Redefining BJP

The deliberations in the BJP are becoming murkier with each passing day. The knives are out and senior leaders are raising inconvenient questions. The party did not do as well as expected in the last polls and the PM-designate Advani offered to step down as leader of Opposition. This should not have come as a surprise since Advani had launched a personal campaign of vilification against PM Manmohan Singh calling him ‘weak’, ‘nikamma’ and accused him of having degraded the office as never before by taking commands from elsewhere (read Sonia Gandhi). However, he was persuaded to stay on till the organizational elections were over. The real reason seemed to be that there was no natural successor. Advani acted cleverly and appointed two persons considered close to him- Jaitley as Leader of the Opposition in the upper house and Sushma Swaraj as his deputy in the lower. It meant his continuing hold and appeasement of those wanting younger leaders to take charge to counter the emergence of Rahul and Varun Gandhis on the political horizon. This was resented by senior leaders like Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and their likes who felt that those responsible for the party’s poor showing were being rewarded. The target, Arun Jaitley, who was the chief campaigner, remained away enjoying the T 20 World Cup in London.

The opinions about BJP’s poor showing have predictably been varying. Those close to RSS feel that it happened because BJP strayed from the path of Hindutva. The senior leaders mentioned above felt that those who have never won an election (read, Jaitley) called the shots while sitting in Delhi. There were simmering voices criticising the way a negative and personal campaign was carried out by Advani and Modi, which put people off. There is yet another group, led by the party’s chief, which feels that BJP has not done badly at all with its hundred plus strength in Lok Sabha. The party spokespersons have reiterated its position that it would stick to the liberal, tolerant Hindutva as its core ideology.

There lies the problem. Most Hindus do not have a problem with Hindutva but with the brand followed by it. It is neither liberal nor tolerant. BJP has come to be identified with pulling down of Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, murderous attacks on Christian churches and missionaries in Orissa and Karnataka, moral policing resulting in assaults on women in Mangalore’s and courting couples on Valentine’s Day across the Hindi heartland. The little men and women owing allegiance to it have even tried to enforce dress codes. These acts are sometimes carried out by little known organizations which mushroom around polls and can be conveniently disowned. So Advani can condemn attacks on women, describe demolition of Babri Masjid as the saddest day of his life, praise Jinnah as a secularist and try to garner votes in the name of Hindutva at the same time. You dissociate yourself from Varun Gandhi’s communal comments and retain him as a candidate. Varun wins his seat but costs BJP many more.

To sum up, the BJP’s Hindutva has never been the tolerant, liberal, all-inclusive faith that Hindus have always prided themselves of and to which its spokespersons allude today. The party has actually brought the great faith into disrepute and disgrace by giving it a dimension akin to Islamic jihad. The trishuls distributed by it to all and sundry misrepresent the essence of Hinduism. Hinduism is all about conquering evil within ourselves. It is about freeing one of opposites in the form of pleasure and pain, success and failure, victory and defeat. It is about controlling our senses, overcoming worldly desires, managing anger lest it cause despair and loss of judgement leading to our ultimate ruin. It is about doing our karma or duty for the larger good of mankind in the name of God without worrying about results. Hinduism is a synonym of compassion and service to mankind. Let BJP return to its fold and see the difference it would make.