02-01-2006, 12:23 AM
Praful Goradia in Pioneer, 1 Feb., 2006
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Hindutva in search of a hero </b>
<b>Time is opportune time for the BJP to redefine itself and emerge out of its ideological dilemma, </b>says Prafull Goradia
As never before, a conglomeration of factors has gathered to favour the advent of a Hindu party to the fore. Will BJP president Rajnath Singh sense the opportunity and lead Hindu nationalism to power? <b>In the 2004 general election</b>, the Congress did not win: 145 seats out of 543 was no victory. It was <b>the BJP that lost by dropping from 183 seats to 138.</b> The Congress is plagued with a series of mega scandals, beginning with the Mitrokhin papers that exposed the bribes given by the Soviet KGB to the Congress and its allies.
Hardly had the din of the Soviet mischief died down when the Volcker report burst upon the Congress and then Foreign Minister Natwar Singh. Thereafter came the public exposure of the UPA's favour to Quattrocchi: The ill-gotten Bofors commission was allowed to be withdrawn from his London bank accounts. Then there were reports of the Attorney General having obliged Adani Exports with an opinion that helped to give crores of rupees worth incentives to the company, despite the reservations of the Finance Ministry.
In November, Bihar rejected Mr Lalu Prasad Prasad. The rejection of the Congress by the Bihar voters was once again confirmed: The party dropped from 10 to nine MLAs. Karnataka had not given this grand old party anything like a mandate in the last Assembly election; and yet, Mr Dharam Singh became Chief Minister. That undeserved power in Bangalore has also been lost and the BJP, as in Patna, has gained. All indications are that UP, too, does not favour the Congress. The situation for the party does not differ much from that in Bihar. <b>Fundamentally, the Nehruvian vote-bank of Adivasi-Harijan-Muslim has long been lost, as demonstrated by most of the elections since 1989.</b>
The Congress, which, until Rajiv Gandhi, was the people's first choice, has become the party of last resort. Concomitantly, the era of socialism and sham secularism passed. And the national party called upon by the people to fill the vacuum was the BJP. <b>Unfortunately, its compromise over ideology in order to placate its coalition partners in the NDA made its core constituency feel let down by election time in May 2004. </b>
The BJP leaders had, in effect, neglected Hindutva. They had put Articles 370 and 44 and the Ayodhya issue on the backburner. Little did they realise that the Articles belong to the Constitution, which has been in force since January 1950. The climax of Ayodhya had been reached in December 1992. How could the issue be so crucial from 1998 to 2004? The same NDA parties had not objected to the presence of the Shiv Sena, which claimed credit for demolishing the Babri edifice, in the coalition. Nor did any party pull out of the NDA over the continuance of Mr Narendra Modi after the post-Godhra violence.
The moral of the experience was that playing to the Muslim gallery, even for the sake of the NDA, would be useless. What is necessary is to imbibe Hindutva properly, pursue it fearlessly and make the Hindu heart tick. There cannot be less than 30 per cent of the electorate, which will lap up a Hindu manifesto. Who would have believed as late as 2001 that Gujarat could go the way it did and stay there for years? None before Mr Narendra Modi made the Hindu heart throb and tried to discover how much it was prepared to love. What Gujarat feels today, India can feel tomorrow.
<b>The essence of Hindutva is the integrity of India. It was Krishna who showed the way centuries ago when, based in Dwarakapuri, he headed a confederation of five Yadava republics called Andhaka Vrismi league. Although the confederation did not expand, his dream of Indian unity came true. Where in the country is he not revered? From Kamrup to Kutch in the west, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari in the south, Krishna is a vibrant legend. To come down to the 20th century, Babasaheb Ambedkar chose Buddhism. He did not consider any other faith. If he turned either Muslim or Christian, he declared, he would denationalise himself and his followers. He thought that such religions inspired extra-territorial loyalties.</b>
<b>Islamic radicals,</b> as President George Bush calls them, or jihadis, as we describe them, are spreading to every nook and corner of the country. Their mission is to tear India asunder, whether by attacking Parliament or infiltrating into Assam and West Bengal. It is not being merely a national struggle. <b>It is a world war. It is being fought across five continents - from Australia in the South-East to the US in the North-West.</b>
Only South America is free from an incident. <b>The global war is being fought by five civilisations against Islam led by its radicals: China in Xinjiang, Thailand in Pathani, Hindus in India, Jews in Palestine, Christians in Russia, Kosovo, France, Spain, the US, etc. This war is more truly a global conflagration than any of the previous three. World War I was virtually confined to Europe. World War II, too, was largely Euro-centric except for the Japanese exploits in the Pacific Ocean and East Asia. The third was between the US and the Soviet Union.</b>
History is on the side of Hindutva. But opportunity alone does not make destiny. In Napoleon Bonaparte's words, destiny is catching luck while it is flying. Hindutva is in search of a hero. Will it find one?
