Era of liberal Hindutva politics ends
As if to indicate the path of extremism the current Hindutva politics is taking, from that of liberal nationalism, veteran politician and statesman, RSS ideologue former PM Atal Bihari Vajapayee breathed his last on Thursday. It had been more than a decade since Vajpayee moved away from active politics and public life. As a mark of liberal politics he stood for, Vajpayee spent almost his last few years in the ICU. But the most troubling fact is, all the contemporaries that had joined hands with him during his heydays, weren’t facing any better time in the party either.
BJP has put most of its senior members in compulsory ICU. The others have been sent to old age homes within the party. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Jaswant Singh and all others are currently irrelevant in the party. Modi, Amit Shah, Adityanath and the others are setting the order for everything within BJP. With the death of Vajpayee, BJP has proclaimed an era has really come to an end, that of veteran politicians and statesmen.
Vajpayee maintained a certain distance from the RSS even if he coexisted in the same ideology almost. While the country was up in flames hearing the speeches such as Advani and Uma Bharathi, Vajpayee's soft words gave a much needed solace. When the country was faced with a question of finding a political alternative, it did not choose Jan Sangh or BJP. Instead, the country chose Janata Parivar as its third front. BJP used the opportunity when Janata Parivar failed to work constructively to build the nation. Indian people chose Vajpayee-led BJP as an alternative to Congress. This was some kind of a political game that RSS played. On one hand Advani was impressing Indians with his Ram Rath Yatra. Wherever he went, there would be bloodbath. At the same time, RSS knew the secularism and democratic values were still strong in the country.
On one hand, they were trying to drive Hindutva to the grassroots level, while projecting Vajpayee to the front and get the attention of upper class people. Though L K Advani brought more seats for BJP with his indirect involvement in violence, Vajpayee was made the PM candidate since RSS preferred that way. Seculars voted for Vajpayee, and not for BJP; or so they believed. If not for him, even other secular forces wouldn’t have joined hands with the BJP.
The NDA came into being with Vajpayee in the forefront. He was the pretext for power hungry politicians to come together. His name consumed even fiery politicians such as George Fernandes. Some people call Vajpayee as a secular politician. But he never had any difference of opinion with RSS stance and Hindutva politics. He only opposed the ways in which this goal was to be achieved. His path was that of liberalism. And this caused a major rift between Sangh Parivar and Vajpayee.
His poetic talks, his statesman-like attitude and the language of heart that he spoke, he was everybody’s prime minister. He even succeeded as the PM. He spoke very aptly, fitting enough for the occasion. He had mastered that art. He tried to follow ‘Raj Dharma’ as a PM, to the best of his abilities. But most times, it remained a futile attempt. He tried with all his honesty to build bridges between Pakistan and Bangladesh. BJP came to power with Pak and Bangladesh as taking points.
Hence, his Vajpayee's attempts could hardly bear fruits. He succeeded only partially. But the Sangh Parivar continued to reduce everything he tried to do, to mere dust. He had to work both as Sangh Parivar activist and as a PM of the country. The country lost hold over diplomatic relations and external relations with other countries during Vajpayee's time. India identified itself with America after distancing itself from Non Aligned policy. It lost the trust of third world countries.
India battled maximum number of terrorist attacks during his time as PM. This caused him great embarrassment. Kargil loss imposed a war on India and the country suffered a lot because of that. Another black spot was the hijack of Indian Airlines flight. Terrorists attacked the parliament during his tenure as PM. More than anything else, he contradictory stand during the Gujarat massacre. On one hand, he almost defended it and on another, he prodded Modi to follow Raj Dharma. When Advani came forward to resign owing to Gujarat genocide, it is said that Vajpayee stopped him. Today, this decision is causing the country very dear. The nation is paying a heavy price for the mistake Advani committed.
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Sambhal violence orchestrated by BJP, govt to divert attention from poll rigging: Akhilesh Yadav
Lucknow (PTI): Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday alleged the violence in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal district over the survey of a mosque was "orchestrated" by the BJP, the government and the administration "to divert attention from electoral malpractice".
Police used tear gas and "minor force" in the face of stone pelting by locals in Sambhal on Sunday as tension escalated during a second survey of the Mughal-era mosque, claimed to be originally the site of an ancient Hindu temple.
Ten people have been detained and a probe was launched into the violence, an official said.
Tension has been brewing in Sambhal over the past few days after the Jama Masjid was surveyed last Tuesday on the orders of a local court following a petition that claimed that a Harihar temple stood at the site.
A day after the Uttar Pradesh bypoll results were declared and the Samajwadi Party managed to win just two seats while the BJP and its ally RLD bagged the other seven, Yadav levelled serious allegations against the police and administration.
"A serious incident occurred in Sambhal. A survey team was deliberately sent in the morning to disrupt discussions about the elections. The intention was to create chaos so that no debate on election issues could happen," the Samajwadi Party chief claimed.
Citing reports, he said several people were injured in the violence in Sambhal and asked when a survey of the mosque was already done, why was a new survey conducted again and "that too in the morning and without preparation?"
"I don't want to go into the legal or procedural aspects, but the other side was not even heard. This was intentionally done to provoke emotions and avoid discussions on election rigging," Yadav said.
"What happened in Sambhal was orchestrated by the BJP, the government and the administration to divert attention from electoral malpractices," the former UP chief minister alleged.
Asserting that in democracy, true victory comes from the people, not the system, he said, "The new democracy created by the BJP ensures that people cannot vote while the system dominates."
He added that whenever an impartial investigation takes place, and the truth comes out through booth recordings and CCTV footage, it will be evident that "voters did not cast their votes and someone else became the voter inside the booth".
Yadav claimed that on the polling day, the police and the administration removed the Samajwadi Party's almost all booth agents and many supporters who wanted to vote.
"If voters were prevented from voting, then who cast the votes? If Samajwadi Party votes didn't reach those booths and our candidate didn't get support, then who voted there? This is a serious issue," he said.
"Additionally, there were two types of slips, -- one with a red mark and another regular slip. We raised this issue on the voting day itself, stating that the administration had created such arrangements, leading to discrimination," Yadav alleged.
The Samajwadi Party's candidate for the Kundarki assembly bypoll Haji Rizwan too has alleged that his supporters were prevented from voting.
The BJP's Ramveer Singh won the bypoll in the Kundarki seat by a margin of over 1.45 lakh votes.
