HVK Archives: Next, Mahabharata will be between Congress, BJP
Next, Mahabharata will be between Congress, BJP - The Pioneer
Syed Shahabuddin
()
16 May 1997
Title : Next, Mahabharata will be between Congress, BJP
Author : Syed Shahabuddin
Publication : The Pioneer
Date : May 16, 1997
The drowsy humble farmer HD Deve Gowda came out of Karnataka, almost out of the
blue, to become the Prime Minister of India. Now, he has been sent back to
Karnataka, "unwept, unhonoured and unsung". Notwithstanding his emotion-laden vow
to rise from the ashes and stage a comeback, he stands discarded for good, thrown
into the dustbin of history. But, despite the rise and fall of Mr Deve Gowda, the
concept of a united front of secular parties remains valid and the only workable
political proposition in the years to come.
The reason lies in the convergence of the following factors: That the Congress is
unlikely to regain political hegemony to straddle across the political horizon as
it did for nearly 40 years, shorn of a charismatic leadership; that the BJP, a
rising force in Indian politics, has reached a plateau and cannot jump higher
without compromising its ideology and its historic mission defined by the RSS, its
"mother'; that the Janata parivar, a rather quarrelsome family, which has adopted
dissension and disunity as a way of life, cannot reunite into a coherent force;
and, finally, that no regional party can possibly see beyond its home-base.
All said and done, today India has only two national parties. The old, withered,
shrinking Congress whose age cannot be concealed by the sudden jerks of passion or
activism, and the young energetic, committed and confident BJP marching steadily
towards its historic goal. The others are all regional parties confined to their
limited parish, even if some of them, the Janata Dal and the CPI(M), the CPI and
increasingly the SP and the BSP claim the status of being national parties. The
next Mahabharata, therefore, will see the Congress and the BJP arrayed against
each other, representing the two opposing trends in the Indian polity, which date
back to the first light, of the Freedom Movement: Hindu Chauvinism and Secular
Nationalism.
So far, the secular forces have managed to get the better of the chauvinist
forces; even if internal squabbles in the citadel of secularism often forced some
of them into negotiation, into compromise, into transient deals, even into
alliances, open or secret, with the chauvinist forces, besieging the citadel.
Generally, the Hindutva forces remained on the margin as they had during the
Freedom Movement. But just as the explosive mixture of religion and politics
ultimately created Muslim communalism and led to Partition, Indira Gandhi's
imperious pretensions led her to play footsie with the chauvinist forces,
tactically, during her restoration and paved the way for the saffronisation of
Indian politics.
This phase was marked by Rajiv Gandhi's immature attempt to steal the communal
thunder from the BJP, Mr VP Singh's tactical embrace of the BJP and his initially
benign reaction, to the unfolding game-plan of the BJP on the Ayodhya question, by
Mr Chandra Shekhar lending a sympathetic ear to the VHP's immediate tactical plan
of talking the Muslims into surrender of the Babri Masjid and, finally, by Mr PV
Narasimha Rao's bold and imaginative but Chanakya-like gambit of "out-Hinduing"
the Hindutva forces, indeed, of emerging as its champion and the arch-priest. But
in all these movements, down the stream of history, the captain of the ship of the
state, whosoever he was, kept the flag of secularism on mast. The United Front,
in this historic context, was yet another effort to construct a secular alliance
as a dyke against the rising tide of Hindutva. It failed, as it had to, because
it did not include or at least show respect to and place confidence in the
Congress party, which, with all its mistakes and flaws and the opportunistic
impulses of its leadership and its record of misgovernment, has remained, by force
of tradition, committed to the grand design of a secular state.
End of history
A secular India can one day reunite the subcontinent and enable the region to play
its due role in the emergent world order, nay, serve as one of its pillars or
poles. But this common aspiration of all peoples of the subcontinent cannot be
realised until India provides a model of peace with justice and of progress with
stability. For social peace, it must not only be a democracy but a truly secular
polity which is equidistant to and non-aligned towards religions. In terms of
social justice, it must provide equitable space and a flowering environment for
all languages and cultures and human groups, identified by religion, cast or race.
In terms of economic progress, it must achieve a rate of growth at least
comparable to that of South-East Asia and West Asia, even if it cannot equal that
of China. For political stability, it should be a multi-party, multi-state and,
therefore, a federal polity.
The Deve Gowda Government has failed as an experiment but it is nevertheless this
experiment that is bound to be and must be repeated in the light of the lessons
that can be, and should be, drawn from this brief episode in the history of an
ancient people. The Deve Gowda Government often appeared oblivious of the fact
that more than a coalition, it was a minority Government and the party on whose
critical support its life depended was outside the coalition. It should have been
shown due regard and deference.
To evolve a durable coalition, all secular parties, without exception, have to get
over the hangovers of the past. The Congress has to give up its hegemonic
ambitions, the non-Congress secular parties have to get out of the rut of
anti-Congressism. They must realise that Hindu chauvinism poses greater threat to
the country and to them, that once the BJP comes to power, it will tear down its
liberal veil, expose its ugly face, ride roughshod over all democratic
institutions, even rewrite the secular Constitution, put into place a "committed"
bureaucracy and perhaps an equally "committed" judiciary, utilise the mass media,
especially the electronic media for unabashed brainwashing of the people, force
religious and cultural minorities into assimilation and march the youth to the
nearest Shakha and Bauddhi camp. Indo-centric as Hindutva is, it may even
restrict cultural and economic intercourse with the world outside, engage in
constructing the paradise of its dreams, enter into perpetual conflict with the
neighbours or turn India into a hermit state like Myanmar next door.
In a country of continental dimension, decentralisation of power and consequent
federalisation of polity are inevitable. India simply cannot be governed and even
administered as a unitary state. The emergence of regional parties and their
assumption of power at the state level cannot be reversed and must be
accommodated. But in each State, the movement for social justice is also gaining
ground and deriving sustenance from its nation-wide roots. Political parties,
whether national or regional, have to come to terms with the emergent social
forces which represent a refinement of the democratic process. In the concept of
social justice the interests of religious communities, traditional castes, the
forgotten tribes, coalesce and converge. The high castes which have not only
dominated the country for ages but written the rules of the game have come, to the
end of history. Only the epitaph is yet to be written.
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