Opinion Nationalism,badly spelt

Hemant Karkare’s life,there was cool distance from Aseemanand’s revelations,no defence of several people being investigated for terror who don’t have names like Khan. Three BJP/ NDA states’ tableaux at the Republic Day parade were also interesting,unabashedly showcasing minority faiths in their states — Buddhism in Gujarat,Muslim Bidri workers in Karnataka and Sufi cult followers in Bihar. Tableaux which would have been mocked as “pseudo-secular” some years back were proudly and cleverly waved in.

But recently,its flag-march to Srinagar (or eventually,Kathua) conveys the impression that the party has again tried to be too clever by half,or just let itself down once again. The ostensible commonsense argument that the Indian flag can be and should be unfurled breezily in any corner of India was stretched in mock innocence to India’s northernmost state and a terribly ugly situation was only just averted,as BJP workers were diverted to Punjab. The cover for what was done was impeccable — there was Shyama Prasad Mookerjee’s example to invoke,and the more recent but unstated example of Murli Manohar Joshi (with Narendra Modi in tow) unfurling the Tricolour in the barren January cold of Srinagar two decades ago.

One of the striking things in Kashmir as you speak to ordinary people (and not just the Hartal Conference) is the immense goodwill that Atal Bihari Vajpayee enjoys there. His call to conduct dialogue in the ambit of “insaniyat” (or humanity) drew several people to him and his regime and he followed it up with a slew of small,medium and big actions,in defiance of the resistance he may have faced from within his party. But peace moves and the thaw that followed the unseemly “eyeball to eyeball” build-up at the India-Pakistan border truly ushered in a phase of calm and routine to the Valley. For instance,the decision to run a bus service between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar was a radical move that proved to be a winner. But now,in a bid to perhaps make a point to the RSS vanguard,the leaders of the BJP in Parliament,articulate and savvy,were forced to board buses to nowhere on a journey that did not make a point. If anything,it served as a dog whistle that not just the BJP faithful,but even those traditionally wary of the BJP,heard loud and clear.

“Nationalism” has been the most controversial of ideas to have bound people,and also

divided them at other times. The 20th century in Europe saw

“nationalism” become a edgy word from one World War to

another. There is an entire body of work on when nationalism emerged and to what extent it is tied to ethnic issues,ideas of a culture,geography or a shared past. In the case of countries like India that gained independence in the mid-20th century after the overthrow of colonial powers,however,it denoted a shared civic idea of coexistence,of living

together,bound with a shared history. The American and French Revolutions’ ideas of power,of sovereignty,being ultimately wrested in the hands of “the people” was given primacy as Indians began the preamble to the Constitution with “We the people”.

However,the principal opposition party,through its various avatars and finally,31 years ago,born as the BJP,has displayed a fundamental unease with the idea of several coexisting as “one”. “Oneness” was prone to be interpreted as a fuzzy or woolly idea that no one fully appreciated,till of course the Gujarat riots of 2002 managed to push its politics outside the state. That forced the BJP to once again not push for a unitary or uniform interpretation of unity,if only for the sake of blunting an edge the Congress-led coalition seemed to have gained — that a significant section of the electorate would vote for them for no other reason than simply not voting for the BJP.

BJP leaders also admit privately to how gleefully they look forward to the diminishing of the Left’s strength in the forthcoming state elections in West Bengal and Kerala,so that nothing would stand between them and mopping up the votes of those angry with the Congress.

But all of that is premised on the ability of the BJP to emerge as a party that is actually not secretly obsessed with ideas of exclusivity,silently yearning to work on the three issues it had earlier pushed on the backburner (a Ram temple at Ayodhya,ending the special status of Jammu and Kashmir,and enforcing a uniform civil code). It is important for it to be able to connect to contemporary issues; to at least appear distant from its earlier image of just standing for “cultural nationalism”; or taking the “threat to internal security” to mean “Indian Muslims are jihadis”. It may not be a very clever idea to just respell old slogans — like Jai Shri Ram as Bharat Mata ki Jai. It won’t be a nationalist enough thing to do.

Indians deserve better.