Can The BJP Rid Itself Of Old Dogmas

Unfortunately, the answer seems to be no!

The BJP was able to win the Lok Sabha elections in convincing fashion because Modi, its chief vote-getter, determinedly stayed away from old, divisive issues during the campaign. The electorate noticed, noted, approved, and duly rewarded it and its allies with 336 seats.

But once victory was in the bag, the BJP’s looney fringe, quiescent during the election, lost no time creeping out of the woodwork. “It’s time to find out what it means to be a Hindu and an Indian in the world,” said one writer exultantly. Within minutes of the new government taking over in May, Jitendra Singh, the new minister of state in the PMO caused a stir when he said the “process of abrogating Article 370 that grants special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir had already begun and that they had started discussing the issue with several stakeholders in the state.”

Since then this turning back to familiar divisive issues (Revoking Article 370, Uniform Civil Code) has only gathered steam in recent months.

It has not borne fruit.

The BJP and its allies came off worse in the just concluded series of bypolls in Bihar, Karnataka, MP and Punjab. Overall, of the 18 seats in play, the BJP and its ally the Shiromani Akali Dal won only 8. In Bihar, the Nitish-Lallu Grand Alliance and the Congress got the better of the BJP winning 6 out of 10 seats. In Karnataka, the Congress wrested away Bellary — a prestige seat — from the BJP. In MP, the Congress won one seat where it was expecting none.

More than the number of seats it lost, it is the margin of victory that should be of concern to the BJP. In Bihar, of the 6 seats won by the Grand Alliance and the Congress, in 4 of them, the margin of victory was over 15,000 votes. In contrast, the BJP won Banka by 711 only votes — a photo-finish in electoral terms. In Karnataka, the Congress won Bellary by a margin of over 33,000 votes; it also retained Chikodi-Sadalga by over 31,000 votes. In contrast, the BJP narrowly won Shikaripura by over 6,000 votes. The narrow margin of victory is worrying considering the party’s candidate was none other than BJP heavyweight B.S Yeddyurappa’s son, B. Y Raghavendra.

All this suggests a strong undercurrent of voter dissatisfaction with the BJP that extends even into areas where the BJP is strong.

You’d think a rethink was in order. But if recent events are anything to go by, the BJP has decided to ignore the results of the bypolls and steamroll ahead with its communal agenda. In UP, where bypolls for 11 state assembly seats are slated to take place in September, the BJP has selected Yogi Adityanath, the rabid Hindu fundamentalist MP to lead the charge. Instead of damping down communal flames in UP, under Amit Shah, it appears the party is set on turning up the gas.

Nothing reveals the BJP’s strategy more than the current obsession with the provocatively labelled “Love Jihad” — the supposedly deliberate campaign by Muslims targeting young Hindu women in UP through proposals of marriage. “Have they got the certificate to rape girls because they belong to a particular religion?” asked Laxmikant Bajpai, the president of the UP wing of the BJP. (Indian Express, Aug 24, 2014)

Ironically, the Meerut incident, which the party uses as evidence that the Love Jihad is indeed a fact, has turned out to be extremely murky. Under questioning, the main complainant has changed her story more than once. It is becoming increasingly unclear if it was a case of rape and abduction or of a hasty marriage gone sour.

But the BJP and its loony fringe have never let reality and facts get in their way. In response to the Meerut incident, several organizations have lined up pledging support for the good fight against Love Jihad. It’s a veritable alphabet soup: VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad); HJM (Hindu Jagran Manch); Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP); Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM); Meerut Bachao Manch (MBM); Hindu Sangharsh Samiti (HSS); and Dharma Jagran Manch (DJM). More are likely to spring up in coming days. ‘In Bareilly, BJYM leader Sudheesh Pandey warned “While no such front has been formed in the district yet, the BJYM would launch an agitation if any case of “Love Jihad” is reported.’ (Indian Express, August 31, 2014)

Akhilesh Yadav’s good-natured response to the BJP’s current obsession was surprisingly mature. “You hear the song of BJP MP`s film `Dharmatma`. Will it promote love or not?” The Chief Minister was referring to the BJP’s Mathura MP, actor-turned politician Hema Malini`s 1975 movie which also starred Feroz Khan. The MP incidentally has promised to raise the issue of Love Jihad in the Lok Sabha.

The BJP’s counter response was graceless and bad-tempered. It ‘lashed out at Akhilesh Yadav for mocking it over the “love jihad” issue, saying the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister should concentrate on the deteriorating law and order situation in his state.’ (DNA India, Aug 24, 2014).

Ironically it is the BJP and its loony fringe that is the main instigator of communal strife in the state. The audacity! The cheek! It’s like a thief castigating the police for not catching him! But, like I said earlier, truth and facts and reality has never been an obstacle to the BJP.

But this should give it pause.

When through its actions, even someone like Akhilesh Yadav can come across as a statesman at its expense, it should know it’s time for a rethink.