ARUN JAITELY’S ‘EXPERIMENT WITH TRUTH’

Brajesh Misra, Principal Secretary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is still alive and kicking. His pro-American attitude is widely known. N.R.Narayanamoorthy, Infosys Mentor, once said ‘I am an unabashed admirer of America.’ Narayanamoorthy is not a BJP man. He admired America for entirely different reasons. Similarly it is a well-known fact that former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh had made it well known in his book ‘A Call To Honour’ his pro-American stance of USA. His camaraderie with Strobe Talbot former US official, a great name in the corridors of Bush administration, is described in the autobiography.
BJP’s pro-American stance during the NDA regime under Atal Bihari Vajpayee was not at all a secret.
Since the last few days BJP leader Arun Jaitely’s name has been drawn into a controversy regarding BJP’s ‘opportunistic ‘ attitude with regard to its attitude towards Hindutva. In the Wikileaks cables accessed to by a National daily ‘The Hindu’, one of the secrets leaked out is Arun Jaitely’s reference to his party’s policy of opportunism regarding Hindutva which had reportedly conveyed to an American Embassy official in Delhi which was confidentially transferred to US Embassy in America. In his detailed talks with the American Embassy official Arun Jaitely makes it amply clear that as far as BJP is concerned, Hindutva comes into prominence whenever its need arises. That Hindutva is not that serious as far as BJP is concerned. We were all made to believe that Hindutva is part and parcel of BJP which is one of the many branches of Sangh Parivar at Nagpur. Be that as it may majority among us didn’t give it much of a prominence as we were all very well aware that apart from BJP’s oft-repeated talks extolling Hindutva not much seriousness was bestowed upon it while in power. While sitting in the opposition it was a different matter altogether then it was quite possible to rake up the issue with so-called ‘courage and conviction’. The picture always changes when BJP along with secular powers form an alliance be it of any time, NDA or something, the term ‘Hindutva’ is sanctioned a leave so as to enable the alliance and coalition to proceed smoothly.
As far as the attitude to USA is concerned both Congress and BJP are in the same boat and experiences in the past are shining examples.
From 1998-2004 NDA alliance was in power at Delhi, it was as close to USA as ManMohan Singh govt is close to USA. Then actually what is the difference between the two parties? Actually nothing. Each’s policies were are the same we could very well witness it in the past especially the policies on the economic front. Till attainment of power at the Centre NDA was vociferously championing ‘Swadeshi (indigenous)’ economic programmes just opposite to the neo-liberal programmes and against all policies Congress stood for. The same BJP upon attainment of power deviated from its proclaimed policies and with more vigour and intensity followed neo-liberal economic policies and more pro-American stances. Even Sangh Parivar, the parent organization sat like a mute spectator as it had not much voices in the NDA alliance. Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal etc made known their reservations and vehemently protested against BJP adopting entirely different path. That’s that.
The term Hindutva raised its head only while the party executives met or during anniversaries, Chintan Baitak for namesake.
Even before Jaitely’s statement leaked out the term ‘Hindutva’ was an opportunistic term and there need not be any hullaballoo as even a Congressman is aware of it. In fact the Congress leaders need be happy and contended on coming to know that both Congress and BJP are Siamese twins. BJP is desperately trying to keep its identity by occasionally mentioning ‘Hindutva’ that’s all.