Secular=Communal

Never mind if this 8216;8216;secularism8217;8217; is simply a synonym for bending the Constitution, indeed all norms of government-formation, to keeping the BJP out of government. Never mind if this secularism ends up by anointing Shahabuddin, the 8216;8216;don8217;8217; of Siwan as an exemplar of Bharat Nirman. Never mind if this secularism is simply another word for hatred. Sonia Gandhi8217;s visceral hatred of the BJP has communicated itself down the line to every garden governor and party worker and they are now using the word 8216;8216;secularism8217;8217; to brazenly block the will of the voters. Jharkhand is the most perverse example of this hatred-filled 8216;8216;secularism8217;8217;. Even if it is accepted that some MLAs were intimidated, 9 MLAs in an 81-member assembly do not give the Congress any mandate to stake any claim.

Hatred is not the stuff of democracy. A democrat disagrees. A democrat argues. A democrat does not hate. Above all, a democrat respects the Opposition. However wicked some of the sangh parivar8217;s constituents may be, however backward-looking and socially conservative some of its ideologues certainly are, however uncivilised the parivar8217;s language may be when it calls governors 8216;8216;supari killers8217;8217; and prime ministers 8216;8216;shikhandis8217;8217;, yet the BJP/ NDA is an equal partner in Indian democracy, it has as much right to exist as the Congress and as much right to the allegiance of the people.

A democrat cannot fail to realise that the 8217;87 riots in Meerut, 8217;89 in Bhagalpur or Mumbai riots in 1992-93 all took place under 8216;8216;secular8217;8217; governments. A democrat will also realise that the 1984 Sikh riots were as heinous, as ghastly as the Gujarat riots of 2002, that many more were killed, many more children were orphaned and that a crucial difference between Gujarat and Delhi was that the former took place under the glare of 24-hour news television and TV images have rightly burned the very name 8216;8216;Gujarat8217;8217; into a perennially monstrous memory. But having realised all this, a mature democrat would find it difficult to pass irrevocable judgement on who has a 8216;8216;divine right8217;8217; to rule and who does not. All a democrat can do is respect the legacy of the idealists of the 1940s who placed, in the hands of every Indian, the power of democratic choice. If the majority of Biharis choose to throw Laloo out, in the name of the people of India, the leaders must bow. If the majority of Jharkhandis choose the NDA, then again, in the name of the people of India, the leaders must bow. If they don8217;t, the short-term battle may be won, but the war for democracy will be lost.

What are the roots of the Congress8217;s hatred of the BJP? Ever since the pre-Independence period, the Congress has believed that the RSS as 8216;8216;killers of the Mahatma8217;8217; represented the polar opposite of Nehruvian secular socialist nationalism. The 8216;8216;secular8217;8217; versus 8216;8216;communal8217;8217; divide has been a primary faultline since Independence and until 1975, anyone remotely connected with the sangh parivar was systematically and snobbishly kept out of the national mainstream, whether in politics, culture, academics, or the arts. 1975 and the imposition of Emergency first gave the Jana Sangh the opportunity to occupy a place within the larger Janata movement but the dual membership controversy put an end to the Jana Sangh8217;s ambitions. But over the last fifteen years, the lines between 8216;8216;secular8217;8217; and 8216;8216;communal8217;8217; have blurred. In 1989 both the Left and the BJP supported the V.P. Singh government.

And today, who is 8216;8216;secular8217;8217;? Is Laloo 8216;8216;secular8217;8217;? He waves the U.C. Banerjee Godhra interim report around and detained Pravin Togadia last year. Yet he has buried a report showing how shockingly the condition of the minorities has declined in his rule. Ram Vilas Paswan campaigns with an Osama look-alike and declares that he left the NDA because of Gujarat, but it was so pathetically clear at that time that he only left because he didn8217;t get the telecom ministry. Is the DMK 8216;8216;secular8217;8217;? It has the unique distinction of sharing power with all the last three governments at the Centre, and Karunanidhi praises Vajpayee and Sonia by turn. Is Mamata Banerjee 8216;8216;secular8217;8217;? She fights with the Congress in state elections but with the NDA in national elections.

The truth is that secularism as a liberal democratic ideal no longer automatically attaches to the Congress or to the anti-BJP forces. Instead of using 8216;8216;secularism8217;8217; simply as a barrier to exclude the NDA at all costs, why does the Congress not give more substance to its secular aspirations by focussing on rule of law, building enduring social cohesion and democratising its functioning instead of clinging to its ridiculous antediluvian High Command culture. Hating the NDA as stupidly as Pravin Togadia hates Muslims is an injustice to the Indian voters8217; freedom of choice.