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I have just returned from a month's stay In India. This analysis
is based not only on a study of the BJP's programme and meetings
with its leading lights, but also with the man in the street, the
Intellectual and the professional from various caste, social and
political backgrounds. It is necessary to add, particularly in the
light of frequent charges of religious bigotry against the BJP,
that I am, myself, a Christian from South India.
The BJP is growing in popularity. The figures expressed In voting
terms nationally in central and state elections, and Its control of
several large states speak for themselves. This trend however runs
counter to the Infamous misrepresentation of the BJP as a party
hell bent on Rama Rajya (Hindu Dominance), supported mainly by
"fanatical Hindus Imitating fundamentalist tendencies" elsewhere.
The recent Shiromani Akali Dal electoral pact and the victory of
the coalition In the Punjab would have been impossible If the Sikh
community believed the propaganda that this would eventually lead
to "Hindu domination" In the State. The triumph of the BJP In a
State with a very substantial Sikh population is perhaps an
Indication of the correct perception of the BJP as a credible and
viable party, broad based, non-communal and with a unique national
vision with the emphasis on a Great United India, not a petty,
small minded, fissiparous and tension-filled nation.
The BJP Is not an elitist party of the rich and the educated as it
is apparently described in the West. The disturbing fact is that
most students, especially from well to do middle class backgrounds,
leave high school or university with an obsession to go abroad,
where they believe they are more likely to achieve a fortune than
In their own country. They seem to be born with a innate
conviction that India Is not a country fit to live in, and that the
grass is eternally greener on the other side. They also
conveniently forget that their education is wholly paid for by the
tax payer, including the humble farmer, peasant and factory worker.
Fifty years of independence have apparently not done much to
instill in these people a love of their country. nor a sense of
service to the nation. Indeed, they would abysmally fall the
supreme test of patriotic decency by Jack Kennedy, the assassinated
President of America: "Ask not what your country can do for you but
what you can do for your country." It goes without saying that the
"greedy and selfish Indian economic migrants who wave their British
and American passports" with pride are clearly no friends of India,
despite their loud protestations.
Even the national leaders of India, it seems, fall to find suitable
educational Institutions for their children in India. The wealthy
and corrupt are able to give their children a very expensive
education In the private schools of Europe and America.
The BJP's message is clear and unequivocal-Indians must be proud of
their culture, their language and their traditions and serve their
country. The BJP is, perhaps, the first political party to try to
Inculcate pride and loyalty among Indians in their country,
something that all other parties have either overlooked or have
been Incapable of doing. Mao Zedong of China managed to achieve
this in his own country with spectacular results, with even the
overseas free enterprise devotees proudly identifying themselves
with an economically and militarily mighty China. Such is the
level of the affluent overseas Chinese community that most of its
tycoons Invest in their motherland, despite the temptations of
greater returns In the West. It would seem that unlike the Indians
abroad, the Chinese are neither handicapped by an inferiority
complex, nor mercenary-minded.
The rich and the allegedly educated Indians, sneered at by the
British as Babus, appear congenitally incapable of comprehending
the BJP message because it stresses not simply personal but
national advancement with the requisite pride, self respect and
commitment.
Ordinary Indians, Muslims. Hindus, Christians and Sikhs are
gradually being captivated by the message that they too are valued
citizens of India, hence their dignified pride and their eagerness
to build a new and powerful India. No doubt the BJP In power will
infuse into the Indian educational system the proper emphasis on
service, self respect and national pride. The BJP view is that if
some elements do not naturally respond to the call of patriotism
they should be persuaded to do so by a political and cultural
education designed to cultivate a civilised sense of
responsibility, where rights as well as obligations go hand in
hand. The BJP is cleverly getting this Important message across.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is often portrayed as a narrowly
communal and bigoted party by its enemies, who are alarmed at the
manner in which it is making inroads into the nation's affection.
The BJP rejects all forms of chauvinism and communalism and its
membership is open to all. There are Christians, Hindus, Muslims,
Sikhs and other minorities in its ranks and this is also true to
its National Executive.
Because of the BJP's appeal to India's national heritage, cultural
and religious, there are some who think that the BJP has a sinister
hidden agenda to bring about a government under which Muslims,
Christians and Sikhs and other minorities would be deprived of
their rights.
India has a larger Muslim population than that of Pakistan. The
latter, created In the name of Islam, constitutionally bars
non-Muslims from government office. This is alien to the secular
Indian tradition and philosophy. Such Inequities prevailed only
during the divide and rule of the British Raj, and even then the
Indians refused to have anything to do with it.
Non-Hindus do not believe that anything will be done by a BJP
government to undermine their rights or abolish such rights. They
are satisfied that such rights will be strengthened throughout the
country.
Although, Pandit Nehru expounded the doctrine of secularism for
India as well as for Ins agnostic self, declaring that all
religions are equal before the law, the rigid and unimaginative
Congress administrations after Nehru had no policy other than not
to upset one communal group or the other, provided they belong to a
minority community. Congress was perpetually all things to all
religions and all things to all groups, even if they were communal.
In addition, Congress blithely assumed there would be no room for
any other party on the Indian political scene.
As for the Communists, even they, In spite of their generous moral
and financial support from the Soviet Union shortly after
independence, and their immense appeal and relevance to a country
like India, where one third of the population still go to bed
half-hungry, never became popular on a national level, certainly
nowhere near the growing ascendancy of the BJP. The latter has one,
Indivisible law for all Indian citizens. The BJP definitely is
against preferential treatment for special groups, and rejects the
odious divide and rule strategy Inherited from the British
Imperialist period.
BJP Is uncompromising in Its Insistence on equal treatment of all
its citizens regardless of language, or religion or socio-economic
background. This is the only rational path for India to evolve
Into a nation state In the real sense of the term.
(Dr Cyriac Maprayil, MA (London) PhD (Leeds) and a Fellow of the
Royal Historical Society and the author of several books, is
presently writing a history of the post-Nehru era to be published
in the summer.)
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