| INDIA’S
principal opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata
Party is in a disarray at a time when its role with
diminished status of the left and socialists, is to
strongly challenge the ruling Congress. The BJP is
still the ruling party in four states although it
was badly mauled at the elections a few months back.
It has neither recovered from its defeat nor has it
been able to offer a coherent policy framework.
 Its leaders are busy painting each other black and
letting its mentor the RSS call the shots. It is
true that BJP is an outfit of the RSS, the cultural
and social organization that claims to speak and
struggle for the Hindu nationalism and is dead
opposed to secular, tolerant and multi cultural
India. BJP at its best is allowed to look more
liberal than its mentor for the convenience of
political power. This game has been repeatedly
exposed; the Janata Government fell in 1980 on the
issue of dual membership, much to the advantage of
Mrs. India Gandhi. It could barely survive later.
The way Jaswant Singh, once a formidable leader
and former defence minister and finance minister was
dismissed for writing a book on founder of Pakistan,
Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah hits hard our
fragile polity. It is making more news than his
expulsion from the BJP for writing it. BJP seems to
have fixed itself on Partition. Pakistan seems to be
unacceptable despite unequivocal assertion by
Vajpayee when as prime minister he visited the
Minar-i-Pakistan in Lahore. He wrote in the
visitors’ book that the integrity and prosperity of
India depended on the integrity and prosperity of
Pakistan. He got away with his remark because he was
prime minister and the RSS could do nothing because
any action against Vajpayee would have brought the
government down. It did not want to lose power and
put its expansion plans in jeopardy.
The RSS has been anti-Jinnah from the day
Pakistan came into being because its formation was
considered ‘the cutting of Bharat Mata into
pieces’. This is why L.K. Advani’s brash praise of
Jinnah during his visit to Karachi landed the BJP
leader in trouble. He had to resign as head of the
party at the instance of the RSS. Now he is
instrumental in expelling Jaswant Singh since he
posed a threat.
While it should be left to the historians to keep
debating how and why India was divided leading to
worst migration and carnage in history, India and
Pakistan are a reality and both have to accept this
if they wish to live in peace. Why a book on
Pakistan or some praise on Jinnah should incite the
BJP to expel without even a customary showcase
notice shows a fascist mindset and an effort to save
itself from a crisis of leadership. It the ideology
of Hindu, Hindi and Hindustan of Akhand Bharat is at
the roots the present crisis of identity. If any
blame for the partition of the Indian sub continent
is to be apportioned, all three parties, the
British, the Muslim League and the Congress are
guilty.
The BJP has no independent existence of its own
and it has been repeatedly proved and is now being
restated. It drives its strength from the RSS.
Therefore, even the liberal elements in the BJP
don’t speak out against the inveterate hatred of the
RSS towards secularism. What was once the Jana Sangh
became the BJP. It could once rake up the Ram
Mandir issue [forget it when in power for six long
years and let the VHP pile up huge money on it] and
come to power. It has to reinvent as a mainstream
political outfit and accept the spirit of Indian
constitution if it has to survive as a political
body.
BACK
|
