Election 2009 has broken the back of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) , the supposed to be the part of difference and the second largest opposition party of India. Defeats and victories are part of democratic process. Defeats should lead to introspection , analysis to identify the reasons for the defeat and find straregies to recover the lost position. Instead BJP seems to be on auto pilot tailspin to disaster. From a party of difference it is making a perfect recipe of party of dissidence , indifference and chaos away from the ground realities.
The leadership seems happy not to analyze the defeat. They are eager to find issues and scapegoats and save itself from the labour of figuring out the actual reasons for the defeat. Escapism !
The latest step in the walk of self destruction came with the expulsion of veteran leader Jaswant Singh.
Jaswant Singh may not be a popular leader among the masses of India still he is one of a tallest leader BJP has now. He is an Ex-army officer , an academic and a senior most member of BJP , having served the party for 30 years. A party cannot ban a leader for his individual views that he expressed in his book. It just shows the immaturity and irresponsibility of a political party. Jaswant did not make any comment as the party spokesperson , whatever he mentioned in his book “Jinnah – India, Partition, Independence” is his individual expression and people should be tolerant of one’s individual viewpoints . Ofcourse , the party could always disassociate from the viewpoint of Jaswant Singh , present its own thoughts on the discussion and make clear its stance. Instead the leadership chose to yet again deflect the real focus on election defeat and make Jaswant Singh the only issue in its “chintan baithak” meet , where it is supposed to plan its “road ahead”. Going by the happenings “road ahead” seems to be full of thorns and they are in no mood to remove them and walk the talk.
So what are Jaswant Singh’s controversial remarks ?
"I would admire that in any man, self-made man, who resolutely worked towards achieving what he had set out to,"
“Nehru believed in a highly centralized polity. That’s what he wanted India to be. Jinnah wanted a federal polity. That even Gandhi accepted. Nehru didn’t. Consistently, he stood in the way of a federal India until 1947 when it became a partitioned India.”
“I think we have misunderstood him (Jinnah) because we needed to create a demon… We needed a demon because in the 20th century the most telling event in the subcontinent was the partition of the country.”
I have no specific opinion about Jinnah. He is a man who took advantage of the turbulent situation that prevailed in the subcontinent during the partition time and carved an independent country. No one could also deny the fact that the policies of congress during that time and primarily of Nehru and Gandhi helped Jinnah in the making of Pakistan. Why do people have to frown upon that fact ? Jinnah singlehandedly could not give wings to the concept of Pakistan. The situation in the Indian Subcontinent and the policies , ego and ambitions of political leaders of that time sure have a reason for the division of subcontinent. So Jaswant Singh has a point when he claims that the policies and image of Jinnah has been demonized in India to hold him solely responsible for the division of the country. I do agree with him in this context. History is many times taught one-sided : where as Jinnah is demonized in India , Gandhi and Nehru are demonized in Pakistan.
There is also a truth in Jaswant Singh’s claim that Nehru believed in centralized polity and Jinnah wanted a federal polity. Certain policies of Nehru post independence would sure add weight to his claim.The egos , personal ambitions and dreams of the political leadership of India since 1930’s have their own share that lead to the painful , bloody partition of India and creating a wound that will take a long , long time to heal.
I may not wholly subscribe to this view point of Jaswant Singh. Since I have not listened to in what context he said this , I would not disagree too. He is partly right on this , according to me.
“Look into the eyes of the Muslims that live in India and if you truly see the pain with which they live, to which land do they belong? We treat them as aliens … without doubt Muslims have paid the price of partition. They could have been significantly stronger in a united India … of course Pakistan and Bangladesh won’t like what I am saying.”
Hindus and Muslims and in general the common man of India still suffers from the partition wound. Though 60 plus years have gone by since the partition of Indian subcontinent and birth of Indian sovereign nation , the wound of partition still remains. We cannot deny the fact that still remains a degree of mistrust between Hindu and Muslim communities , fuelled lately by divisive politics and the emergence of Islamic terrorism. Its a separate topic in itself to be dealt with. Of course from a Muslim point of view as a community yes united Indian Subcontinent would have given a bigger say and a stronger political voice for them.
