BJP must disown CD, mindset behind it

They were probably tempted to make this choice in the name of correcting the “ideological deviations” that the party’s leadership was allegedly guilty of in the recent past. But were they aware of the wounding legal consequences of doing so?

Reassuringly, the official BJP has made the latter choice by quickly disowning the CD. However, going beyond withdrawing the offensive CD, it must also disown the mindset that has produced it.

This is the only morally right, constitutionally defensible, ideologically consistent and also, in the long term, politically beneficial choice for the BJP. With the UPA government’s longevity in question and political winds beginning to blow once again in the direction of a BJP-led coalition, its leaders should know that too much is at stake for them.

But what an unavoidable and discreditable controversy it has pushed itself into! Here is a state, India’s most populous, which is longing to be liberated from the politics of caste and communal divisiveness, rampant criminalisation and corruption, and prolonged socio-economic stagnation. The BJP, after its much-praised performance for six years at the Centre under Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s leadership, has an opportunity to project its alternative development vision for Uttar Pradesh and its commitment to good governance. Sadly, right in the middle of the election process, the CD episode has bogged the party down in a muddle of its own making that has dented its reputation as a mature and responsible political party.

The move to get the BJP derecognised on this count is undoubtedly malicious. The Election Commission will hopefully not fall pray to this adventurism. But once the curtains are drawn over this unseemly episode, the party’s leadership should ask itself: “Who is making the choice on our behalf? And why?”

Of all the political parties, the BJP faces a unique problem vis-à-vis Muslim voter. They tend to vote strategically to ensure the defeat of its candidates in any election. This is because of an entrenched divide between the party and India’s Muslim community, for which both and one more entity — BJP’s political adversaries — are responsible. Its adversaries have a vested interest in incessantly attacking the BJP as an anti-Muslim party. Keeping Muslim voters away from the BJP is often a winning electoral strategy for them.

The BJP has countered this strategy by steadily expanding its support base both socially — among various castes and sub-castes of the Hindu community — and geographically. In doing so, it has vigorously campaigned against the Congress-Communist combine’s politics of “minorityism”, a label that describes unjustifiable attempts to appease Muslim orthodoxy and separatism for vote-bank considerations. There is nothing intrinsically undemocratic or communal about this campaign. Indeed, there is ample evidence to show that “minorityism” has neither helped Indian Muslims nor promoted India’s unity, integrity, security and development.

However, while adopting this approach the party’s top leaders — from Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya during the Jana Sangh era to Vajpayee and L.K. Advani during the BJP era — have scrupulously avoided targeting the Muslim community as a whole. In fact, they have taken pains to explain that the BJP believes in “Justice for all and appeasement of none.”

In this context, mention must be made of two notable outcomes of the NDA rule. Firstly, minus the tragic exception of Gujarat carnage, it dispelled many Muslim apprehensions about what might happen to them if the BJP came to power at the Centre. Secondly, it reinforced the conviction of the party’s top leaders that, even if Muslims continued to vote against the BJP, their welfare as well as their legitimate concerns, must be addressed by the government in a just and non-discriminatory manner.

I recall a chintan baithak of the BJP in Mumbai in June 2003, at which both Vajpayee and Advani emphasised that the vision of India’s accelerated and harmonious development cannot be realised by ignoring Muslims, who form a sizeable section of our population.

Thus, the controversial CD marks a clear departure from the BJP’s traditional sound approach towards Indian Muslims. It stigmatises the entire Muslim community for terrorism, cow slaughter etc. Such inflammatory propaganda runs afoul not only of the law of the land but, ironically, also of what the greatest ideologue of the RSS has said on this matter. “It is not right to hold the entire (Muslim) community responsible for the guilt of some people.” (‘Guruji’ Golwalkar, in an interview to Khushwant Singh; The Illustrated Weekly of India, November 17 1972.) The Sangh Parivar, which has just concluded Golwalkar’s birth centenary celebrations, would do well to introspect on the CD episode, inter alia, by recalling his wise words.