Jana Sangh to BJP: Battling India's pluralism
Amulya Ganguli
Narendra Modi's views of the historical events at the time of partition are as problematic as his understanding of what happened in the subsequent periods. Inaugurating the new, plush, 170,000 sq. feet, vaastu-compliant Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office in New Delhi, he said that the party in its earlier avatar as the Jana Sangh was at the forefront of all the leading mass movements in the country.
However, this assessment is unlikely to be shared by those who are not followers of the BJP. In their opinion, far from being a leading player during popular agitations in the 1950s and 1960s, the Jana Sangh was very much on the margins of the political scene if only because it carried the stain of responsibility for Mahatma Gandhi's assassination and was shunned by the Muslims. The liberal Hindus, too, looked upon the Jana Sangh as a backward-looking party of the "cow belt", representing all that was primitive in the Indian mind.
This somewhat lowly status can be seen from the fact that the Jana Sangh won only three Lok Sabha seats in the 1952 general election with 3.06 per cent votes. Its subsequent performances were only marginally better. The party won four seats in 1957 (5.93 per cent), 14 seats in 1962 (6.44 per cent), 35 seats, its best performance till then, in 1967 with 9.41 per cent votes and 22 seats in 1971 (7.35 per cent). These figures do not substantiate the claim about the Jana Sangh being a major player in the political scene.
Not surprisingly, the party was not averse to losing its identity in 1977 when it merged with three other equally marginal players -- the Congress (O), the Congress for Democracy and the Socialist Party -- to form the Janata Party. If the Jana Sangh was as important as it is claimed to be, it wouldn't have given up its distinct status so readily. As for the three others, they were all bit players and have since disappeared although prominent politicians of the time -- Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Jagjivan Ram, Madhu Limaye -- were associated with them.
However, it has to be acknowledged that the Jana Sangh was able to reinvent itself as the BJP after the latter was formed in 1980 and now represents one of the poles of Indian politics. From this standpoint, the loss of its earlier identity may have been a blessing in disguise for it could start all over again. But the crucial link between its earlier self and the present one remains. It is that of communalism -- the cornerstone of its ideology.
Indeed, this trait has become even more pronounced with the BJP's assumption of power at the Centre in 2014. Nothing demonstrated this characteristic more starkly than the assertion by a BJP MP, Sakshi Maharaj, that Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi's assassin, was a patriot. It is a safe bet that a claim of this nature would not have been made by anyone in the Jana Sangh in the immediate post-Independence decades when it was supposedly leading mass movements. The party simply did not have the confidence then to do so when it was unsure of its place in the social and political worlds.
As a result, the Jana Sangh had kept its core beliefs under wraps. If the BJP is less discrete now, the reason is that it believes it has been somewhat better able than before to sell its anti-Muslim ideology in the garb of nationalism and by promising vikas or development which, it claims, can be provided only by Modi, who has been described as God's gift to the nation by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu.
The BJP has also been helped by the weakening of its opponent, viz., the Congress, which no longer wears the halo as at the time of Independence and for about two decades afterwards when it had no real challengers. At the same time, it is obvious that the BJP's progress at the central level has been by fits and starts, pointing towards flawed policies which do not have wide popular approval.
The party's first stint under Atal Behari Vajpayee was followed by a break of 10 years when the Congress was in power. Now, there is speculation that Narendra Modi may find it difficult to repeat his performance of 2014 when the BJP won a majority on its own in the Lok Sabha. The grapevine in Lutyens Delhi now predicts that the party's tally of seats will be around 200-220, dropping from the present 282.
Rumours of this nature explain the BJP's caution, as in its Jana Sangh days, against unfurling the Sangh parivar's saffron flag to the fullest extent possible. Sakshi Maharaj, for instance, has been told not to praise Godse again.
What this circumspection indicates is the BJP's realisation that it remains a square peg of sectarianism in the round hole of India's pluralism. From the Jana Sangh days to the present, the party of cultural nationalism -- one nation, one people, one culture -- has been an outsider, battling unsuccessfully against India's DNA of cultural assimilation.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)
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Modi should leverage his ties with world leaders to de-escalate war in West Asia: Omar Abdullah
Jammu (PTI): Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said India can play a meaningful role in de-escalation in West Asia, given Prime Minister Narendra Modi's strong relations with the warring countries and their neighbours.
He said Pakistan was leveraging ties with Iran and the United States, and that any effort towards ending the war should be welcomed.
"As I said in the House (Assembly), we would like the war to end as soon as possible. The role that the prime minister can play may not be possible for anyone else because of his good relations with all these countries," Abdullah told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
He, however, said any escalation would not be easy to manage.
"Any such move by US President Donald Trump, despite the long history of Iran resisting external domination, would not be easy," the chief minister said.
Asked about Pakistan mediating in the war, he said, "I will simply say that if any country can play a role in preventing this war, no one should have any objection to it."
He added, "I will repeat what I said … our prime minister has good and close relations with all countries — whether it is Israel, the United States, Iran, or the countries around Iran. If those relationships can be used to make some progress and help ease the situation, it would be a good thing."
Abdullah said attacks by terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed in India, as suggested by a report from the United States, are not unlikely.
Meanwhile, he asserted that any efforts to end the war, be it from Pakistan, must not be resisted.
"Pakistan is using its good relations with Iran and the United States to its advantage, and it has done so. How can we object to that? If that angle helps in stopping the war, would you want them not to act and let the war continue? We want the war to stop. If any country can play a role in that, it should. And if we can play an even better role, then we should do so," he said.
On unemployment in J-K, the chief minister said the issue cannot be resolved overnight, and government jobs alone are not the solution.
He stressed the need to explore alternative avenues, highlighting the importance of Mission Yuva in promoting entrepreneurship.
"Mission Yuva provides not just funding but also support in preparing DPRs and post-startup assistance, such as marketing. In just nine months, distributing Rs 1,000 crore and approving numerous schemes is a significant achievement," he said.
Abdullah credited the coordination between the government and Jammu and Kashmir Bank for the scheme's progress.
