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BJP is wise and secular - The Observer

Dina Nath Mishra ()
December 25, 1997

Title: BJP is wise and secular
Author: Dina Nath Mishra
Publication: The Observer
Date: December 25, 1997

The BJP is an untouchable party by birth for all its opponents.
Former Jana Sangha members and others had to form the BJP after
they were practically hounded out of Janata Party by all non-Jana
Sangha groups on the question of dual membership, i e their
simultaneous association with RSS, a Hindu organisation. In
their perception, anything related to Hinduism cannot but be
communal. For them, association with RSS is clear proof of being
communal. CPM leader E M S Namboodaripad propounded a thesis that
minority communalism cannot be equated with majority communalism
for historical and psychological reasons. He even went to the
extent of proposing and justifying CPM's alliance with Indian
Union Muslim League. This is not the thinking of EMS alone. All
the practitioners of pseudo-secularism, i e all anti-BJP parties
profess similar views on communalism and compete with each other
in the practice of minorityism, i e appeasement of Muslims.
Treating the BJP as a political untouchable became the litmus-
test of being secular for anybody. Theoretically, Mamata was
expelled for her stand towards the BJP as she did not accept BJP
as a communal party.

The BJP challenged this whole concept during Ram Janmabhoomi
Mandir Movement through its concept of cultural nationalism. The
related debate continued for years. Its one end was connected
with Islamic invasions of India for centuries, and destruction of
thousands of temples including Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir. Almost all
anti-BJP parties tried to connect Indian Muslim psychology with
the invaders and destroyers of temples In their pursuit of
nourishing the Muslim vote bank. During the vigorous national
debate, pseudo-secularists adopted a negationist attitude by
denying, underplaying and twisting the established facts of
history including the impressions of the living mass memory. The
BJP went on increasing its support on this count.

Dozens of countries have witnessed bloodshed caused by Islamic
invasions. The history of Europe, Asia and some parts of Africa
is full of ruthless destruction of life, property and
civilisational symbols. Even today, fundamentalist Islamists are
fighting in more than a dozen and a half countries. In the
neighbouring states of Afghanistan, fundamentalists are clashing
with their own co-religionists. Similar forces have successfully
cleansed the Kashmir Valley and forced each and every Hindu
family to leave through terror tactics. A similar Islamic
terrorist operation has started in three districts of Jammu area.
Numerous Hindu families have migrated to Jammu even during the
last week. The pseudo-secular mindset has not even allowed the
proper reporting of the unfortunate happenings. The governmental
agencies have become immune to large-scale bomb explosions and
other destabilising activities taking place in various parts of
the country under the direct control of ISI network. All pseudo-
secular parties have developed vested interests in overlooking
these happenings and the historic continuity of Islamic
expansionist design.

Having succeeded in partitioning the country just 50 years ago,
separatists and fundamentalists of Pakistan have allied with the
forces of Islamic Umma and adopted its agenda. Sometimes even
the OIC lends its helping hand to them. They are moving step by
step to realise it. The BJP is sensitive to this security
problem.

The party does not consider the Muslim masses of India as
soldiers of Islamists. The so-called secular parties consider the
Muslim masses as a mere vote-bank. In order to nourish it, they
indulge in competitive minority-ism. That goes to the extent of
breeding and strengthening separatism, which in turn helps the
Islamists.

Muslims of India, to the extent of more than 95 per cent of its
population, are from the same human stock as those of the rest of
Indians. Their economic, educational and other interests are
similar to those of Hindus. They too are inheritors of the five
thousand-year-old civilisation. A change of the way of worship
does not matter at all in the tradition of Indian cultural
nationalism. There is no place for a theocratic state in India,
i e predominantly Hindu. Co-citizenship or equal citizenship is
not only guaranteed by the Constitution but by the Hindu
tradition also. Against this background, when the BJP says,
"Justice to all and appeasement to none", it has the endorsement,
ofthe traditional Indian thinking of non-discriminatory treatment
of various religious segments of the Indian society. .

By and by, there is a realisation in the Muslim masses, specially
in the educated Muslim youth, that pseudo-secularists have done
more harm to them by exploiting Muslims as a vote-bank. There is
a greater realisation and appreciation of BJP's stand on this
question in the Muslim society. Not that a large number of them
have turned BJP-minded. Of course, a few millions have done so.
But the intensity and vehemence of their anti-BJPism have
certainly decreased. Recently, the Muslim youth conference
organised by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha was attended by over
five thousand Muslim youth' delegates drawn from nine states. It
was an unbelievable scene. They passed the resolution in favour
of Ram temple and ban on cow slaughter amidst thunderous cheers.
It was certainly symptomatic of the beginning of change in the
Muslim mindset.

The crumbling of pseudo-secular fortification against
"communalism" witnessed during the last fortnight has something
to do with the changing mindset of Muslims also. Just before the
last general elections, political untouchability of BJP was
diluted to some extent. After the dissolution of Lok Sabha and
announcement of mid-term poll, there has been significant
development on the front of political untouchability of the BJP.

When Jayalalitha announced an open alliance with BJP, she said
that she did not consider BJP a communal party. It may be
recalled that even in 1992 she agreed with the BJP stand in
National Integration Council. Even before splitting the Congress
in West Bengal, the rebel leader Mamata Benerjee wondered how a
party, getting more than three crore votes, be termed communal.
This argument of numbers leads to a question as to how one can
call a party communal even if it advocates a society of nearly 85
per cent population of the country. She also raised a question
that if a party is communal, it can be described so by an
institution like Election Commission.

In a way, she, in fact, challenged the anti-BJP parties by asking
who authorised them to label BJP as a communal party. Yet
another big leader of the secular camp, Ram Krishna Hegde,
disagreed with the same camp by saying that, "I am anti anti-
ism".

Two former Muslim ministers at the Centre, Captain Ayub Khan and
Aslam Sher Khan, contacted BJP leaders to join the party. This is
indicative of the crumbling edifice of political untouchability
of BJP.


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