Which way is (the Indian) Right?
After a mild resurgence which included victories in Uttarakhand, Bihar, Punjab and Delhi, India’s main rightist party, the BJP, met its Waterloo in Uttar Pradesh. Predictably the RSS has blamed insufficient promotion of Hindutva for its defeat. Party functionaries have their own views, including the fact that many voters felt that there was a tacit understanding between the Samajwadi party and the BJP, and the fact that the BJP in UP has had a history of supporting (or at least not opposing) alleged thugs like Raghuraj Pratap Singh, aka Raja Bhaiya. Raja Bhaiya is a guy whose actions and manners are rumored to resemble those of a stereotypical Hindi film villain. For all her faults, at least Mayawati during her previous tenure as UP’s CM tried to use UP’s police resources to bring him down. I’m sure this gave her some degree of credibility with a lot of development and law and order hungry voters.
Anyway, the BJP’s grand strategy of ‘Prakhar Hindutva’ did not pay off. Being the only mainstream right wing party in India today (why did the Swatantrata Party have to wither away), the BJP attracts a wide range of supporters, from moderate , free marketer-nationalists to closed-minded xenophobes. The BJP has, arguably of course, given rise to India’s best post-independence government (NDA from 1998-2004) and India’s most sensible, compassionate, and effective national leader (Atal Bihari Vajpayee). The NDA government under Vajpayee effectively used a combination of national security policies, like the Pokhran blasts and Operation Parakram, sensible free market, pro-reforms economics, and infrastructure development to greatly enhance India’s influence on the world stage and improve economic opportunities for Indians. Vajpayee himself appointed BJP ministers who were development oriented. Guys like Vinay Katiyar weren’t given much importance, at least at the government level. And despite the fact that the ‘India Shining’ campaign of 2004 did not bring the NDA back to power, Vajpayee was a popular prime minister. And the BJP’s vote share in 2004 was about the same as it was in 1999.
Some people think that the BJP’s rise began with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Some people also equate the Ram Janmabhoomi movement with aggressive, communal Hindutva. I disagree with both positions. Even in 1984, when the BJP was routed and got only 2 seats, in terms of actual vote percentage, it was second only to the Congress. Don’t forget that the Congress did so well because of sympathy following Indira Gandhi’s assassination. The Ram Janmabhoomi was about creating a public debate regarding the nature of Indian secularism. It was in no way anti-Muslim, anti-Islam or xenophobic. In fact, many of the movement’s leaders offered to relocate or rebuild the Babri structure at a different location. Had that happened, Hindu-Muslim relations would have improved greatly, and could have reached the level of harmony and cooperation achieved during the 1857 mutiny. Interestingly, Lal Krishna Advani recently wrote an article http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=86226 in which he writes positively about the contribution of Muslims to India’s first war of Independence. The same Advani is often unjustly castigated by India’s secular-leftist pinko ‘intellectual’ elite as a communal hate monger. They conveniently ignored the political risks to his own career during his recent trip to Pakistan, and the fact that as Home Minister he did not in any way discriminate between Indians on the basis of religion.
However I can’t deny the fact that agitations like the Ram Janmabhoomi movement attracted lumpen elements to the BJP. Also, historically the BJP has never taken steps to expunge itself of hate mongers. A consequence of this was the shameful post-Godhra riot /pogrom period in Gujarat.
The BJP, and RSS, would be wise to realize that the BJP electorally has done well when it has emphasized development, especially in the recent past when it won MP, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and helped win Bihar. Hindutva/Bharatiyata does have a role to play in Indian politics, especially given India’s precarious security situation. But the party should take great care to make sure that Hindutva never becomes synonymous with hatred or feelings of cultural supremacy.
–AS
