Commentary/Fuzail Jafferey

BJP will have to toe Vajpayee secular line to gain power

The Bharatiya Janata Party is neither down nor out, as wishfully claimed by some of its detractors belonging to the Left Front and the United Front. It is seriously gearing up for the midterm Lok Sabha elections, which can be forced upon the country anytime by the overambitious and power-hungry Congress party members, who cannot stay alive for long without perks and privileges.

However, there is no doubt that the BJP leadership is worried and disturbed over certain developments which have been unpleasant as well as unexpected from the party's point of view. Since June 1996, the BJP has had to face more challenges than it could throw to others. For the past nine months, the party has not only suffered the pain of being the single largest party without political power in Delhi and Lucknow, but has also helplessly watched the fall of its citadel in Gujarat to its friends-turned-foes. No amount of persuasion or persecution could stop Gujarat from slipping out of the BJP's hands.

The recently-concluded four-day brain storming session held in Virar -- a far-flung suburb north of Bombay -- is express proof of the fact that the BJP is in an introspective mood. It has started a serious soul-searching exercise, the results of which may finally lead the party to the desired and longterm electoral supremacy over its opponents.

One feels sorry for the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is so near power and yet fails so often to form a government. Why is it so? There are various reasons, but chief among them is that the BJP is not an individual party. It owes its parentage to the Nagpur-based Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The latter, though it claims to have nothing to do with electoral politics, continues to participate actively in the policy-making process of the BJP. Since the Nagpur bosses do not see eye to eye with some of the BJP stalwarts, they often compel them to take decisions which are not only unprogressive and unpragmatic, but also damage the party's interests.

Besides, in recent years, the Sangh's other front organisations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal have greatly harmed the BJP by their words and deeds. Their aggressive brand of Hindutva is solely responsible for alienating the Muslims and many other significant sections of society from the BJP. Moderate, liberal, highly enlightened, and centrist leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Jaswant Singh seem to be at a loss to in trying to understand how to tackle and tame these so-called allies.

VHP chief Ashok Singhal's robust claim that 15 per cent Indian Muslims do not carry any political weight has proved utterly wrong. But for the massive support of Muslims, Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party would not have been able to bag as many as 112 seats in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and consequently stop the BJP from forming the government in Uttar Pradesh.

The country has not forgotten the remarkable magnanimity of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who after assuming the prime minister's office, lost no time in declaring that his government would put contentious issues like the uniform civil code, Article 370, and the construction of Ram temple on the backburner. Most of the political commentators known for their pro-BJP stance are now convinced that the BJP must adopt the Vajpayee line if the party wants to rule the country.

It has been rightly suggested that the contributions of Indian Muslims in the spheres of art, architecture, music, and literature should be recognised and appreciated instead of being ignored and sidetracked. Similarly, Urdu, which is the product of the Indian soil and which belongs to the Indo-Aryan group of languages, should be accorded due importance on the linguistic map of the country.

According to Hindutva ideologue Sudheendra Kulkarni, Muslims have never denied the importance of non-Islamic cultural heritage of India. But when they see that Hindus, specifically those belonging to the BJP stream, do not share their pride in their cultural contribution, they are bound to feel hurt and consider the BJP as anti-Muslim. In short, secularism, that is the separation of religion from politics is the only long-term solution to the problems of a multilingual, multiethnic, and multireligious society like ours.

There is no doubt that certain sections of the BJP favour the exclusion of religion from public life but unfortunately, such sections are still in a minority. They are overwhelmed by the leaders who continue to harp on the concept of 'Hindu rashtra' (nation) without realising that the cultural, historical and geopolitical realities of the country would never make the Indian masses accept the Hindutva as espoused by the VHP and the Bajrang Dal. Time and again the Indian voter has shunned extremist politics. In future too, he would not tolerate the intolerance of diversity and pluralism which are the hallmarks of Indian society.

If America and Japan have made tremendous all-round progress, it is not because of their adherence to Christianity and Buddhism but only because they do not allow religion to interfere with other domains of life. Even China has now abandoned the religious fervour of Maoism and allowed Confucian principles to shape its nation character as and when required. According to a World Bank survey, China may have the world's largest economy in two decades time.

It is rather unfortunate that despite its ground level efficiency, the BJP continues to be confused about its economic policies. To say that the MNCs are welcome but they should not be allowed to enter the consumer sector and the RSS's recent emphasis on swadeshi (literally, the country) is not an acceptable proposition to the global community. India cannot dictate to foreign investors who can always find better and more friendly avenues for investment.

To sum up, the Bharatiya Janata Party has to do a lot of rethinking before the next general elections. It is now up to the BJP leadership to decide whether it has to play the role of a national mainstream party or it wants to remain within the Lakshman Rekha drawn by the RSS.

A very vast majority of Indian voters belonging to all communities, who are fed up with the Congress and do not wish to give the party another chance to bring fresh round of destruction to the Indian polity and who are equally tired of the opportunistic politicians who come together only to part company within a year or so, are now looking forward to the BJP to come out with clear-cut and concrete programmes which will capture the imagination of the masses, who then can give the party a decisive mandate to govern the country.