As someone who believes India desperately needs a right wing political party, with a commitment to prosperity and economic growth and not poverty and sham socialism, I put my faith for a while in the Bharatiya Janata Party filling this role. It is not that I was blind to the BJP’s flaws or that I did not understand its intimate links with the RSS and other unattractive organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal. It is just that I hoped a spell in government would weaken these links and bring home the reality that in a country with the second largest Muslim population in the world, Hindutva was quite simply unworkable. I was wrong. The BJP has learned nothing about either governance or this country’s political realities in its three years in power and it will almost certainly pay a heavy price for this in the next general election. Several Sangh Parivar leaders openly said the violence in Gujarat was a sign of ‘Hindu awakening’. We are accustomed to this kind of rubbish from the VHP and Bajrang Dal but when Advani and Jaitley lend their support, there’s reason to be worried What is becoming frighteningly obvious, though, is that the price will be paid not just by the BJP but by India because the Hindutva the party is now openly embracing, in a desperate bid to restore its political fortunes, is of a sinister, infinitely more dangerous kind than the one that brought down the Babri Masjid. Compare for a moment the postponed (not cancelled) Gujarat Gaurav Yatra with L K Advani’s first rathyatra. That earlier drive from Somnath to Ayodhya may have left death and destruction in its wake but there was about it a certain sincerity of purpose. Advani succeeded in drawing attention to flaws in the Congress idea of secularism and because there was some truth in what he said the BJP managed to raise its seats in Parliament from two to 119, thereby laying the ground for their rise to power. Politically incorrect though this may sound even the demolition of the Babri Masjid can be blamed as much on the Congress’s duplicity and the cussedness of the Babri Masjid Action Committee as on Advani and his rathyatra. If Rajiv Gandhi had not himself shown signs of using Rama as an election weapon and if the spokesmen of the Muslim community had not based their negotiations on a demand for historical proof of temple breaking Advani’s rathyatra may have been no more than another stupid, political gimmick. The brand of Hindutva that the BJP is now embracing is of a sinister and infinitely more dangerous kind than the one that brought down Babri Masjid If it became the vehicle for the BJP’s emergence as a major political force it was because Advani’s identification of ‘‘pseudo-secularism’’ as a serious problem touched a genuine political chord. What makes the Gaurav Yatra a much scarier beast is that it seeks support for violence rather than a political idea. It is an open attempt to urge Hindus to vote for murder, rape and barbarism. It should be clear by now that Modi was not sacked as chief minister because senior BJP leaders, particularly Advani, pointed out that the pogroms he allowed to happen against Muslims were popular with Hindus. So is casteism, untouchability and pornography, but we do not take a poll. That Modi takes a sick pride in the hatred and violence that engulfed Gujarat for two long, horrible months can be seen from the Hindu Hero he now seems to think he is and from the certificates of approval he has received from his peers. Several Sangh Parivar leaders have openly said that the violence in Gujarat was a sign of ‘‘Hindu awakening’’. We are accustomed to this kind of rubbish from the VHP and the Bajrang Dal but when BJP leaders like Advani and Arun Jaitley lend their support there is reason to be seriously worried. Advani approves so thoroughly of Modi’s yatras that he was prepared to flag them off. And Jaitley, freshly demoted from minister to party spokesman, described them as a ‘‘positive campaign to restore the dignity and prestige’’ of Gujarat. What dignity? What prestige? The BJP’s top leadership appears to have recognised that in 2004 they have no achievements of governance to go to the people with and that their last chance to avert defeat lies in polarising the Hindu vote. If this means Gujarat type pogroms in UP and Bihar then so be it. And since you need a special kind of Hindutva leader to do the job we have the Bajrang Dal’s hero number one, Vinay Katiyar, appointed head of the party in Uttar Pradesh and the BJP’s most hardline Hindu leader, Advani appointed Deputy Prime Minister in last week’s Cabinet reshuffle. Advani has had his new job barely a week and already there are loud whispers in Delhi’s corridors of power of the Prime Minister’s imminent retirement. That he has already ceded a degree of authority to his Deputy can be seen in the decision not to remove Modi. The Prime Minister wanted him sacked, the whisperers say, but Advani was adamant that Modi’s handling of Gujarat was hugely popular and made sure that he was not removed. One of the consequences of Hindutva becoming item number one on the government’s agenda will be that desperately needed economic reforms will go on the backburner. Even if Gujarat’s gaurav does not spread through the rest of the country that is a heavy enough price to pay. Respond to tavleensingh@expressindia.com
