Neena Vyas on the Communal Game of BJP

Secular India is being rudely awakened by the loud blowing of cone-shells by the growing number of Hindu militants slowly but surely inching their way to the temple of power in New Delhi. In a space of little more than a decade the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has put Hindustan on the political agenda of the country when earlier for nearly three decades, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the precursor of the BJP, only remained on the fringes of the political system.

“The vote bank politics ruthlessly and cynically exploited by the major political force, the Congress (D; is taking its toll, and even as the old caste divisions in Hindu society blur with increasing urbanization and industrialization, the communal divide may grow into a frightening chasm, helped (on by the Khalistanis in Punjab and the vociferous demand for independence in the only Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir.

For more than four decades the BJP, and the Jana Sangh before it, have remained in the Opposition, barring a short stint as a component of the Janata Party between 1977 and 1979. Like predators on the prowl, the cadre and the leadership are now getting restive for the big kill absolute majority at the Center and the absolute power that goes with it

“More than one-fifths of India is already saffron, the BJP  having Won 119 seats in a Lok Sabha Of 543 elected members in the May June elections this year. And the arty was able to establish governments in four States in the north, including the most populous and he politically most significant one of Uttar Pradesh which sends 85 members to the Lok Sabha There is no doubt that next time the BJP will make an all-out bid to capture power at the Center.

For more than three decades, between 1952, when the first general elections were held, and 1984, when the ballots were cast for the Eighth Lok Sabha, the vote for the Hindu plank of the Jana Sangh and the BIP remained well below 10% rising from a mere 3.1.9 in 1952 10 7.4% in 1984, There seems to be no doubt that it was the Ayodhya campaign unleashed by the opening of the located gates of the Babari Masjid in Febniary,1986.to Hindu ship inside the very heart of the masjid, that brought about a complete change in the fortunes of the party.

L.K. Advani, the shrewd BJP politician cut in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) mould, did not fail 10 exploit the “communalism of the Congress to given his own party a secular gloss. The Congress effort under Gandhi to have its secular cake and eat the communal one gave the opportunity to the BJP, and Advani did not miss it. It was the Congress which tried simultaneously to play the Muslim card and the Hindu card, and the card sharper was badly caught.. The Congress used Parliament to overturn the Supreme Court verdict in the Shah Bano case to please “Muslim fundamentalist consistency. And the court verdict opening the Babari Masjid gate Hindu worship of “Ram Tala whose idol had been placed inside ne mosque surreptitiously in December,1949 was perhaps a calculated. To please the Hindu mistituency, and the openly communal move was strengthened   the Congress virtually connived and helped the shilanyas” ceremony outside the Babari Masjid precincts just before the 1989 elections

But by then the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the BJP had unleashed their Ayodhya campaign, and the electoral result was there for all to see. In 1989 the Congress notched an all-time electoral low, barring 1977. The same election witnessed the BJP crossing when double-digit mark with 11.4%, soaring t0 a new landmark in 1991 when the Ayodhya issue was made the focus of the party strategy after Advanis Rath yatra from Somnath.

Will the BJP carry its 1991 election promise of mandi wahin banayenge(the temple will be built there) to its logical conclusion and present the nation with a faith accompli.

 The BPs Ayodhya actions, however, must be seen in the larger context of its overall political ambitions. Several important questions seem to be looming large before the BJP leadership. Has the party already exploited the full potential of the communal Hind vote? Will continued strident du militancy prove counterproductive in an already over hanged political climate of terrorism and violence, seriously threatening the country’s integrity and unity? Should it diver a little rom the Hindutva path to gather in the stragglers and the not-so firm believers?

At the Thiruvananthapuram meet the party evolved a clever politic strategy that would help it move to a wider nationalist platform without giving up its “Hindu stance. It will be tested on the ground through yet another yatra. This time it will be a larger nationalist issue of danger to the country, and the “yatra” will encompass the entire country, from Kanya kumari to Srinagar.

The Ayodhya issue must be kept alive and the saffron constituency must be consolidated let the others fight for the narrow minority platform-but at the same time the BJP base must necessarily be widened. The BJP is the only nationalist party which has leadership strong enough fight anti-national forces. This seems to be then new line. And “Hindutva is to be retained as the cultural bound that will hold the nation together.

If by focusing on the Ayodhya issue it was able to exploit the popularity of the Ramayana to present Rama as the symbol of a resurgent Hindu India, the party may well…move on t0…the Mahabharata, the strong of the exited Pandavas (the BJP?) going into political battle, a dharma yudha with the Kaurvas (the pseudo-secularist” parties?) for the rightful inheritance.

In Thiruvananthapuram the BJP chose to debate and clarify its and   the major national issues   the react to the country’s unity from terrorism and separatism, the reservation, policy, and last but not the least, the treat to the country’s economic independence from the growing external and internal debts.

“The BJP will now fight hard to occupy the nationalist political platform, and it’s *Hindu face will be more and more presented with a nationalist mask. The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act is to be fought because it is discriminatory. The nationalist BJP will stridently demand uniform civil code for all.

More and more the strident Hind campaign will perhaps be left to the VHP and the Bajrang Dal and the Durga Vahini, The BJP will reap the political harvest from their activities.

(Source: The Frontline, Oct.27Nov.8, 1991)

Article extracted from this publication >> March 6, 1992