VHP Runs Amok
Sangh Parivar: The Crisis Within
VHP president Ashok Singhal was rightly and roundly condemned when he fanatically called the award of the Nobel to Prof Amartya Sen a "Christian conspiracy". This is more than the ranting of a lunatic. It represents the mindset of sections of the sangh parivar which genuinely believe that people like Prof Sen and Mother Theresa have no loyalty to India because they are not practising Hindus. There is a second aspect to Mr Singhal's statement. That is his fear that Prof Sen's advocacy of universal access to education and healthcare will lead to India being "flushed with foreign funds for their ultimate use for religious conversion." This logic is staggering. What Mr Singhal is saying is that Christian missionaries and foreign funds alone can generate universalisation of education - so profound is Hindutva's commitment to educating this "Hindu" nation.
Mr Singhal also thinks it is dangerous to educate the masses. They will aspire to become full human beings in their own right; they might even embrace modernist-liberal views. This idea too enjoys some currency among sections of the elite - which is one reason for our shamefully meagre commitment to education. India is set to become, according to UNICEF, the world's most illiterate country 20 years from now. So what Mr Singhal is vocalising is the interest that some advocates of Hindutva have in perpetuating illiteracy, poverty, low wages and subjugation. Mr Singhal's statements represent a heightening of the venomous character of Hindu-communal propaganda.
This is part of a larger phenomenon: frustration and deep divisions within the sangh parivar, especially between the RSS and the BJP. Evidence for this comes from the RSS's Nagpur chintan baithak - the first such meeting in 11 years - which reprimanded the BJP for jettisoning swadeshi, and warned it of loss of RSS support. Mr K.C. Sudarshan, formally RSS Number Three, but effectively perhaps its most important leader, did not stop there. He named the Insurance Regulatory Authority and Patents Bills as among the causes of the RSS's unhappiness with the BJP. The Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, as if on cue, launched a blitzkrieg promoting certain domestic business groups - e.g. the manufacturer of a particularly toxic brand of detergent - through pricey half-page newspaper advertisements. The SJM is set to hold a Swadeshi Mela next month. True to type, it has roped in the Khadi & Village Industries Commission.
This represents serious misuse of the official machinery to partisan political ends. Swadeshi is strongly opposed not just to multinational capital and globalisation- against which it is perfectly legitimate to have reservations - but to competition and efficiency. It represents not the cause of autonomy and self-reliance, but servility to capital. Swadeshi favours protection for inefficient industries, wants retrograde labour practices, and practises tax evasion in the name of small-scale industry promotion. Gandhi's swadeshi was anti-imperialist. He wanted to protect poor workers and artisans.
Today's swadeshi is a demand by privileged sections of Indian capital for protection against risk-taking. Even Mr George Fernandes has joined the bandwagon by demanding a boycott soft drinks made by MNCs. The swadeshi lobby is not about to give up. Or else, the sangh's student wing would not have adopted an explicitly swadeshi platform. One should then expect more, not less, friction between the RSS- SJM-ABVP and economic "liberalisers" in the government. However, the parivar's tensions are by no means confined to economic issues.
The BJP is itself riven with deep divisions - between Mr L.K. Advani and Mr Vajpayee; between Mr Murli Manohar Joshi and Ms Uma Bharati; between warring factions in every state, especially U.P.; between those who oppose the CTBT, and the "pragmatists" who want to sign it, regardless of merits. Such differences have grown to gigantic proportions because the BJP is shrinking. When the party was growing, they could be accommodated. Now they can't. Any dispassionate assessment of the BJP's record must acknowledge failures and flaws on all fronts: law and order; relations with the states; the economy; education and culture; Jammu and Kashmir; investigation into corruption; infringement of minority rights; and nuclearisation, which has vitiated our security environment. The RSS is frustrated at the damage this is causing to the parivar's image. After all, this is the first time that the BJP is wielding power at the Centre (barring the inglorious 13 days in 1996). Getting discredited now could gravely affect its electoral performance.
The latest India Today poll forecasts that the BJP plus allies will only win 130 seats (down from 252) in an early election, while the Congress would win 305. BJP rule has been largely purposeless as far as the RSS is concerned except for aggressive Hindutva in education, exercise of the nuclear option, and placing of loyalists in key positions. The RSS is not happy with the Cabinet induction of Messrs Jaswant Singh and Pramod Mahajan, whose appointment it had vetoed in March. An angry RSS is therefore putting up the VHP to create trouble for the BJP by launching anti-minority programmes. The RSS may not pose an immediate threat to the Vajpayee government. It can, theoretically, support another party, as it did (the Congress) in 1984. But today, it has few options. The Congress is on the upswing. Its orientation inhibits it from embracing soft-Hindutva.
So the likely outcome of the parivar tussle is a stalemate, with the BJP in disarray. This presents an ideal opportunity for the Congress to differentiate itself sharply from the BJP. For instance, it could have mobilised large numbers in Gujarat in defence of the Christians. It could have outlined a strongly pro-poor and anti- privatisation economic policy.
However, it did little. The Congress has moved towards secularism. But it still remains wedded to neo-liberal economics. This must change if it is to emerge as a credible, serious, alternative to the BJP.
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