AS UMA BHARTI DONS TRICOLOUR…

 BJP Power Tussle Begins In Earnest

S K Pande

IT had to start some day and it has begun. A new phase has begun in the BJP and it can be characterised by two words –– succession struggle.  Shorn of any mask the questions: After Atal-Advani who? And after Atal- Advani what? Battles are being fought on the roads to seek the answers. It’s a hot war spearheaded by the RSS to prepare a new phase in the Hindutva parivar. It is also an attempt to feel the ground for some immediate assembly poll gains and with an eye on the future, the focus is of course on Maharashtra where it has a strong ally like Shiv Sena, indeed an equal match in raising emotive issues. The RSS is now the total supreme-cum-monitor in operation salvage. In the backdrop is the defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, from which the BJP is still shell shocked while astrologers give it quiet hopes.

The façade of unity show in Delhi on September 27 clearly showed that the battle may be over but war could begin any time. At a party function on September 28, the Indian Express picture shows the glum faces of Advani and Venkaiah as Uma Bharti looks on. As the Express report put it “The BJP top brass attempted a unity show but ended up subtly settling scores.” Ripples are being heard in Madhya Pradesh too. It is the chief minister Gaur fighting the ghosts of Uma but finally decides to become a Vikas Purush after getting rid of many Uma appointees. In fact, an Uma influence-killing operation has begun in the state.

The launching by the RSS of two of its known women faces in different areas and with Uma Bharti being given first preference has already had its echoes in the BJP leadership with the party president Venkaiah Naidu clearly not too happy. Reports of the tiff between Naidu and Uma were splashed in the media. After the initial euphoria of round one to project Uma, in round two, it was Sushma, following a meeting of the BJP Mahila Morcha.

ONEUPMANSHIP

Consider the facts, the BJP MPs made a beeline for Andaman with Advani having fired his salvo not overruling the contention that a new leader may be there for the next election. Uma Bharti is angry that more official backing is being given for Sushma Swaraj's yatra.  Look at the record. On September 21, it was Sushma in the lead with 150 leaders courting arrest.  Also note that around 100 MPs and quite a few MLAs joined the protest against removal of the Savarkar plaque.  

A question being raised these days is why did Uma Bharti wait till the end to submit her resignation as Madhya Pradesh chief minister even after knowing that there was little scope for getting relief from the courts. In fact, why did she become the CM in the first place when a non-bailable warrant was pending against her?  Secondly, the case has been raised in no less a forum than parliament.  After all, it was the judiciary which had issued the non-bailable warrant and had allowed the withdrawal of two cases of serious nature.  The obvious answer: the BJP did not believe in the rule of law. It is only interested in enacting political dramas.

The sangh parivar’s claim of being true patriots, nationalists and genuine secularists has been busted time and often. It is in this context that the current tiranga yatra of Uma Bharti or the yatra undertaken by Sushma Swaraj, has to be seen.  But the key question is when did the BJP’s heart start beating for the national tricolour?  Was it ever more important than the bhagwa (saffron) flag? A flashback: Sangh’s true agenda was there from the word go when Hedgewar established the RSS in 1925.  This was because he did not accept the composite culture of the national movement.  His successor, Guru Golwalkar went a step further with the theory that one race constituted the nation. In what was the RSS bible "We, Our Nationhood Defined” written before the 1940s, there was the clear admiration for Hitler's race pride and extermination of the Jews.  As he put it, Germany has shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by.

HITLERIAN LEGACY

The RSS philosophy is deeply tied together in a Hitler-like concept of a pure race.  Not surprisingly, the true "race" in India is identified as that of the Aryans, who are presumed to have contributed all that is great in our culture and civilisation.  The RSS ideologues have always given a racial overtone to the name Aryavarta, taking it to mean not ‘the noble land’, but ‘the land of the Aryas’.

