The Hindu : BJP on the defensive, not apologetic

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

BJP on the defensive, not apologetic

By Kuldip Nayar

Tainted reputations and battered images cannot be repaired by mere slogans and rhetoric. ``India does not have to learn secularism from others'', says the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee. Brave words! But secularism is not about completing the full term or coalescing a majority in the Lok Sabha. Secularism means certain basic values, which do not brook communal bias or parochial attitude. You cannot talk about Hindutva and secularism in the same breath because mixing religion with politics is the antithesis of what secularism is all about.

The RSS-BJP apex meetings at the Prime Minister's residence is a pointer. A political body is discussing with a religion-oriented organisation to have a common approach on the happenings like the carnage in Gujarat. There is not even an adverse remark, much less action, against the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, who has come to epitomise all the evil in the State. Nor is there any criticism of terrorist groups like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which Mr. Modi used to try to exterminate the minority community in the State. Once again, what has come out of the meetings is the Sangh Parivar's obsession on how to advance its agenda - uniting Hindus through Hindutva.

However, one thing which the meetings have done is to obliterate the impression that the RSS and the BJP had different philosophies. Mr. Vajpayee exposed himself earlier at Goa. Now the BJP has again been found to be at the beck and call of the RSS, a Hindu fundamental organisation by any standard.

The Prime Minister should realise that since he has assumed power, the fabric of India has got asunder. Whether through an attempt to rewrite history or enacting the POTO to silence dissenters, the country has been exposed to communalism and authoritarianism. The minorities live in an atmosphere of insecurity and feel helpless.

In the last decade, from the time L.K. Advani led the rath yatra to the Gujarat happenings, there have been more killings in communal riots than in the 150 years of foreign rule. India will survive the Sangh Parivar. But what kind of country will it leave behind is too horrible even to imagine. The nation would have liked to hear from the Prime Minister on the progress made in the relief and rehabilitation work, something which he declared would be monitored by his office. From all accounts, it is apparent that the Modi Government is concentrating more on finding ``terrorists'' in the refugee camps than on helping the inmates to restart their lives. The stories told by the children who saw the horror with their own eyes are too horrifying to be even retold. The BJP is on the defensive, not apologetic.

The state machinery is so contaminated and its personnel so afraid of being impartial that there is very little effort to bring back normality. Gujarat bleeds even after two months. A peace march, headed by Mr. Modi, does not evoke confidence because he arouses anger. The Prime Minister has said again and again that Gujarat is a shame. What has he done to atone for the guilt? Mr. Modi is very much there and so is the VHP, his instrument. Mr. Vajpayee has repeatedly admonished the foreigners. They are not interfering but feeling appalled over the country which they have found more liberal and accommodative than many in the democratic Europe.

The BJP's faith in secularism will be judged from the confidence it instils in the minds of the minorities. Pluralism is not a matter of policy, it is a creed. This is what the Hindutva forces do not seem to appreciate!

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BJP on the defensive, not apologetic