Author: Ramesh Babu
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: February 1, 2003
Everybody says that we must learn
from experience. But only a few of us are willing to learn and fewer
still actually learn from what we go through in life. As a nation,
we are not famous for learning from our acts of o mission and commission.
If we did, we would have learnt a great deal from our long history and
by now should have become wiser. But we choose to be otherwise!
The recent elections in Gujarat
are no exception. Our leaders in public life refuse to learn to be
gracious and extend even minimal courtesies to one another. The BJP
won a landslide victory. It gained more than a two-third majority
in the Assembly and amassed more than fifty per cent of the votes polled.
The popular mandate was impressive and the victory was comprehensive. Yet,
the top leaders of the Congress party, the main rival in the fray, did
not have the decency to say a word of Congratulations! The Left parties
were equally guilty. Only Jayalalitha had the good sense to congratulate
the BJP for the massive victory. Mamata Banerjee congratulated Venkaiah
Naidu as a sort of afterthought. In any case, in a democracy like ours,
we have no option but to bow down to the voice of the people. When
will our leaders learn the basic lessons of democratic politics?
India is a Hindu majority country, has been so since times immemorial and
will remain so far all time to come. This ground reality should be understood
and appreciated by all concerned. Otherwise, there is no salvation
for the nation.
Those who abuse and insult the majority
community en masse and/or perceived to be doing so, will be punished severely.
Will the leaders concerned learn this fundamental lesson of the elections
in Gujarat?
The Metropolitan English language
newspapers and media pundits also must learn to appreciate and digest the
ground reality that this country is a Hindu majority State and will remain
so for ever. While commenting on matters close to its heart and mind,
the media should exercise restraint and keep in check its ingrained habit
of condemning the Hindu community at the drop of a hat and blindly equating
them with the Hindutva forces and other communal fringe groups among the
Hindus. They and self-styled progressives and left-wing intellectuals
should learn to be not so arrogant. They should also learn to condemn
minority communalism with equal passion and conviction. Nobody can
be objective. But when will they learn that their exhortations sound
hollow and become dysfunctional when they go hammer and tongs at Bal Thackeray
but pull their punches when it comes to Shahi Imam Bukhari? The media and
the intellectuals failed to contemn Godhra. Muslims have not offered
an apology for Godhra.
There is no sense of regret or remorse
for killing the hapless passengers. But there is a virtual stampede
to condemn the reprehensible aftermath and barrage of criticism and condemnation
goes on day in and day out. The Godhra carnage doesn't figure prominently
even in their 'events after' comment and assessment. In any case,
that is how an overwhelming majority of the Hindus perceive the English
press, media and a lot of political leaders and the self-appointed champions
of pseudo-secularism. If the media pundits cannot see this, they
are not worth their professional salt, and if they still choose to do nothing
about it, they will lose their credibility completely. When will
they learn that minority violence triggers majority backlash? How is it
that our so-very-perceptive and clever-by-half journalists and media experts
don't see what is so obvious to one and all? Is common sense beyond them?
All this does not and should not
mean that the majority should get away with murder and that the Hindus
could ride roughshod over the minorities. I am no apologist of Hindu
communalism, which regretfully is very much in our midst. It must
be curbed and put down with an iron hand. The Constitution and the
laws of the land give certain special rights and benefits to STs, SCs,
OBCs and minorities. All the citizens have to respect them abide
by the law. At the same time, the minorities, especially the Muslims should
make more determined and concerted efforts to join the main stream.
They should get out of the 'minority mentality,' the peculiar negative
mindset and persecution complex that afflicts them. They have to
achieve this by their own efforts, others will not give it to them on a
platter. The moderate Muslims, who are the silent majority in the
community, should come out of their self-imposed shell and rescue their
brethren from the Mullahs and the Imams. In the same way, the moderate
Hindus have an obligation to restrain their extremist brethren and knock
sense into their bloated heads. When will the saner elements among
the Hindus who fortunately an overwhelming majority of the community, learn
to assert themselves and demonstrate that they (and not the fundamentalists)
are the representatives of true Hinduism?
The BJP started gaining political
and electoral ground only after it gave up 'me tooism' and offered a credible
alternative, it must be added. When will we all (the people of India)
learn that minority communalism is only a shade less bad than the majority
communalism? When will the Congress party learn to give up its dirty 'vote
bank' politics of exploiting the Muslims and other minorities while doing
precious little for them during the half century of their rule? When will
the party leaders learn that half-hearted championing of pseudo-secularism
and the tactic of switching to 'mee tooism' of wooing the Hindu vote at
the last minute had done them in? 'Me tooism' has certainly been the classic
formula for electoral disaster in India and elsewhere.
The many Socialist Avatars (the
SP, PSP, KMP, etc.) tried 'me tooism' vis-à-vis Nehruvian Socialism
and failed miserably. Many non-Congress parties struggled wit the
same old strategy of 'me tooism' vis-à-vis Congress, but made no
electoral headway.
The Left parties followed the same
route more or less and not much is left of them in the country's political
firmament. In Gujarat, the Gaurav Yatras sought to restore the hurt pride
of the people. The Gujaratis reacted angrily because they were insulted
and abused relentlessly at home and abroad.
With the inept leadership of Sonia
Gandhi and doomed strategy of 'me tooism,' the Congress party reaped the
worst of both the worlds. Will the Congress party wake up to the
implications of its rout in Gujarat?
