The Asian Age
December 31, 2007
Congress’ soft-Hindutva is destroying pluralism
Kuldip Nayar
Cassius told Brutus that the fault was not in their stars but in themselves. After losing Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh in a row the Congress Party should realise that the fault lies with them, their strategy, not in their campaign. In both the states, it is the Congress that has lost. The party should analyse why. I concede that there was the incumbency factor in Himachal Pradesh. But the same factor did not help the Congress in Gujarat. The party has become too uncertain.
I do not know why the Congress changed its strategy not to take on the communalists in Gujarat. Party president Sonia Gandhi rightly characterised chief minister Narendra Modi and his supporters as maut ke saudagar (merchants of death). How else can they be described when they have fattened themselves on the sufferings of and denials to Muslims? After having effected an ethnic cleansing in Gujarat, Modi and the BJP continue to ostracise the Muslim community. It is boycotted economically and socially, and is treated in a manner that it seems as if the nine per cent Muslim population in the state does not exist. It is the best specimen of the BJP’s best governance.
Up to a point, Sonia Gandhi stuck to her remark of maut ke saudagar and told the Election Commission of India that calling a spade a spade did not violate any code of election. But then she herself watered down her stand. Whoever advised her, did great harm to the party and its cause.
Even if Sonia Gandhi had not made the remark, Modi would have turned the polls into a Hindu-Muslim conflict. Communalism is the only field in which he and his kind excel. The person-to-person propaganda against Muslims had already begun in Gujarat. Sonia Gandhi’s observation gave Modi a chance to bring it out in the open a day or two earlier than the timing he had in view. The Congress needs no introspection. It needs courage to challenge the Hindutva forces within and outside the party. It is shirking a confrontation with the communal forces, without realising that at stake is our pluralistic society, the bedrock of our democratic polity.
In fact, Modi and the BJP’s ideology of Hindutva are dividing the country into two communities, Hindus and Muslims, or maybe three, because the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a front organisation of the RSS, like the BJP, is also targeting the Christians. It is a shame what the VHP did in Orissa with the connivance of the state government, an ally of the BJP.
Communalism is bad enough, but worse is the BJP’s attack on the ethos of our freedom struggle. India’s independence was won on the resolve to keep it pluralistic and democratic. Muslim leaders like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (the Frontier Gandhi) and Sheikh Abdullah (the Kashmir Gandhi) made as much sacrifice as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel did. Pluralism is our proud heritage. The Congress is diluting this heritage. For improving chances in elections it has even embraced erstwhile BJP members. This has harmed the Congress most.
A Pakistani friend has written to me, "The Gujarat election debacle should open our eyes. I mean the eyes of those who ask for vote on the basis of abstract values and value system." I beg to differ with him. Election is the means, not an end in itself. Even if you may win elections without adhering to values, you are creating a society where there would be no elections one day. The value system is what distinguishes a democracy from other systems. There can be no letting down of the fight against communalism, because if it succeeds, fascism is bound to emerge.
Gujarat is not a state anymore. It has become an ideology. It is a "Hindutva laboratory" as chief minister Narendra Modi had put it when the state went to polls. He reduced the whole campaign to a single point: if you are a Hindu, you vote for me. In fact, it is a slur on Gujaratis, because he sells them Hindutva in the name of Gujarat pride.
The development part is all right. The Gujaratis inside or outside the state are pouring so much money and skill into the state that a new Gujarat was emerging despite the government. The credit is due to him that he did not come in their way, something which is happening in many states. Yet, his whipping boy is a Muslim. During the election campaign, he went on emphasising on the fake encounter death of Sohrabbudin Sheikh, although the case is pending before the Supreme Court of India. At different gatherings he brought the crowd to such a pitch of frenzy that they said in response, "Kill him, kill him." These are fascist tactics.
I sympathise with the Gujaratis, for Modi has fouled the atmosphere in the state so much that any liberal thinking or dissent is difficult. He has made them believe that India is part of Gujarat. I heard the slogan, "Gujarat is India." This is reminiscent of the Emergency days when India was Indira. Modi has done great harm to Gujaratis by mixing their achievements with Hindutva. Their economic progress has been dwarfed by Modi’s large-size anti-Muslim bias. I feel that Gujaratis need to be retrieved. Modi has given them a bad name in the country and abroad, as if they are a community of fanatics, totally opposed to pluralistic thinking.
L.K. Advani, the prime minister-in-waiting, has said that Gujarat will be a turning point in national politics. He is mistaken. The turning point is going to be the re-thinking on the part of BJP’s allies. Except the Shiv Sena from Maharashtra, there does not seem to be any party agreeing to BJP’s Hindutva. They have, by and large, secular credentials. They cannot go to the voter with Modi who is the BJP’s mascot.
The Congress is still learning its lesson from Gujarat. Sonia Gandhi is a crowd-puller, but not a vote-catcher. No use re-emphasising that Rahul Gandhi is not making any impact. Younger leaders in the Congress and persons like Lalu Prasad Yadav who are on the side of the Congress might have done better if they had campaigned.
Yet the biggest drawback with the Congress is that — this is not in Gujarat alone — it does not come across as an unequivocal exponent of pluralism, as it should. The party gives the impression of being Hindutva’s soft version. Expected to carry the ethos of the freedom struggle, the Congress should not compromise with the ideals. The BJP is understandably against secularism, but a diluted, half-hearted Congress can only do harm. It is sad that the party is not conscious of this.
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