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BJP National Executive reveals
Hindutva agenda’s resurgence
WSN Bureau
India's right
wing Hindu ultra-nationalist party, the BJP, that is seen largely
responsible for the demolition of the Babri Mosque and inducing rank
communalism in the Indian polity of saffron variety, as opposed to
the soft communal approach of the Congress, recently concluded its
national executive's meeting where it gave a call to change the
definition of "secularism".
The call was
given by none other than the BJP president Rajnath Singh and backed
by the party's presumptive Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani.
Combined with this new search for "secularism" were also a
re-statement and reiteration of new demands: Abrogation of Article
370 and imposition of a Uniform Civil Code.
Clearly, as
India
races towards the 2009 general elections, the BJP has thought it fit
to intensify the communal polarisation. Hindutva's hardcore agenda
is back on top. And there should be no surprise.
After all, one
of the top personalities iconised by the RSS-BJP was M.S. Golwalkar.
Here is a singularly exemplifying quote from the spiritual guru of
Advani and Rajnath Singh: “In
Hindustan
exists, and must exist, the ancient Hindu nation, and nought else
but the Hindu nation. All those not belonging to the national, i.e.
Hindu race, religion, culture and language, naturally fall out of
the pale of real national life."
Never has the
BJP disowned this philosophy. It has used as an instrument the
ability to mislead the people and camouflage the real RSS intention
of transforming
India into a
modern version of a rabidly intolerant ‘fascistic’ Hindu Rashtra.
And because it
sees the Sikhs as one community which could be one big obstacle as
its philosophy and the sense of commitment to Sarbat Da Bhala works
against the basic ideological stance of the BJP, therefore it
becomes all the more necessary for the saffron party to keep intact
its alliance with the Akali Dal.
It is only the
short-sightedness of men like Parkash Singh Badal, or their vested
interests, that cannot let it see that the BJP's commitment to its
ideology must be seen in the context of Golwalker's words:
"(Non-Hindus) have no place in national life, unless they abandon
their differences, adopt the religion, culture and language of the
nation, and completely merge themselves in the national race. So
long, however, as they maintain their racial religious and cultural
differences, they cannot but be only foreigners.”
Does the BJP
repudiate this today? Is this something that the Akali Dal stands
commited to? The Indian nation state -- no matter which brand of
communalism, Congress or BJP, is ruling it -- has treated the Sikh
community, in fact, all non-Hindu ethnic minorities in keeping with
Golwaker's philosophy.
The BJP’s
‘PM-in-waiting’ had earlier also advanced the precept of the BJP’s
concept of secularism soon after the destruction of the Babri Masjid
in two articles in the Indian Express.
18
June,
2008
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