Anyways , back to the topic , my view point BJP made a blunder in its decision to sack Jaswant Singh.
Post Election , BJP should be doing a soul search to find what went wrong and to make corrections to it course but they simply are refusing to do so. The party is in a chaos , leadership out of sync to the mood of nation , an aging leadership , short sighted strategies and refusal to analyze the outcome of election and bad decisions are sinking the BJP into disarray . Its time the party wakes up to the reality and pulls its socks. India needs a strong opposition and right now still BJP is the only party that could play the role. I hope and wish , BJP rebrands and emerges itself as a strong political party in sync with the younger generation and acts up to its original selling point of “Party with a difference” .
Going by current events , Its a long,long road ahead. My sympathies goes with Jaswant Singh in this turn of events. In his media interview post expulsion , he sounded what would happen if "soch, vichar and chintan" stopped in Indian politics. I wonder too.
Parting shot quote :
“From BJP’s Hanuman, I am now its Ravana”
: Jaswant
Some excerpts from Jaswant Singh’s book :
‘The basic and structural fault in Jinnah’s notion remains a rejection of his origins; of being an Indian, having been shaped by the soil of India, tempered in the heat of Indian experience. Muslims in India were no doubt subscribers to a different faith but that is all; they were not any different stock or of alien origin.’
- & -
‘It is in this, a false ‘minority syndrome’ that the dry rot of partition first set in, and then unstoppably it afflicted the entire structure, the magnificent edifice of an united India. The answer (cure?), Jinnah asserted, lay only in parting, and Nehru and Patel and others of the Congress also finally agreed. Thus was born Pakistan’.
- & -
‘His opposition was not against the Hindus or Hinduism, it was the Congress that he considered as the true political rival of the Muslim League, and the League he considered as being just an ‘extension of himself’. He, of course, made much of the Hindu-Muslim riots (1946; Bengal, Bihar, etc.) to ‘prove the incapacity of Congress Governments to protect Muslims; and also expressed fear of ‘Hindu raj’ to frighten Muslims into joining the League, but during innumerable conversations with him I can rarely recall him attacking Hindus or Hinduism as such. His opposition, which later developed into almost hatred, remained focused upon the Congress leadership’ (M.R.A. Baig, Jinnah’s secretary).’
- & -
‘Religion in all this was entirely incidental; Pakistan alone gave him all that his personality and character demanded. If Mr. Jinnah was necessary for achieving Pakistan, Pakistan, too was necessary for the fulfilment of Mr. Jinnah.’
- & -
‘However, it has to be said, and with great sadness, that despite some early indications to the contrary, the leaders of the Indian National Congress, in the period between the outbreak of war in 1939 and the country’s partition in 1947, showed in general, a sad lack of realism, of foresight, of purpose and of will.’
- & -
‘As (Maulana Azad) wrote in his memoirs, he had come to the conclusion that Indian federation should deal with just three subjects: defence, foreign affairs and communications; thus granting the maximum possible autonomy to the provinces. According to the Maulana, Gandhi accepted this suggestion, while Sardar Patel did not.’
- & -
‘For, along with several other there is one central difficult that India, Pakistan, Bangladesh face: our ‘past’ has, in reality never gone into the ‘past’, it continues to reinvent itself, constantly becoming our ‘present’, thus preventing us from escaping the imprisonment of memories. To this we have to find an answer, who else can or will?’
Excerpt source : Key excerpts from Jaswant Singh’s book
Seems like BJP had too many skeletons in the closet, isn’t it?
I am waiting to see how this whole thing unfolds… will BJP implode or will it emerge out stronger? who knows?
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@ Ambi:
It would be surprising only if they did not had any skeletons in the closet. What surprises is the way its coming out and the confusion in the leadership to contain it.
A democratic setup needs a strong opposition. At this point of time, only BJP could fill in the shoes , so I hope they emerge out stronger from this crisis.
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