[Dawn, October 10, 2004]
BJP back on aggressive Hindutva track
By Asghar Ali Engineer
The BJP was so sure of its victory in the last Lok Sabha election that it feigned to have given up its Hindutva card and tried to appeal ('appease') to minorities for votes.
In Bihar, Atal Bihari Vajpayee even promised, in a speech at Kishenganj, to appoint 200,000 Urdu teachers, if elected. However, the Muslim electorate did not trust in such promises and instead voted for the Congress-led alliance.
The Sangh Parivar, too confident of BJP's victory, finds it difficult to swallow the defeat in a democratic fashion and is feeling highly frustrated. The NDA members, particularly those of BJP are even refusing to behave like a responsible opposition in the parliament.
They have been obstructing the proceedings and refusing to allow the parliament to function smoothly on one pretext or the other. They raised the issue of 'tainted ministers' and kept the parliament frozen for days.
They did not even allow a debate on the budget and it has to be passed without any discussion. Thus, the NDA leaders are responsible for utter waste of public money by adopting an undemocratic and hostile behaviour. If they are not willing to follow the norms of democratic behaviour they do not deserve to sit in the parliament.
What is worse is their resolve to return to, this time aggressively, their old Hindutva course which, they had assured the Indian people, they had abandoned. In 1980 too, they had assured people of India that they have adopted 'secularism and Gandhian socialism' but then abandoned it in favour of aggressive communalism the moment they faced crushing defeat in parliamentary elections of 1984 in which they got only two seats.
Having faced defeat in Lok Sabha elections this year too, they have gone back to Hindutva politics with a vengeance. Thus, communal forces can hardly be relied upon for their word.
While in power and sure of their continued hold on it, they boast of being secular but become militant communalists the moment they lose power. However, they have turned aggressive in their Hindutva preaching at this stage in view of state elections scheduled in Maharashtra and in Bihar after a few months.
One such issue is of Veer Savarkar. Mani Shankar Aiyer ordered removal of poems of Veer Savarkar from the cellular jail of Andaman. The BJP is raising hue and cry over his action.
In Maharashtra, of course, they have left it to be tackled by Shiv Sena as Savarkar's issue is highly emotive there. Thus, the BJP, which is a coalition partner of Shiv Sena, wants the latter to do the dirty work of instigating the Hindu electorate on this issue. This shows that the BJP is not genuinely concerned with Savarkar issue but wants to exploit it for election purposes through Shiv Sena.
Veer Savarkar's grand niece Uttara Sahasrabuddhe who teaches political science in the Bombay University, has alleged that both the Congress and BJP-Shiv Sena are trying to turn Veer Savarkar into an election issue. According to her this was hardly a good reason for the Sena and the BJP to boycott the parliament when the budget was being passed, she maintained.
She also said that if the Sangh Parivar was sincere in its protest against what the Congress had done, it should ask the lieutenant governor of the Andamans to put the plaque back.
The lieutenant governor Mr. Ram Kapse, was a BJP appointee and belongs to that party. She also said in her statement to The Asian Age that Savarkar was a rationalist. He never thought cow was so sacred and should not be killed.
He specifically wrote in one of the articles, she noted that "the cow was a useful animal once upon a time when we were dependent on agriculture. But don't make it a sacred animal. If you believe that God resides in a cow it's foolish."
Savarkar also maintained, according to her, that "if you want to differentiate between western civilization and Indian civilization, then you must know that after the Renaissance movement the West took to rationalism as its basis and made tremendous progress. We still stick to what is written in Vedas and Puranas, and because of this approach we remain stuck in the past."
Sangh Parivar, she says, cannot eschew or digest these essays because it considers cow a sacred animal and the VHP and Bajrang Dal harass even those who take old oxen or buffaloes for slaughter. A key agenda of the BJP is to ban cow slaughter throughout India; it even justified killing of Dalits in Haryana who were found skinning dead cows a few years ago?
Another issue BJP is preoccupied with is that of arrest of Uma Bharati, former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. In fact there are indications that the BJP wanted to get rid of Uma Bharati and her arrest warrant came as a relief to the BJP central leadership. She may be an aggressive agitator but she was a failure as a chief minister and had created complex problems for the party.
