NDA goes downhill

The BJP publicised the fact that Congressmen would visit Mr Bukhari every week. What better proof of "appeasement"? In fact, the Congress cultivated conservatives from many different communities, including Sikhs and Hindus. But the Muslim "appeasement" charge stuck in middle-class minds.

Today, the BJP is shamelessly pursuing "appeasement" through opportunists like Arif Mohammed Khan and "Vajpayee Himayat" committees, and by wooing the "Shahi Imam's" son, Ahmed Bukhari. This Mr Bukhari is a near-caricature of his father. He has suddenly discovered it's his "religious duty to raise my voice against the exploitation of Muslims" by the secular parties. He wants Muslims to "give the BJP a chance".

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Mr Bukhari criticises the BJP for the Gujarat pogrom, but says "the Congress is responsible for 36,000 Gujarats (riots)." This is downright false. The Gujarat carnage remains unmatched in magnitude and virulence in Independent India. It's our worst state-sponsored pogrom.

Mr Bukhari makes much of Mr Vajpayee's "apology" for the Babri demolition and his "condemnation" of the Gujarat violence, in March 2002. But within days, in Goa, Mr Vajpayee was back at Muslim-bashing.

Mr Vajpayee has all along defended Mr Modi's government and shared the campaign-dais with him for weeks. The BJP's stand on the Best Bakery case, rightly transferred by the Supreme Court for retrial in Maharashtra, speaks for itself. As for the Babri "apology", 141 BJP MPs want a temple at that very site.

It's easy to dismiss Mr Bukhari. But what of Mr Vajpayee himself? After shouting against "appeasement" from the rooftops, he's promising generous funding for madrassas and "2 crore" Urdu teachers' postsalthough the sangh parivar characterises madrassas as terrorism's nurseries.

The promise's frivolity was exposed when his own Office lowered the figure one hundred-fold. Even this is huge. India has only 6 lakh Urdu schools, of which just 2,000 are under the Centre. They cannot employ 2 lakh teachers!

While launching the "Himayat caravan", Mr Vajpayee told Muslims: "I need your support … to see that Hindus and Muslims walk hand-in-hand, live in brotherhood, help one another, provide each other security …[I have] "a larger purpose. Firstly, to develop cordial relations with our neighbour. And, secondly, to develop a feeling … that we have to live together …"

The first proposition insultingly equates Indian Muslims with Pakistan. This is fully in keeping with the sangh parivar's description of them as the "internal enemy", a Pakistani Fifth Column.

The rest of the speech is pious, sanctimonious blabber, contradicted by the BJP's practice and its Hindutva core-ideology, which privileges Hindus alone as "authentically" Indian.

The BJP's distinctiveness lies in rejecting India's multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic character. Mr Vajpayee's "sweet talk" has provoked anger amongst many Muslims. It'll convince nobody.

The reason for this colossal hypocrisy? The BJP faces a bleak election prospect. Its own internal surveys say it can at maximum win 22 seats in Uttar Pradesh, and the NDA will fall short of the halfway Lok Sabha mark.

The latest five big opinion polls show a momentum building up away from the NDA, giving it an average of under 270 seats. The April 26 exit polls suggest the NDA's tally could be only 235.

The TDP's likely to lose Andhra. In UP, the BJP is in bad shape. The Brahmins are deserting it. There's a pro-Congress surge thanks to Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi.

Trying to win India's 12 percent Muslim vote is the BJP's first line-of-defence. The second is to try to confuse Muslims.

Thus, the BJP recently said it has no "ideological differences" with the Samajwadi Party. This was meant to suggest that the SP is "soft" on the BJP and can't be trusted by Muslims. True, the SP accepted the BJP's tacit support while forming the government in Lucknow and failed to file a common chargesheet against BJP-VHP leaders in the Babri case. But, despite compromises, it remains the BJP's strongest opponent in UP.

Then, on April 27, at Bakshi-ka-Talab, Mr Vajpayee himself urged Muslims to "stick to the SP" and not vote for the Congressan amazing thing for the BJP's "star" to do.

The objective of the second line-of-defence is to divide the Muslim vote as much as possible. It's unlikely that it will work. So the BJP has taken to outright bribery. Hence, the Lucknow stampede in which 22 women and 3 children died during the free distribution of sarees.

The event was organised by the BJP on its campaign-head Lalji Tandon's birthday. Advertisements for free sarees appeared in newspapers over five days, displaying Mr Tandon's pictures. The party also organised transport for the audience.

This was despicable feudal-style patronage, an offence against the election law, and downright corrupt. It's condemnable that the poor should be made to kill one another like this.

So ghastly is the episode that the Election Commission must take strong action on itincluding countermanding the Lucknow election.

The stampede will damage the BJP everywhere by highlighting its anti-poor character. The Opposition must doggedly pursue the issue.

It should be equally uncompromising on former Socialist George Fernandes who, to win RSS support for his fraught election, has declared: "I have very old ties with the RSS."

The same Mr Fernandes gave a clean chit to Dara Singh for the gruesome killing of missionary Graham Staines and his children. His former associates say his new statement confirms that "he has sold his soul". They have floated a "George Harao Abhiyan" (campaign) to defeat "the traitor". One must wish them well.

Praful Bidwai is an eminent Indian columnist.