BJP in disarray
INDIA'S right-wing opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in utter disarray.
On August 17, veteran BJP stalwart Jaswant Singh launched his book, entitled Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence, in which he praised Jinnah as a leader who did not want to divide India. He described Jinnah as "secular" and "a great man." The book sent shockwaves through the senior leadership of BJP, who were in Shimla at that time for chintan baitak (introspection meeting) to find the reasons for the election debacle.
BJP President Rajnath Singh hastily issued a statement on August 18 dissociating the party from the book and called for an emergency meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board. The Board met on August 19 and summarily expelled Jaswant Singh from the party's primary membership, without even calling for an explanation from him.
The expulsion came at the directive of Mohan Bhagat, chief of RSS (Rashtriya Shyamsevak Sangh). The RSS (many call it India's Taliban) is the ideological fountainhead of BJP. Meanwhile, BJP's over-enthusiastic communal Chief Minister Narendra Modi has banned the book in his state Gujarat. Copies of the book were also burnt in some states.
In June 2005, party President L.K.Advani was involved in a similar gaffe when on a visit to Pakistan he praised Jinnah as a "secular" leader "who actually created history." The statement triggered an ugly furore amongst the hardline Hindu groups, including RSS, prompting Advani to offer to resign as president of the party. Though he blamed the press for misquoting him, he could not survive the onslaught and eventually Rajnath Singh replaced him as president in December 2005. Advani is now the leader of the opposition in the Lok Shabha.
Jaswant was also in Shimla for the chintan baitak when the decision to expel him was made. Speaking to the media in tears he remarked: "I am sad because I was among the first lot of members of the BJP. I have served the party to the best of my dedication for the past 30 years. It saddens me even more that I have been expelled on grounds of writing a book."
Born in 1938 Jaswant Singh, known as a liberal democrat, retired as a major from the Indian army in the late 1960s. Though he originally comes from Rajasthan, he became a member of the Lok Shabha from the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency in the last elections. He was minister for external affairs, then minister of finance and also held the defense ministry portfolio under the Vajpayee government (1998-2004). He has been with BJP since its establishment in 1988.
What is worrying for the BJP leaders is that Jaswant is currently the chairperson of the powerful Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in the parliament. If he wants to be nasty, Jaswant can start sniffing around into the misdeeds of his erstwhile ministerial colleagues.
Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, is regarded in India as the person responsible for the bloody partition of akhand Bharat (undivided India). The hardline communal parties have survived in India by selling anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan hatred. Jaswant's book trashes a widely held belief that it was Jinnah who was to be blamed for the partition. According to Jaswant, India needed a demon and Jinnah was the logical target.
Excerpts from Jaswant's book (published in Times of India) actually appear to be targeted against the Congress. Jaswant Singh's disclosures at the book launching ceremony have indeed rattled the Congress. Congress reacted angrily and questioned his nationalism. Jaswant said that Jinnah wanted a loose federation of states, each with substantial autonomy. Mountbatten also offered this but Nehru rejected the idea.
Nehru and Patel wanted a strong federal government for unity. Jinnah did not agree on grounds that it was a cloak for Hindu hegemony. Nehru's intransigence pushed Jinnah to become anti-Congress and eventually drove him to demand a Muslim homeland. Thus, it was Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and Congress -- not Jinnah -- who actually divided India in 1947.
Jaswant also criticised Sardar Vallabbhai Patel, the icon of Gujarat, for banning the RSS at Nehru's directives in 1948, following Gandhi's assassination. This revelation strikes at the very roots of the communal ideology of BJP and overturns popular historical beliefs.
Publication of the book and subsequent expulsion of Jaswant have triggered a heated debate in Indian political circles. Arun Shourie, also a former cabinet minister of the BJP government, has asked for a total overhaul of the BJP leadership. He described BJP as a kati patang (kite without string).
Rubbishing BJP President Rajnath Singh as a "Humpty Dumpty" and "Alice in Blunderland," Shourie asked the RSS to bomb the BJP headquarters and install a new leadership. Shourie, a staunch anti-Muslim academic, may be the next to leave BJP. Senior leaders such as Vasundhara Raje, Yashwant Sinha and several others are also said to be restless.
Actually, since the electoral defeat (BJP 116, Congress 206 in the 545-seat Lok Shabha) last May, BJP has been floundering and drifting without any effective leadership. Bickering among the senior leaders has become routine. They have been looking for scapegoats for the election debacle at the chintan baitak.
The ideology of the BJP -- "Hindutva" -- is an euphemism that has remained undefined to most Hindus. The caste-frayed Hindu polity of India finds it difficult to identify itself with "Hindutva." Hindu fanaticism (some say Hindu Talibanisation), hatred towards Muslims and Christians, and extreme intolerance cannot be the ideology of any sane political party in a democracy. Had it not been for the towering personality of former prime minister A.B. Vajpayee (85), the party would have probably splintered long ago.
Pakistan has not made any official statement on this current BJP episode. It has come as a welcome surprise that a senior leader of BJP has praised Jinnah. Eulogies on Jinnah would always be welcome in Pakistan, even if it comes at the expense of Advani or Jaswant. Anti-India hawks are, however, delighted at the predicament of the BJP.
This is not the first time that the ghost of Jinnah has haunted the "Saffron Parivar." Most of the BJP leaders are old and live constantly around the history of the partition of 1947. If BJP has to oppose the Congress, it has to shun the meaningless "Hindutva" ideology and identify itself with the common people of India.
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