Look at some of the recent stratagems.  The first is alleging insult to Veer Savarkar on which parliament is blocked. In fact, a booklet is out called Swatantra Veer Savarkar, a byword for valour and patriotism.  To begin with, the tricolour controversy is the key weapon. Then comes the controversy on the census.  Followed up by the BJP committee on ‘demographic invasion’ or infiltration by the aliens.  The committee is composed of Murli Manohar Joshi, former HRD minister, Arun Shourie, Sushil Kumar Modi, Tathagata Roy, president of West Bengal BJP and Indramani Bora, head of the Assam unit.  The BJP’s hopes of returning to power in the very near future are based primarily on the astrologer known to guide them.  As Advani said “though the BJP has got the mandate to sit in the opposition for 5 years, I feel this government won't let us stay in the opposition for long.”

It should again be noted that none other than the former BJP prime minister apologised to the British government and “Veer “Savarkar who the RSS honours has a not too glorious chapter in the cellular jail. In any case, it has been pointed out in the Indian Express the way Savarkar has been honoured is an insult to unsung prisoners from states like Bengal.  As it has been rightly put by writer Manini Chatterjee - the real Kaalapani story is yet to come.  In fact ‘the real heroes and martyrs’ have once again been denied their place in history.  It was the BJP’s stratagem to make people forget the struggle by wiping out the real heroes and projecting Savarkar as the hero. It is reviving the controversy again as elections to the Maharashtra Assembly are there.

One need not take the saying that there is many a slip between the cup and lip too lightly as far as the RSS combine is concerned.  Small wonder that the RSS one time ideologue Govindacharya had once bluntly called Atal Behari Vajpayee a ‘mask’.  Indeed, he was a mask in that he could be liberal in the morning, vacillating in the afternoon and a hawk on diktats from the RSS in the night.  Similarly, in the road to power for the RSS, the BJP is merely one of the tools, the parivar juniors being the others.

In the present scenario also to be borne in mind are certain historical truisms. Look at the current goings on and they fit like a glove. First it was parliament disruption. Next, blocking the  debate on the President's address to the newly elected Lok Sabha and  passing of the budget without any debate. The planned projection of Uma today is just a continuum. The follow up projection of Sushma tells part of the story. And what a section of the press calls the  patch-up is itself a story.

But look at the Uma episode in some detail. Her crime, now overlooked by the court, related to deliberately creating a law and order situation at Hubli in 1994.  She was charged with rioting and attempted murder.  Was it out of sheer patriotic feelings she wanted to hoist the national flag on the Idgah?  No! It is a smokescreen for spreading hatred  in the hunt for Ayodhya type issues. It is also a continuum of yatras from Advani’s rath, to Joshi’s follow-up and now Uma’s followed by Sushma’s. One has never heard of the hoisting the  tricolour on the RSS headquarters in Nagpur or even, in Delhi’s Jhandewalan or in other offices of the RSS. It is because, its primary loyalty is with "Bhagva Dhwaj"(Saffron Flag).

Whom is the RSS trying to hoodwink.?  The minority hate campaign by the saffron brigade is with a clear eye in the oncoming election in Maharashtra. . Add to it all the whipping up of  frenzy on the census  figures. Meanwhile, behind the scenes the battle for the BJP crown has begun in earnest. But when Uma strikes, Sushma is also not far behind and Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitly, Venkaiah Naidu and Modi too have their dreams.

But from the country’s point of view there are ominous pointers. Another chapter from Hitler’s Germany is being enacted piece by piece. Extra parliamentary and extra constitutional means are adopted by fascists as a preferred method. It is supplemented by heavy infiltration in education, police, information, home and other key departments. Babri Masjid was not demolished constitutionally, nor was the Gujarat Genocide laced with constitutional covers.

THE LAST TANGOES

Listen to the words of BJP president Venkaiah “We have many leaders  - Arun Jaitley, Arun Shourie, Pramod Mahajan, Narendra Modi, Sushma Swaraj, Uma Bharati, Babulal Marandi, Karia Munda – we are developing everybody, we are encouraging all our second-rung leaders”.

Before reaching Delhi for the patch-up bid, Uma Bharti had this to say: “After a brief period of meditation, I will return and conduct a 'parikrama' of the entire nation with the firm resolve of making India the numero uno country in the world,” And Advani has had the last word for her: Sanyas from politics no. Parikrama Yes. That is the limit as of now. (INN)