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BJP Between Phobias and Hypes
Bhartiya Janata Party and Opposition leader in the Lok Sabha Mr. L. K. Advani are hell bent on stooping to any low in reviving the fortunes of the party and exorcising the ghost of Jinnah. ‘India Shining’ having proved ineffective in delivering them a fresh mandate, they are back to their old game of raising the bogey of ‘Muslim appeasement’. Their self-sought eviction from power six months ahead of the due, seems to have skewed their vision completely out of the logical axis that a party having wielded power is expected to maintain. Hawks seem to be gaining control of the rudderless party. Raucous cries of Muslim appeasement are once again being mouthed thoughtlessly. With Uma Bharti and Madan Lal Khurana having raised the banner of revolt against the top clique, the party seems to be neck deep in power struggle, ideological confusion confounds the cadres even more. It has been able to mount no ideological offensive against the Manmohan Singh Government. The party is clearly showing signs of being a prisoner of the past and hostage of the old mindset.
The terrorist bombing at Varanasi gave them the much needed trigger to trundle out on a fresh campaign christened as ‘Suraksha Yatra’. Terrorism is admittedly the worst curse the country may be suffering from. But BJP has more to answer on this score than anyone else. The terrorist who launched an attack on the makeshift structure in Ayodhya were a miniscule group trying to re-enact what happened on December 6, 1992 when the Babri Masjid was demolished in broad daylight by the ‘karsevaks’ in front of the media glare in open defiance of the Supreme Court, the Parliament and the National Integration Council. Fifteen years later, the culpability of the crime is yet to be fixed and cases are still pending before the various courts. Terrorism has to be condemned as much as the challenge, the forces of darkness pose to the Constitution and the law and order in the country.
The party that now happily flaunts the ‘national security’, owes an answer as to why terrorist Masood Azhar and five others had to be carried by an Indian aircraft to Kandahar by former Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh to be handed over to the fundamentalist Taliban Government. The Indian State never capitulated more miserably and dignity of the Indian nation was never compromised more shamefully any time previously.
Justice Sachar Committee’s subtle enquiries regarding Muslim representation in the Defence forces gave the BJP enough ammunition to target its guns against the current dispensation at the Centre. But why is it that the Rajasthan Government’s headcount of Muslims in various departments is being ignored? How could the party apply two different yardsticks for the same act executed by the Central and State governments?
Bangladeshi bugbear has also been the refrain of the yatra. One is surprised over the lack of embarrassment by the cohorts of the Hindutva brigade in quoting figures of three crore Bangladeshis having infiltrated into the country. If six years of BJP and NDA’s rule could not identify more than a handful of Bangladeshis, the charge of three crore of them being present on Indian soil should be surely insulting for the Indian security forces maintaining vigil at the borders. The fact that the Vajpayee Government had no gumption to annul the IMDT Act is in itself a proof that the Government lacked the will and vision to detect foreigners. Or was it interested in tapping the political benefit from the issue at the hustings later.
The BJP defies the chastening impact the defeat in 2004 should have spawned. If Gujarat 2002 helped Modi to romp home, it proved the nemesis for the Vajpayee Government. One could understand the party’s compulsions in demonisation of the minorities, but it could be dangerous if the party becomes a hostage of the “Muslim-phobia” or even begins to believe the “India Shining” hype. India has changed drastically since 1990s. Phobias or hypes are less likely to pay handsome dividends.
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