People's Democracy

AT a time when no pre-poll survey in Uttar Pradesh is prepared to give the BJP more than 120-odd seats in an assembly of 403, the party’s desperation is understandable. More so because its defeat in UP, the biggest state in India, is sure to set the stage for its downfall in the country.

This comes on top of the fact that the five-year stint of the BJP rule in the state, with the help of some six dozen opportunist defectors including known criminals, has nothing to boast about. Not to talk of the unprecedented misery of the common man in the state, even his life and property are not safe under the BJP rule. Criminals have been playing their dance of death even in the state capital, what to talk of small towns and villages where the law and order machinery is conspicuous by its absence.

It is in such a situation that the VHP, an outfit of the saffron brigade, has taken out its so-called Sant Chetavani Yatra from Ayodhya. The yatra, carrying the BJP’s poll symbol and raising slogans in its support, is to end in Delhi on January 26.

Going by the extremely poor response the yatra has so far elicited, it will not be wrong to conclude that even this latest gimmick of the brigade is not going to fool the masses in the state. It appears the people of UP have made up their mind about giving a severe drubbing to the BJP in the polls, in order to avenge the wrongs done to them in the last five years.

But, then, devoid of anything positive to present before the people, this was indeed the last option with the ruling party. The latter tried its best to exploit the issue of terrorism and rouse jingoistic feelings against Pakistan for electoral purposes, more so after the December 13 attack on Indian parliament, but to no avail. In this situation that the brigade is seeking to resurrect the temple issue as its only hope in the state. The yatra is thus a pointer to the nervousness that has gripped the brigade and the BJP.

On its part, and characteristic to it, the BJP has adopted a devious stand vis-à-vis the yatra. Officially, it is not associating with the VHP-Bajrang Dal yatra. But it has given its leaders and members of parliament freedom to take part in it. This is by no means a new tactic; the BJP has played the same game in the past. As The Hindu editorial commented on January 23:

"It is difficult to take this stated position at face value simply because the BJP as a party is known to have adopted the same strategy --- to wait for the passions to be worked up and step in just at the appropriate moment to gain from that --- even in the past. Apart from this, the BJP is certainly not an independent outfit but a close associate of the RSS just like the VHP and the Bajrang Dal. This was borne out so clearly in the build-up to the Ayodhya campaign since 1986; after having watched the VHP and the other Sangh Parivar groups build up passion, the BJP joined the campaign in a direct manner only after the Palanpur session. The rathyatra conducted by L K Advani provoking communal violence across the country in 1990 was only a part of this strategy."

It is thus clear that the BJP’s duplicity cannot fool any sane person in the country, except perhaps its allies in the NDA who are sticking to it just for the sake of power and pelf.

The BJP’s duplicity vis-à-vis its NDA partners started the very day the NDA was formed in March 1998, purely for the sake of power. In order to rope in other parties, the BJP agreed to keep three contentious issues out of the National Agenda For Governance; these were the issues of temple construction, common civil code, and article 370. But the history of the last four-odd years is also the history of the BJP’s duplicity. Soon after the adoption of the said agenda, Advani publicly said the BJP has not given up but simply "postponed" these issues for want of a majority of its own.

As for Vajpayee, assiduously projected by the corporate media as a "moderate" in a party of hawks, he also did his best to appease the hawks. While in New York, he declared that he was a swayamsevak first and a prime minister later. Then, while in Kumarakom in Kerala, he "mused" that construction of a temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya was an unfulfilled "national aspiration." It was the same ‘moderate’ Vajpayee who had suggested the need of "a national debate" on conversions when taking drastic actions against those launching attacks on the minuscule Christian community was the need of the hour.

And then came the so-called Sant Samagam organised by the VHP in January-February 2001, on the occasion of the Kumbh Mela. A Kumbh is a very sacred occasion for devout Hindus, who are by and large secular and have respect for other religions, but the VHP did not feel shy of misusing the Kumbh for its communal game. This VHP jamboree at Allahabad came out with a "warning" for the Vajpayee government that it must clear the decks for the temple construction by February 12, 2002, failing which the VHP would start construction work on its own.

