HVK Archives: I had closed my mind to the BJP
I had closed my mind to the BJP - Communalism Combat
Shailesh Gandhi
()
96. June
Title: I now feel that I had closed my mind to whatever
the BJP said all these years
Author: Shailesh Gandhi
Publication: Communalism Combat
Date: June 96.
NOTE: Shri Gandhi is identified as a friend of the edi-
tors (a veritable Hindu baiters). Shri Gandhi is a 49-
year-old businessman, who had a 'pathological dislike'
for Hindutva for nearly 40 years, and did not even enter-
tain the thought of supporting the BJP. The objective of
printing Shri Gandhi's views was not to give publicity to
his opinion, but to give a point-by-point reply, so that
anyone else who has the temerity to deviate from the path
of secularism as defined by the editors of the publica-
tion (which in Hindutva circles is dubbed as Hinduism
Combat). The editors say that 'it is not difficult to
pick holes' in Shri Gandhi's arguments.
If anyone has some comments to make, I will have them
delivered to Shri Gandhi for his information.
BEGIN ARTICLE OF GANDHI
A number of my friends who had traditionally voted Con-
gress, except in 1977 when they backed the Janata Party
1977 when they supported V.P. -Singh, had decided to vote
for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections this time. They
did not only because the alliance candidate from north-
west Bombay was from the Shiv Sena. In their eyes, and
mine, Madhukar Sarpotdar is a criminal so the question of
voting for him does not arise.
From the age of nine or ten, I have had a pathological
dislike for the Hindutva parties. For nearly 40 years,
it has been virtually ingrained in me that these people
are Godse ki aulad, people responsible for the
assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, people who are anti-
Muslim. My dislike for the Shiv Sena has been even
stronger. In the recent elections, too, I did not even
consider voting for the BJP, leave alone the Sena.
But now I find myself seriously re-examining the position
I have stuck to for nearly four decades. I don't know
what I might feel three months from today. But,
as of now, from the way I feel, I would say there is a
50-50 chance that in the next election I will vote for
the BJP. However, if the alliance candidate from my
constituency is once again a Sena person, there is no way
I will vote for him.
`Why do I feel so differently about the BJP now?
Firstly, with the BJP emerging as the single largest
party and faced with the possibility of their actually
ruling the country, I found myself asking: Would it be so
bad if the BJP were to form a government today ? How bad
could it become? To my surprise, I was telling myself
that the BJP couldn't possibly be worse than the options
we have known so far; in fact, it may well be better.
Secondly, a few things that Vajpayee said in Parliament
while moving the motion of thanks made me think. For
example, tie said: the BJP is accused of dividing the
country along communal lines, but aren't others dividing
the country along Caste lines. I don't think anyone of us
can honestly deny that this is exactly what V.P.Sing,
Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kanshi Ram and Laloo Prasad Yadav
have been doing.
What is the Hindu fanatic saying? Babar did so and so,
or, so and so Muslim did wrong centuries ago and that has
to be corrected today. What are these guys saying? SO
many generations ago, the banias or Brahmins did so and
so to harijans. Ab uska hisab karo (Now, settle those
dues).
The fundamental realisation that I am coming to is this:
if everyone is busy dividing people in the country along
caste or communal lines, if everyone is propagating one
kind of intolerance or another, then why hold this
against the BJP alone? One does not agree a 100 per cent
will what anyone does. All of us know about the growing
corruption and criminalisation of politics. In this
scenario one has to pick the better from a bad lot.
Keeping this in mind, I feel the BJP may well be a better
option.
If the BJP continues to discriminate against Muslims,
that is certainly bad. But the present reservation
Policy is worse than that. 1t effectively amounts to
saying that merit has no meaning. imagine the conse-
quences of such an approach a country like India.
I do not deny that the lower castes have a valid point
about having been discriminated against in the past and
having suffered because of it. But I don't think the
reservation policy as it stands today is a solution to
that problem.
Granted, there is criminalisation, corruption etc. in
every party to some extent. But, somehow, the top BJP
leaders come across much better than people like Chandra
Shekhar. V.P. Singh, Narasimha Rao etc. Look at even
Deve Gowda. The first thing he does when he is about to
become or becomes prime minister is to fly in Dhirubhai
Ambani's plane. Incidentally, I have come to form these
impressions from reading newspapers which are
by no means pro-BJP.
I feel leadership is quite important. If these are our
choices, then what does one have against the BJP? Okay.
they have a negative side too. like others, but they are
also publicly saying that they are secular. Why don't we
try and convince the BJP to correct its negative side?
I liked the open and transparent manner in which the BJP
went about trying to gain a majority. I definitely feel
that while most politicians in India would have resorted
to horse-trading in the circumstances, the BJP did not do
that. Okay, they said they would be willing to dilute
their manifesto but they did so openly, not
surreptitiously.
So far, I, too, used to call the Sangh parivar fascists
but I no longer think It applies to them. In Germany,
Hitler was the leader of the Nazis all along. If they
had consistently projected a leader like Ashok Singhal,
then the analogy to Hitler and fascism would have made
sense. And in that case my choice would have
been very clear.
Why did other parties refuse to associate with the BJP?
Firstly, may be they also have the same kind of problem
with the BJP as I had until now. Secondly, regional
parties may also have perceived the BJP as too big
compared to them and stayed away because of the humko kha
jayenge fear. (We will be swallowed up.)
TO put it in a nutshell, I now feel that I had probably
closed my mind to whatever the BJP said all these years
and only looked at its negative side.
(As told to Combat)
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