Far away from Delhi,yoga guru Baba Ramdev has ended his fast and now he must exercise all his expertise to hold his breath for a future that may no longer be smooth. But he is a yogi and has not much to lose. He,after all,did not create a situation that resulted in dramatic stupidities which plunged our polity into a remarkable low. The government at the Centre,with all its talent and brains trust,seemed to be in a state of disarray when it was expected to be the most active. And the opposition BJP shrank its initiative to settle for a piggy-back and extended support to non-political entities for purely political causes. The BJP has thoroughly marginalised itself by aligning with the Babas and Annas. It must ponder why a cause it had vociferously raised lost its appeal and became a peoples movement when taken up by yogis and activists of civil society. This is a new India,a new generation. People want a transparent system,a dynamic political leadership and effective governance that is capable of meeting the challenges of our times. So far,Manmohan Singhs government has been a disaster in the second term. But the BJP,the main opposition party,has been a bigger disaster. In Parliament,it has failed to act as an effective opposition party; outside Parliament,it has been indulging in the politics of negativism. It is mainly the BJP that is responsible for creating a political vacuum that is now being filled by the Annas,Babas and NGOs.
Today,it has been diminished to a level of just extending support to the movement led by civil society and sanyasis. It has no alternative programme to offer.
The Anna-Baba movement against corruption clearly reflects the failure of our political parties. Anna Hazare,Baba Ramdev and others have picked up an issue that has been hurting the common people for a long time. The BJP did raise the issue in Parliament and boycotted it for a full session. But since no serious effort has been made to address corruption,people are impatient with the political system and political parties. Urban populations in particular have developed a contempt for politicians.
Meanwhile,political parties seem to be in a time-warp. They are still engaged in the politics and political philosophy of the past. The BJP is no different. It doesnt learn or like to learn. When the nation is debating the present situation,no one seems to bother where the countrys opposition party is. Over the years,instead of expanding its leadership and its ideological horizon,there has been a narrowing. People are desperate for a modern,secular political alternative. The BJP must come out of its conservative,religion-inclined cocoon if it wants to own the future. The states role is fundamentally governance and it has nothing to do with religion. Hinduism,in its history of almost five millennia,with a few rare exceptions of no consequences,never persecuted other religions and other people. Its a religion of tolerance and debate. India is a great civilisation and its single biggest achievement was the adoption of parliamentary democracy after Independence when it faced the biggest onslaught in the name of religion. When undemocratic and autocratic regimes and systems are crumbling in Arab countries,and old democracies like America and Europe are facing new challenges,India is looked at as the future of democracy.
The Anna-Baba movement should be a turning point for the BJP. It must learn from its past and come out of its negative mode,widen its canvas and junk its narrow thinking. There is no place for the politics of hate and exclusivism. India is in dire need of political visionaries like Vajpayee,a leader with a sense of the future. The BJP must realise that it came to power only after it abandoned its narrow political agenda and agreed to a common programme with smaller parties. This is the time for it to turn itself into a modern,secular,democratic party that is open to all.
The writer is a journalist with the BBC. Views are personal
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