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
He has a sense of 'force of history' and analysis of events than most.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Hindutva in search of a hero </b>
<b>Time is opportune time for the BJP to redefine itself and emerge out of its ideological dilemma, </b>says Prafull Goradia
As never before, a conglomeration of factors has gathered to favour the advent of a Hindu party to the fore. Will BJP president Rajnath Singh sense the opportunity and lead Hindu nationalism to power? <b>In the 2004 general election</b>, the Congress did not win: 145 seats out of 543 was no victory. It was <b>the BJP that lost by dropping from 183 seats to 138.</b> The Congress is plagued with a series of mega scandals, beginning with the Mitrokhin papers that exposed the bribes given by the Soviet KGB to the Congress and its allies.
Hardly had the din of the Soviet mischief died down when the Volcker report burst upon the Congress and then Foreign Minister Natwar Singh. Thereafter came the public exposure of the UPA's favour to Quattrocchi: The ill-gotten Bofors commission was allowed to be withdrawn from his London bank accounts. Then there were reports of the Attorney General having obliged Adani Exports with an opinion that helped to give crores of rupees worth incentives to the company, despite the reservations of the Finance Ministry.
In November, Bihar rejected Mr Lalu Prasad Prasad. The rejection of the Congress by the Bihar voters was once again confirmed: The party dropped from 10 to nine MLAs. Karnataka had not given this grand old party anything like a mandate in the last Assembly election; and yet, Mr Dharam Singh became Chief Minister. That undeserved power in Bangalore has also been lost and the BJP, as in Patna, has gained. All indications are that UP, too, does not favour the Congress. The situation for the party does not differ much from that in Bihar. <b>Fundamentally, the Nehruvian vote-bank of Adivasi-Harijan-Muslim has long been lost, as demonstrated by most of the elections since 1989.</b>
The Congress, which, until Rajiv Gandhi, was the people's first choice, has become the party of last resort. Concomitantly, the era of socialism and sham secularism passed. And the national party called upon by the people to fill the vacuum was the BJP. <b>Unfortunately, its compromise over ideology in order to placate its coalition partners in the NDA made its core constituency feel let down by election time in May 2004. </b>
The BJP leaders had, in effect, neglected Hindutva. They had put Articles 370 and 44 and the Ayodhya issue on the backburner. Little did they realise that the Articles belong to the Constitution, which has been in force since January 1950. The climax of Ayodhya had been reached in December 1992. How could the issue be so crucial from 1998 to 2004? The same NDA parties had not objected to the presence of the Shiv Sena, which claimed credit for demolishing the Babri edifice, in the coalition. Nor did any party pull out of the NDA over the continuance of Mr Narendra Modi after the post-Godhra violence.
The moral of the experience was that playing to the Muslim gallery, even for the sake of the NDA, would be useless. What is necessary is to imbibe Hindutva properly, pursue it fearlessly and make the Hindu heart tick. There cannot be less than 30 per cent of the electorate, which will lap up a Hindu manifesto. Who would have believed as late as 2001 that Gujarat could go the way it did and stay there for years? None before Mr Narendra Modi made the Hindu heart throb and tried to discover how much it was prepared to love. What Gujarat feels today, India can feel tomorrow.
<b>The essence of Hindutva is the integrity of India. It was Krishna who showed the way centuries ago when, based in Dwarakapuri, he headed a confederation of five Yadava republics called Andhaka Vrismi league. Although the confederation did not expand, his dream of Indian unity came true. Where in the country is he not revered? From Kamrup to Kutch in the west, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari in the south, Krishna is a vibrant legend. To come down to the 20th century, Babasaheb Ambedkar chose Buddhism. He did not consider any other faith. If he turned either Muslim or Christian, he declared, he would denationalise himself and his followers. He thought that such religions inspired extra-territorial loyalties.</b>
<b>Islamic radicals,</b> as President George Bush calls them, or jihadis, as we describe them, are spreading to every nook and corner of the country. Their mission is to tear India asunder, whether by attacking Parliament or infiltrating into Assam and West Bengal. It is not being merely a national struggle. <b>It is a world war. It is being fought across five continents - from Australia in the South-East to the US in the North-West.</b>
Only South America is free from an incident. <b>The global war is being fought by five civilisations against Islam led by its radicals: China in Xinjiang, Thailand in Pathani, Hindus in India, Jews in Palestine, Christians in Russia, Kosovo, France, Spain, the US, etc. This war is more truly a global conflagration than any of the previous three. World War I was virtually confined to Europe. World War II, too, was largely Euro-centric except for the Japanese exploits in the Pacific Ocean and East Asia. The third was between the US and the Soviet Union.</b>
History is on the side of Hindutva. But opportunity alone does not make destiny. In Napoleon Bonaparte's words, destiny is catching luck while it is flying. Hindutva is in search of a hero. Will it find one?
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
He has a sense of 'force of history' and analysis of events than most.