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Convoluted logic of BJP baiters - a letter - Economics Times
Ramajujam
()
21 June 1996
Title : Convoluted logic of BJP baiters - a letter
Author : Ramajujam
Publication : Economics Times
Date : June 21, 1996
Sir: Arindam Sengupta, The Economic Times's resident BJP-
basher, seems a disheartened guy these days. He asks what
is so special about the BJP, and answers himself:
nothing, really. Yawn. No, wait a minute; for long the
pseuds have been writing for each other, giving
certificates to each other. So let us tell them how the
readers feel about it all.
Spell-bound by Mr Vajpayee's reply to the confidence
motion, well-known columnists working for international
information networks collectively concluded that there
was something special about the man and his party.
Probably, the knowledge of this fact unnerved the BJP
bashers. Probably, that's the reason why we get to see in
print a lot of convoluted logic which aims at proving
that there is nothing special about the BJP?
The pseuds have lived in a make-believe world far too
long. Having vehemently suppressed pro-BJP opinion, they
seem to have concluded that it doesn't exist. When you
repeat a lie too often, you come to believe it yourself.
But what do you do when evidence to the contrary crops
up? You invent theories!
For instance, the BJP didn't have a mandate. The trainee
guy from IIT gave the answer: `You don't look at an
inconclusive vote in absolute terms. It must be seen in
the context of the previous election(s). What does such a
comparison throw up in this case? The Congress got a
licking of course..
"But the kichdi minus the regional parties didn't fare
any better! In fact, it lost some seats tool The BJP
gained substantially and earned the right to be "in
government", but, of course, not to be "the government".
So did the regional parties, and that's the mandate, to
be exact.'
The BJP tries to form a government with the help of
regional parties, and cognisant of what such a coalition
entails, attempts to forge some of its electoral planks
for the moment. We have the pseudo declaring that it's
opportunism The self-same pseud who bills the commies
going easy on economic reforms as "pragmatism"!
Certainly, the BJP didn't junk its leitmotif, Hindutva?
In any case, shouldn't the pseuds be shedding copious
tears of joy at the BJP; compromise? Surely, they should
welcome it, for after all the BJP is willing, at least
for the moment, to conform to their liberal'(ha!)
predilections? Whose line is it anyway? And in the end,
who really emerged opportunistic?
As a matter of fact, the Senguptas might be knowing their
arguments don't sound convincing to themselves. At some
point in their lives, presumably bowing to pressure or
due to the need to be seen to be endorsing the social
fads of the day, they decided to hate the BJP. Now it has
become an obsession. But they are required to explain the
growing popularity of BJP.
Their strategy one: Blame it on the middle class! The
alienated pseuds declare that the middle class is
alienated Look at the audacity, the immorality of it. You
sell your stuff to the urban middle class. That's your
market.
Strategy two: Cook up theories faster than your opponents
can run for cover. Take solace in fashionable buzz-
words. 'Federalism. "Caste based secularism'.
"Social base". The spectacle of the ostrich sociologist
willingly deceiving himself.
Strategy Three: Create myths. The myth of the 'liberal',
"moderate' voter, for example. The timid guy you meet on
the flight or the train may nod his head in consent to
all your homilies, but he will go and vote BJP, take my
word for it. There is not a "liberal, moderate" voter yet
in this country who will conscientiously reject the party
because it is not 'secular'.
The security and the scope for `irresponsibility' that a
newspaper's column offers is the reason why the pseuds
get away with their inanities and prejudices. Will
Sengupta be able to hold himself, face-to-face, before a
randomly-drawn, urban English-speaking audience -the kind
to which he preaches in his columns?
Will he be able to win an argument in a truly democratic
forum like Usenet's Soc.Indian Culture, where young
people - most of them grad and doctoral students in top-
notch US universities and unabashedly pro-BJP -can teach
a lesson or two to him in logic? The pseud types can
thrive only in one-sided debates where none but their own
kind take part, where they go unchallenged.
The more popular the BJP gets, the greater is the
stridency with which the pseuds attack it. Indeed, Mr
Vajpayee touched many raw nerves. Regurgitating the same
old stuff has its limitations, you know. You begin to
sound like an automated cliche-server. In contrast, the
two-bit politician will begin to look like a paragon of
virtues.
Epilogue: CPI candidate won the Nalgonda seat in AP with
28 per cent vote, the BJP came second with 23 per cent
(where it was third earlier), Congress was a poor third
with 22 per cent. Since the losing contestants
collectively won 72 per cent of the vote, they won the
mandate and as such, they should elect a person among
themselves who shall be sent to the parliament to
represent the constituency. Ain't it a cute idea?
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