HVK Archives: Lukewarm response
Lukewarm response - The Asian Age
Editorial
()
12 July 1997
Title: Lukewarm response
Author: Editorial
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: July 12, 1997
The Bharatiya Janata Party President L.K. Advani's yatra through the length
and breadth of the country will come to an end on 15 August at New Delhi.
Compared to the rath yatra of 1990 which left a trail of destruction in its
wake, this appeared to be a tame political event and was treated as such by
the national media. The BJP leader drew unexpected crowds in Kerala and
West Bengal with the rest of the yatra eliciting what can at best be
described as "lukewarm" response. This could be the standard for success
if crowds was what the yatra was aimed at. But it was set to serve a dual
purpose - to spread the BJP ideology of Hindutva and discrimination, and to
mobilise the party and RSS cadres who had been getting rather disillusioned
with the performance of the BJP in the states. Judging from reports,
Advani has succeeded in enthusing the cadres with his talk of Hindutva in
Uttar Pradesh, and patriotism of the BJP variety in Himachal Pradesh. The
political appeal differed according to the states with the most virulent
message being reserved for UP, where Advani minced no words in describing
the appeasement of Muslims, the party's success in demolishing the Babri
Masjid and assuring the people that his party alone could bring them relief
from religious discrimination and similar inequities. The yatra was an
effort to present a united front, to paper over the differences within the
organisation on the issues of corruption and the backward-forward divide.
In this, Advani has definitely succeeded, and one can safely presume that
the RSS cadres will he set loose to cash in on the gains of the yatra. The
RSS and the BJP have decided to prepare for the next election, and Advani's
tour was designed to set the agenda, enthuse the cadres and consolidate the
gains. Unfortunately the secular response to the yatra has been negligible.
In Uttar Pradesh, for instance, Samajwadi party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav
and his workers were conspicuous by their absence. The same party which is
ready to fill the jails in protest against BSP chief minister Mayawati's
anti-Mulayam stance, did not utter a word against Advani and his virulent
campaign. The Left parties completely occupied with their oust-Laloo
mission have had nothing to say about the yatra. It is as if secularism has
been struck off the agenda and the United Front constituents busy carving
themselves up have chosen to forget the one factor of secularism that is
supposed to have brought them together. The Congress which is a spent
force in Uttar Pradesh and is busy trying to revive itself raised the
issue, with vice president Jitendra Prasad actually criticising the Advani
yatra in fairly strong terms.
Secularism cannot be preserved through rhetoric or silence. Sustained
action countering the poison of communal ideologies through mass meetings,
protest action and scientific generation of public opinion is necessary to
keep the country together on an issue which even the Supreme Court has
ruled to be the basic structure of the Indian constitution. Hysterical
outbursts and Mulayam Singh-like rhetoric that can only strengthen
communalism are not the answer. It is not sufficient for a party to state
that it is not communal, it should be made to fulfil all the promises made
by it in its manifesto on this front. This is not to keep a political
grouping in or out of power but to ensure that the secular fabric of India
does not get eroded through sheer apathy and indifference, as a result of
which the field-has been left wide open for the proponents of religious
discrimination.
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