on the streets offers an opportunity to the Left to launch a counter-offensive against the party. The streets can be a public arena – through street-corner meetings – for revealing facts about the pro-British collaborationist role of the gurus of the BJP during the freedom struggle, the part played by the present leaders of the BJP in the communal riots that had been plaguing our country (well-recorded in the numerous reports of judicial commissions), and their persistent acts of violation of the provisions of the Indian Constitution. The Left should confront the BJP leaders in public with these questions, thus forcing them to shed their garb as a constitutional party and come out in their real colours. Such a confrontation is necessary to clear the mist that had enveloped the role and functioning of the BJP in Indian politics all these years. Does it abide by the Constitution? Is it a part of the RSS, which advocates a Hindu Rashtra that goes against the tenets of our Constitution? How many of its MPs are members of the VHP which publicly declares that Muslims are aliens in India?
There had been a lot of prevarication in the Indian state’s dealing with communal forces like the BJP. We have paid an enormous price for such dilly-dallying, by suffering some of the worst communal riots in the country since partition. It is about time that we make a sharp distinction between the two streams of thinking and practice – represented on the one side by those who believe in a secular and pluralistic Indian society, and those on the other side who are dedicated to the building of a theocratic Hindu Rashtra. It is necessary to recognise that there cannot be any compromise between the two, and that the latter have to be defeated. This is the real challenge before the Indian Left today. But is the Left willing to take up the gauntlet?
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