Clear verdict against communal politics

Balbir Punj

Congress and the so-called secular parties have been seen by people for what they are: Sectarian elements promoting Islamist fundamentalism in the name of secularism. Will they own up their mistake and reform?

The real nature of an individual (and also of an organisation) shows only in a crushing defeat or a complete victory. The heat and humiliation of a total loss melts the façade of calm, composure and civility, usual under normal circumstances. A serious setback brings to fore the latent insecurities and hidden weakness in personality and exposes the ‘real’ substance of a person.

An absolute triumph, on the other hand, generally goes to head, unleashes raw desires, prejudices, and covert traits and unrevealed idiosyncrasies. The pretence falls and the real persona and character of the winner emerges. In short, in both situations (of total loss and complete victory) the cover-up is blown off, thus baring the ‘genuine’ man behind the mask. With time, the veneer, however, may get resurrected.

During the last few days, the nation has had a glimpse of this losing/winning syndrome in the wake of the Lok Sabha election. In the din of election campaign, Mr Narendra Modi was aggressive and non-sparing in his criticism of his opponents. This was to suit the occasion. But the astounding victory brought out the real Modi — humble, emotional and reverential to his elders — and deferential to institutions he has to work with and which are the bedrock of our Republic.

Mr Modi’s gestures, following an unprecedented win — touching veteran BJP leader LK Advani’s feet, escorting and holding by hand the estranged and aged once senior BJP leader Keshubhai Patel in Gandhinagar, hugging his arch-rival Shankersinh Vaghela, and above all, bowing and touching the entry point of Parliament House with his forehead, have left an indelible mark on all those who were glued to television screens. It will be etched in public memory for a long time to come. His obeisance to the institution of Parliament matched his fervour for ‘Mother Ganga’.

In contrast, the Congress and its leadership (mother-and-son duo) were defiant and conceited. They took almost a week to congratulate the winner, did not own up the most humiliating defeat the party has suffered since independence, and have since been looking for scapegoats.Those loyal to the Palace are busy finding fault with the leadership of Mr Manmohan Singh, his alleged failure to communicate the ‘achievements’ of the UPA regime to the public and his silence during the campaign.

Could there be a better example of deception? Mr Singh was ensconced in the PMO, with the seniority and experience of Mr Pranab Mukherjee ignored, precisely for those very reasons. Mr Singh was self-effacing, lacked both political stature and leadership experience, and had no potential to emerge as a mass leader. For the Nehru-Gandhis, he was thus tailor-made for the job.

It’s a settled fact that the UPA Government was run by the mother-son duo and their faceless cronies. Mr Singh was a figurehead and a mask behind which the Nehru-Gandhi cabal manipulated the system. Neither Mr Singh was supposed to, nor did he ever try to, disturb this arrangement. He held the Prime Minister’s office and the Gandhi-clan exercised power, at times directly or through dubious conduits.

Mr Singh’s job was to keep the seat warm till the Gandhi scion was ready to take over. No wonder, in the entire Lok Sabha election campaign, Mr Singh did not figure at all. Mr Rahul Gandhi was the UPA’s mascot all the way. All the UPA’s ‘initiatives and achievements’ were attributed to him.

What explains the Congress’s decimation in these polls? Apart from massive corruption, economic mess and absence of governance, the communal politics of the Congress and its ‘secular’ allies also contributed to its collapse.

With Indira Gandhi’s untimely death, her son Rajiv Gandhi inherited her mantle, even though at that time too there were many leaders with decades of experience and service to the Congress. He continued the conspiracy to create a communal division and project his party as the champion of each community separately.

It was Rajiv Gandhi who sought to upstage the Hindu seers and leaders on the Ramjanmabhoomi issue by his farce of opening the locked doors. Then, to get the alerted Muslim leadership with him, he went whole hog with the Muslim orthodoxy on the Shah Bano issue and amended the law to deny Muslim wives the benefits that the Supreme Court in its judgement had decreed must be paid on divorce.

What the reactionary response of Rajiv Gandhi on the Shah Bano case did to the Muslim community was to sow the seeds of Islamist extremist orthodoxy and fuel terror as a necessary weapon for the so-called protection of the perceived traditions of the community. It started sinking into Hindus and secular Muslims and Christians that fundamentalist Muslims were beyond the pale of law. In a way, it was a repeat of what had happened in Punjab where Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale gave legitimacy on grounds of religion to the dangerous slogan of extremism and put the moderate Akalis on the block for not being extremist enough.

As in the case of Punjab, the break from Indian politics following the liberal tradition began with the consequences of Rajiv Gandhi’s mishandling of the Shah Bano case. Extremist orthodoxy was enshrined as a partner in the power structure. Not only were the liberals among the Muslims cornered, but the orthodox elements also began questioning their very religious beliefs.

At one level, Muslim politicians like Arif Mohammed Khan were forced to quit positions in the Congress leadership and the Government. At another level, the most rabid communal forces got the opportunity to be arbiters of whether a practising Muslim was truly a follower of Islam or not.

The Congress’s intent on appeasement failed to see that its so-called ‘15-point programme’ to benefit the Muslims was having no effect, nor was it enthusing the community leadership. Like the Congress with its ‘Garibi hatao’ programme that trapped the poor in a cesspool of backwardness, the Muslim leadership wanted the community to be locked up in its rejection of modernity.

On May 16, the country indicated its determination to climb out of this trap. The welcome to the ascendancy of the Narendra Modi-led BJP cut across communities. This aspirational fever had begun to transform the Muslim youth too. Muslim-dominated districts in several States were uniformly in favour of Mr Modi and BJP candidates.

The Congress and the so-called secular parties have been seen by people for what they are — rank communalists promoting Islamist fundamentalism in the name of secularism. Will the Congress and its leadership be honest to own their mistakes, introspect and reformulate the politics? No such hope! The party and the Nehru-Gandhis were conceited in power; they are graceless in defeat.

Courtesy : The Pioneer