Vajpayee’s reaction to this "warning" was most shameful, to say the least. Vajpayee did not issue any warning to the hawks against taking the law into their hands, as could be expected from any head of government. Instead, he simply assured them that a solution to the Ayodhya dispute would be evolved by March 2002. This was a piece of plain deception. The fact is that the Ayodhya dispute can be solved only by negotiations with the Muslim community or, failing that, by a court verdict. But Vajpayee did not inform as to who was negotiating with whom, nor did any Muslim organisation say that it was invited for a dialogue. On the other hand, the government did not do anything to expedite the court proceedings. As for a resolution of the dispute through a court verdict, in a mockery of the legal process, the VHP has already declared that it would abide by a court verdict only if it is in its favour. And Advani too has said that the issue of a temple involves the "sentiments of the Hindu community" (read: of the saffron brigade) and therefore no court verdict can decide it.

It was thus clear from the beginning that the temple issue has always been a narrow electoral issue for the BJP, on the basis of which it can hope to garner votes. The deadline of February 12, 2002, given by Sant Samagam to the Vajpayee government, and the prime minister’s talk about evolving a solution by March 2002, were clear-cut indicators in this regard, as it was very clear that the UP elections would have taken place by that time.

In the meantime, the VHP played another incendiary game and some of its leaders forcibly entered the disputed area in violation of all the prohibitions in place, with the connivance of the Faizabad district administration. But the most shameful part of the story was that our union home minister gave a clean chit to these VHP leaders, saying they had not violated any law.

And now comes another proof of the BJP’s tacit involvement in the VHP game, that is, if any proof is needed at all. Showing that he cares a hoot for the court orders, Rajnath Singh, the BJP chief minister of UP, has said that "the security set-up in Ayodhya would be recast soon so that the devotees can pay obeisance to Ram Lalla without any hindrance" (The Indian Express, January 22.) It is not a bit surprising that, as a proof of the careful planning, the latest VHP yatra reached Haidergarh, the constituency from where Rajnath Singh is contesting, exactly at the time he was addressing a public rally on January 21 afternoon after filing his nomination papers.

Official disclaimers apart, if this is not a proof of the BJP’s connivance with the VHP’s communal game plan, then what else it is?

In the meantime, a desperate BJP has also been adopting other heinous methods to try win the race in UP. Rajnath Singh has surpassed all records so far in playing the casteist game in the state. He also sought to divide the backward castes by announcing certain sops for the "most backward" among them (a new categorisation); it is another matter that the Supreme Court has put its foot down on his game.

But the worst of all was the way the BJP men tampered with the voter lists in certain constituencies in UP. In Thakurdwara constituency in Rampur district, names of more than 17,000 Muslim voters were deleted and over 27,000 fake Hindu voters were added. The same was repeated in Ayodhya constituency with the help of the district administration; here one single house was found to be housing as many as 1,761 voters! There are reasons to believe that, apart from these two cases that have come to light, voter lists may have been tampered in some other constituencies as well.

Going by the indications available so far, it is very clear that the RSS-BJP-VHP game plan is not going to succeed in the state. The lok Morcha led by the Samajwadi Party is going to give the BJP a run for its money. But the danger is that if this game is not effectively countered, it may seriously harm our national unity and the interests of the country. The issue cannot certainly be left to spontaneity. The communal combine is out to sow divisions and distrust among the people and, if it succeeds, it will cripple the nation’s future for a long time to come. This is the dire warning the present situation gives.

But the BJP’s allies in NDA have also to learn a lesson from the history of the last four-odd years. In this period, by its deeds, the BJP has amply demonstrated that not the NDA but the BJP is the real ruler of the country. So far the allies have been only at the receiving end. An example is that of Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan who were shunted to other ministries against their wishes but failed to register even a whimpering protest.

However, something much more important than ministries --- our very national unity --- is at stake here. The BJP’s allies cannot have the solace that the BJP is abiding by their agenda. Commenting on the latest VHP gimmick, The Hindu said it is "one more instance where the partners in the NDA will be hard put to explain their continued association with the BJP. The claim that they were a part of the NDA only because the BJP had agreed to give up its majoritarian agenda cannot hold even after this."

But the way the allies are behaving is causing a lot of concern to the people. They still appear to be oblivious to the threats our national unity, our secular edifice, our federal structure and our people’s life standard are facing under the BJP rule. The National Democratic Alliance is fast running on an anti-national, anti-democratic course and it is upto the allies to decide whether they want to share the ignominy this course promises.