DR. S. AUSAF SAIED VASFI analyses the what-and-why of the identity crisis the Bharatiya Janata Party is in.
Cast a cursory glance over the national skyline. No significant political party save and except the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is suffering from any remarkable crisis. The crisis the BJP is in is of multidimensional rather chaotic magnitude.
That the Left has lost its relevance and is on the wane is an old story. It is on its retreat now. Earlier its strength in the Lok Sabha was 65. Now it has shrunk to less than 25. The reason is its moth-eaten ideology coupled with arrogance of one or some of its top leaders. It is regrettable that the Left neither learnt nor un-learnt any lesson from the downfall of the Soviet Union, which crumbled simply because of the non-viability of socialism as a sustainable philosophy and system of governance.
Now on the cards is the Left defeat in West Bengal, its bastion. It will come at the hands of the Congress-Trinamool Congress in the State Assembly elections in 2011.
We feel so because Ms Mamta Bannerji is a rare phenomenon these days. Her integrity is intact. No corruption charge has, during her 25-year long political career, been ever levelled against her. She evokes respect at a wider scale. Also remember that in her first election in 1985, Ms Bannerji had defeated Mr Somnath Chatterji by a whooping margin of 50,000 votes.
The Left is not in robust health in Kerala either. It may survive by any ramshackle marriage of convenience at regional level.
WRITING OWN OBIT
As far as the BJP is concerned, of late, it has been found too-busy in writing its own obituary. Its undoing is primarily rooted in its exclusivist ideology, having ultranationalist overtones bordering on fascism. Add to it the much-denied “guidance” from its patron, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which, as a rule, lives in history. And then its totalitarian temperament in which there is no place for honest dissent or whistle-blower or departure from the accredited ideology. Hence the hoo-haa on Mr Jinnah. Save the exception of Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, few (RSS-BJPmen) have been found accommodative and magnanimous enough to work with the people of divergent commitments. Mr Vajpayee’s running the NDA dispensation is a case in point.
ALLIANCE LIMITATIONS
Not long ago, the godfather of the BJP wanted to know why its political arm, the BJP, could not deliver the RSS agenda enshrined in the BJP manifesto. These old-timers failed to appreciate the constraints under which a coalition works. As its alliance partners did not subscribe to the purely Hindu and completely anti-Muslim agenda, they did not approve of it. They neither permitted the construction of a magnificent Ram Janmabhoomi temple at the debris of Babri Masjid, nor did they support the enactment of a Uniform Civil Code for the plural country nor the abrogation of Article 370 which gives a special status to Jammu and Kashmir. That was why the public promises made in the RSS shakhas could not be kept by the BJP.
JUST RECALL
It would be appropriate to recall here that in the light of their confessions, the basic grouse of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Swami Dayanand Pandey and Col. Purohit was why the commitments made by the top Saffron leaders had not been fulfilled despite their government in power.
For that crisis, the reports suggested the disgruntled dements wanted to eliminate the failed leaders.
What is the RSS answer to this piquant situation? Can the proposed younger BJP office-bearers alter the ground reality of alliance politics?
DUAL POWER BASE
The dual power base, besides the bellicose ideology, is another albatross around the neck of the BJP. The two power bases are, more often than not, in conflict with each other. At the end of the day, it turns out to be an “informed” vs. “uninformed”; “experienced” vs. “inexperienced” and “possible” vs. “impossible” conflict.
Speaking in concrete terms, because of this baggage, the BJP is likely to suffer defeat in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand. The reason appears to be lack of credibility and lack of cohesion as well as obsoleteness of the much-denied goals like Akhand Bharat.
See this assessment in the light of CSDS poll: “The BJP urban middle class has shifted from the BJP to the Congress.”
The problem today confronted by the BJP is how to reinvent itself, find a leader and a leader armed with a winning recipe.
MUSLIM VIEW
Our view is: without discarding the Hindutva, without recognising Muslims as equal citizens, without having dignity, self-esteem and a place in the comity of communities in the country, the political wing of the RSS has no future in divergent India.
Muslims feel so because Hindutva is at loggerheads with Hinduism. The former’s belligerent postures diminish the shine of Hinduism. By injecting, in and out of season, nationalism and patriotism, the grandeur of Hinduism dented.
Secondly, the Saffron has tried its level best to assimilate and eliminate the principal minority of heterogeneous Bharat. But they have not succeeded in de-ideologising Muslims. Instead of wasting their energy is futile pursuits; let them concentrate the reconstruction of the Hindu majority, which has developed visible cracks. They need to build morally upright citizenry, having character, vision and values like catholicity, large heartedness and accommodation. Large kingdoms and small hearts do not, and cannot go together.
The BJP leadership, like any other leadership, has to be attractive, not repulsive; it should not be small-minded and frank to the fault, but capable of capturing popular imagination through reasonable argument, not hateful diatribes through barbed tongue aiming at the digital divide of the plural nation.