“How old is the Hindutva movement? It is a relatively new development in Indian politics, but it has become a powerful force. Although Hinduism an ancient religion, Hindutva is quite a recent political movement.”- ‘The Argumentative Indian’ by Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate.
Much discussions, debates and heated arguments had taken place across our country, still taking place related to religion versus politics. V.R.Krishna Iyer, the eminent jurist, the pride of our nation reminds us the much quoted statement enshrined in the Preamble of our Constitution : ‘India, the Secular, Socialist, Sovereign, Republic’ through almost all his writings. The nonagenarian jurist despite age-related handicaps is still active in the social life of Kerala, India and the world as a whole.
Vir Sanghvi, in his weekly column ‘Parallax View’ captioned ‘The Old Gandhimarg or the Pandit Nehru Road’ in the New Indian Express has ignited further discussions and debates and earnestly invites the readers to participate to put forth their views related to the influence of religion in our political life. Ours is a nation obsessed with politics and politicians and the developmental issues occupy a secondary place. Mr.Sanghvi raises the point of keeping politics away from the influence of religion and he is of the firm opinion that the Nehruvian path or outlook of secularism is best suited to our land.
Naturally the role of BJP (Bharathiya Janata Party) in the national politics enters his writing. Though BJP swears by the ‘Hindutva view’ and harps on building a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya at the disputed site, that Party very cleverly keeps away from even talking about building the temple on attaining power at the centre. The coalition politics in India, please recall the NDA alliance (National Democratic Alliance) consisting of 18 parties most of the supporting entities were holding secular approach and staunch opponents of Hindutva view of politics and hence the issue of Ram Mandir put on hold. The obvious reason being the stability of their government.
To manage a coalition government with participants holding different perceptions, be it BJP or the GOP (Grand Old Party) of India, Indian National Congress mull countless times to reach a final decision to follow each’s respective agendas and they are forced to put the entire plans in abeyance. Clever indeed are our politicians and for that matter all politicians the world over.
The ongoing tussle between BJP and Janata Dal (U) of Bihar Chief Minister is the latest instance. Whether BJP will pull out of the JD(U) government is watched by the nation with interest and curiosity Nitish’s reluctance to share dais with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was understandable. It was suicidal on his part as the majority of Yadavas, Kurmis, Muslims, Chamars umpteen of them all his supporters would have turned tables against him had he went on with it. Modi and his party tried their level best to hog the limelight thus pushing Nitish to the background. No self-respecting CM won’t tolerate it and hence it was natural.
Vir Sanghvi aptly points out while the NDA alliance under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in power he always kept a comfortable distance from the Sangh Paivar elders at Nagpur and kept quiet on the issue of constructing a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. Vajpayee always dwelt upon the importance of keeping a secular approach. (whether he was wearing a khaki knicker beneath his dhoti is another matter) Constraints of a coalition govt. were always there. The shrewd and diplomatic politician Vajpayee was through out successfully jumped all hurdles and completed a six year term (1998-2004). Sanghvi says even Narendra Modi BJP’s hard-core Chief Minister of Gujarat has never revealed his Hindutva affinity to the people in his State of Gujarat.
The columnist drives his point home about the widespread secular views of Indian masses. Leave the terror elements as they have no religion anywhere in the world.
Mr.Sanghvi at one place writes about Jaswant Singh, former External Affairs Minister who was unceremoniously expelled from BJP for his controversial book on Jinnah for singing paens of the latter, many eye-brows raised by many leaders of the Party as well as the Sangh Parivar family at Nagpur has staged a come back to the parent organisation – return of the prodigal son. What surprises me most is while the infighting was raging within the Party soon after bitter performance at the hustings in the aftermath of 15th General elections he was also one among the revolters and his pointed question to the leadership was that what the Party meant by Hindutva. He is a scholar par excellence in Hinduism- not Hindutva – and his first controversial work- ‘A Call to Honour’- ample testimony to this. It is also worthwhile to note here that even while active in BJP he had not much affinities whatsoever with Sangh Parivar. Then why he chose to return to the parent party? Only one answer comes in my way? The former Jawan must have apprehended the possibility of falling into political wilderness.
Hinduism is not in anyway connected with Hindutva which is propounded by the Sangh Parivar for its ulterior motives. Hinduism has a wider meaning. Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureated in his much sought after book, ‘The Argumentative Indian’ has written about Hinduism in detail and the narrow-minded BJP leaders distorting it and naming it Hindutva.
Other person ‘who is in transit’ (Courtesy : Vir Sanghvi) to BJP is the saffron-clad self-proclaimed Sanyasin Uma Bharti, former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh expelled by the Party years ago who is known for throwing tantrums unbecoming of a Sanyasin.
If BJP is again to stage a come back to the throne at Indraprastha in future it is not because they get consolidated under the new leader Nitin Gadkari as the President of BJP but only due to the dismal performance of the UPA 2 alliance governance, presently we are witnessing and experiencing.
Kudos to Vir Sanghvi once more for triggering a discussion on religion in politics and the need of adopting secularism as our guiding force.
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