As its ideological schisms blow up in everybodys faces,the Jinnah debate now threatens to split the BJP right down the middle. These fault-lines ,always present,have been sharpened since the voters rejected the BJP led NDA again in May 2009.
Jaswant Singhs strong swipe at the BJPs core ideology has opened a can of worms. He has single-handedly de-nuclearised the potency of Indias right wing opposition. Indias largely youthful population and polity had no clear idea that Sardar Patel was primarily responsible for banning the RSS after the cowardly assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Historically,the original Iron Mans greatest contribution was his reining of the 600-odd princely states including Muslim-ruled states and integrating them as the core of post-partition India. A lot of citizens would share Jaswant Singhs amazement at the appropriation of Sardar Patel as one of BJPs icons given that one of the facts that everyone remembers from their history,and is uncontested,is that Sardar Patel was an integral part of the Indian National Congress for over three decades. Despite clashes with Pandit Nehru,consensus and conflict resolution dictated his tenure as Indias first home minister. In that sixty-year old,vanished world of courtesy and consensus-building,Jaswant Singh would not have been unceremoniously dumped.
Tragically for Jinnah,in the1920s popular opinion among his community was diametrically opposed to his ideas. History repeated itself again in 1947 when the majority of Muslims (correctly,in hindsight) chose to ignore his call to the promised land. Little did he know that his Pakistan would play host to and also be ravaged by jihadist forces within 6 decades. Jinnah could never claim an unsullied halo and died in frustration. After three generations neither this muddled uproar,nor Jinnahs personality,excites or agonises large sections of young India.
I certainly do agree with Sudheendra Kulkarni that the BJP does not want this debate because the RSS played little organisational role in Indias freedom movement but I beg to disagree with him on another point: that Indian Muslims still bemoan and rue the calamity of Partition today. Even for our parents,Partition is now a distant memory.
What is staring the community in the face is what Justice Sachar elucidated very recently. Over 50 per cent of the 170 million-plus Indian Muslims are in the vice-like grip of destituition,illiteracy and unemployability. The BJP and others can continue this debate till eternity,but for them every day is another day in misery. The present government must take action expressly. Action expresses priorities said Mahatma Gandhi. The UPA 2.0 might exult at the BJPs plight,but smugness or complacency will hurt.
But most interesting is the new light that this sheds on our more recent history. Jaswant Singh and Arun Shourie have enlightened our polity about Vajpayees desire to sack the Modi government holding it accountable for the Gujarat riots in 2002 so as to remove the shameful blot from recent history. This will open a few eyes,even as the courts and the SIT go about their business chasing down the culprits. I sincerely hope that as Vajpayees conscience keepers,Jaswant Singh,Arun Shourie and Kulkarni had also requested the BJP/RSS to show at least some remorse for the riots under Modis watch,as an attempt to cleanse the kalank.
Paradoxically,calling Narendra Modi Chhote Sardar is doing grave injustice to the original Sardar Patel. The internal haemorrhaging within the BJP will abate sooner or later but the nation does not have the luxury to look back. As Charles Ketterings famous line goes: My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.
The writer is chairman of the editorial board at the Kanpur-based Urdu newspaper Daily Siyasat Jadid
