BJP's vote-bank politics

The BJP has always said it rejects "unprincipled", "opportunist" alliances. But it has brazenly entered into breathtakingly opportunist alliances -- as with the Bahujan Samaj Party which reserves the choicest abuse for it.

The BJP once deplored defections. But its ranks are full of defectors. The despicable D.P. Yadav episode shows that left to itself, the BJP would happily recruit big-time criminals.

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The BJP reaped middle-class sympathy by condemning "vote-bank politics" targeted at Muslims, Adivasis, etc. Its campaign on the Shah Bano issue, centred on this claim, fuelled its rapid growth in the 1980s.

Today, the BJP practises that very politics. Last fortnight, it held the Muslim Vikas Mahasammelan, where Mr Vajpayee, wearing a green turban, unconvincingly told a hired audience that the party has nothing against Muslims. He wanted to woo Muslims by underscoring the peace process with Pakistan and resumption of cricket matches.

The assumption? Indian Muslims have a special affinity for Pakistan. But this is tendentious and downright false.

Mr Vajpayee said the Indian Muslims must befriend the BJP. Most Muslims see this as akin to the RSS's menacing statement immediately after the Gujarat massacre: "Let Muslims understand that their real safety lies in the goodwill of the majority. Muslims will be safe… provided they win the goodwill of the majo- rity …"

Nothing in the BJP's ideology, policies and practice can reassure the 180 million who constitute India's non-Hindu citizens (and the vast majority of Hindus, who are secular) that the party has budged even an inch from majoritarian Islamophobia.

The BJP's "concessions" to Muslims are tokenist: Haj subsidy, a Muslim President, iftar parties … Had the BJP had genuine concern for Muslims, it would have acknowledged their core-problems: a literacy rate of under 40 percent (national average 62), landlessness (51 percent), underemployment (a horrific 62 percent for males).

It has done nothing to address their real needs -- health, education and employment --, or increase their representation in government jobs (under 4 percent) and legislatures (less than half their ratio in the population).

The BJP even chides and taunts Muslims for backwardness and poverty -- as if they willed it!

However unconvincing the BJP's appeal to the Muslim masses, it has drawn in leaders like Mr Arif Mohammed Khan. Ms Najma Heptullah is also likely to join it.

These individuals have no base amongst Muslims. Their defection is driven by narrow, petty calculations. Ms Heptullah won't even get elected to a municipality on her own. The first time she got a Rajya Sabha ticket was when she prostrated herself before Indira Gandhi and wouldn't let go of her feet. So much for "dignity"!

Mr Khan used the Shah Bano issue as a pedestal. He has been through numerous parties. After the Bofors scandal, he joined Mr V.P. Singh's Jan Morcha, but betrayed its main appeal: probity in public life. As Civil Aviation Minister, he grounded Indian Airlines' entire Airbus A-320 fleet for nine months. The ban was lifted only after Airbus paid a huge, shall we say, "consideration" -- probably benefiting Mr Khan.

Mr Khan knows he has little following and not much of a future. He's only cashing in on his identity.

In 2002, Mr Khan spent time in Gujarat, apparently helping the massacre's victims. He can now stab them in the back by campaigning for Narendra Milosevic Modi, the pogrom's architect.

Mr Khan's logic is perverse: nobody is secular in India (not even the Left, Mr Khan?); therefore, go with hardcore anti-secularists! That means that in an unfair world, you must not promote balance, but yet more unfairness! Mr Khan can of course further humiliate Gujarat's Muslims, who still live in fear and face an economic boycott. But his apology for the massacre won't whitewash it.

The BJP's calculation in recruiting "token" Muslims is downright cynical. There are 100 Lok Sabha constituencies, where the Muslim vote is 15 to 20 percent, or more. But no Muslims will be taken in by "poster-boy" tokenism.

But will the tokenism produce more Hindu votes? That seems unlikely. The party's hardcore supporters will vote for its Muslim candidates anyway. But tokenism won't fool the uncommitted Hindu voter. Indians know how to distinguish between genuine gestures, and dishonest ones.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav had to withdraw his ill-advised move to close schools at mid-day on Fridays so Muslim children could offer namaz. The most vociferous protests came from Muslims. They rate education for boys and girls higher than prayers. They knew the move would eventually harm them.

The BJP won't gain much by inducting opportunist and discredited Muslims. Such Quislings (named after a renegade Norwegian officer who collaborated with the Nazis) will soon see their own comeuppance.

There's little space in the BJP for non-Hindus. It has just one Muslim Lok Sabha MP. He was its only Muslim minister. The original "poster-boy" Sikander Bakht is dead. Despite loyalty, he never rose high in the BJP.

What the BJP wants is not leaders, only mannequins. Mannequins are dispensable; they are discarded -- unceremoniously.

The BJP isn't becoming a "normal", "mainstream" party, which accepts India's plural, multi-cultural, multi-religious character. It hasn't given up its Ayodhya obsession, leave alone apologised for the Babri demolition. Its supporters lay claim to 30,000 monuments, including the Ajmer dargah.

The BJP refuses to cut its umbilical cord with the RSS or dilute its Hindu-supremacism. It is India's only party, partially barring the Shiv Sena, committed to destroying India's plurality.

Only a tenth to a quarter of Indians vote for the BJP. Some voters are communal. Some are upper-class people who like elitist policies. The Quislings won't affect their choice anyway. The BJP's "minority card" is a dud!

Praful Bidwai is an eminent Indian columnist.