But now the BJP is making her arrest a national issue and flying tricolour is being projected as a national mission. Of course tricolour is India's national flag and the Indians are all proud of that but one cannot take pride by making it as a anti-Muslim measure.
Uma Bharati went to hoist tricolour on an Idgah, which is a disputed site. The Sangh Parivar had planned to convert the Hubli Idgah issue into "a Babri Masjid of the South" at that time but the matter was resolved amicably by persuading the Hubli Muslims to hoist the national flag on the Idgah.
Now the Sangh Parivar is thinking of taking out her Yatra by flying tricolour. It is an old trick, which the Parivar plays ad nauseam. In fact the RSS refuses to fly tricolour in its own Shakhas and flies Bhagwa flag.
Uma Bharati cannot fly tricolour on the RSS offices if she is so enthusiastic about flying tricolour, nor can she fly it on temples. She is trying to earn electoral advantage in coming elections by raising these controversies.
There are reports that the government of Karnataka may ask the court to withdraw all cases against her to deprive her of the opportunity to be a martyr. The Congress is trying to defeat her game. The BJP has never been comfortable with secular issues or issues of development.
It adopted Sadak-Bijli-Pani issue in MP election as it was agitating the minds of electorate in the state then. But as it was not sure whether this will click Uma Bharati was repeatedly raising the issue of Saraswati temple and Kamal Maula Masjid in Dhar, MP. The other members of Sangh Parivar were playing up this issue to entice the voters for Sangh Parivar.
Since the BJP is not in power at the Centre it can try to go whole hog with Hindutva politics. The RSS keeps on pressurizing it to adopt an aggressive stance on it. And the BJP has to repeatedly assure the RSS that it will never dissociate with the ideology of Hindutva, more so because it needs the help of dedicated RSS cadres in the elections.
When the Jan Sangh had merged with the Janata Party and had taken pledge to practise secularism at the Gandhi Samadhi under the leadership of Jai Prakash Narain in 1977, it had refused to resign from the RSS membership though the dual membership controversy (both membership of the Janta Party and the RSS) had brought down the Morarji Desai government in 1979.
Thus, it will be seen that it is firmly tied to the apron strings of RSS and its strident anti-minorities stance will never be diluted. Those secular groups allied with the NDA are deceiving themselves or fooling the people, if they pretend that the BJP will one day give up its Hindutva plank.
Also, in view of this month's elections in Maharashtra the Shiv Sena-BJP are trying to stir communal passions. The bombs thrown by unknown motor cycle riders at the mosques during Friday prayers in Prabhani and Jalna is an obvious attempt in that direction. The winning of election in Maharashtra by the Sangh Parivar is of great importance. It thinks it is an opportunity to shake the UPA Government at the Centre.
Defeat of the Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra can have long-term consequences. If the BJP-Shiv Sena combination wins in Maharashtra they will try to persuade Sharad Pawar to join the NDA.
Sharad Pawar is known to have soft corner for the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance. Also, the Mumbai Municipal Corporation under Shiv Sena has passed a resolution making singing Vande Mataram compulsory in municipal schools. They remember Vande Mataram at the time of elections only.
The Sena, being too eager to come back to power, will go to any extent in playing up Hindutva card. It is very unfortunate that the Election Commission is satisfied with these parties for having signed pledge of secularism although their propaganda machinery aggressively works to propagate communal issues during the elections.
How can a party making pledge to practise secularism as required by the rules of the election commission openly and aggressively propagate Hindutva? Should they not be disqualified on grounds of breaking their pledge? Is it not against the Constitution to propagate Hindutva during the election campaign? It is for the authorities to decide.
Secularism may become a distant dream if the increasing communalisation of our politics is not checked. Forget about Nehruvian secularism even Gandhian concept of religious harmony is becoming a dream rather than a reality.
Every religious group or religious community wants to bring in sectarian issues in political arena. Those who strive for inter-religious harmony will have to face great challenges in the coming days.
The writer is chairman of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai.
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