- The BJP built up slowly
By: Dr Rajkumar Singh
The 1989 general elections took place in a religious environment. This time it was not the Congress but the Bharatiya Janata Party which was poised to do best on the issue of a Hindu Rashtra. On the eve of elections the BJP took part in the transportation of ‘holy bricks’ to Ayodhya and a foundation-laying ceremony for a temple to Ram was held near the Babri mosque. The Congress government, afraid of losing some Hindu votes, did not stop the ceremony from taking place. There was a miracle victory and increase of seats for the BJP and it supported the Janata Dal led by V.P. Singh to form second non-Congress government at the centre. With the support from both the BJP and the Communists the electoral verdict spelled the beginning of the end of the Nehru Gandhi dynasty and represented the most decisive success of certain groups, influential at the regional level, in exercising state power directly from the centre.
Mandal-Mandir dispute: In less than a year the V.P. Singh government decided to implement the recommendations of the Mandal Commission to reserve jobs at the Centre for backward castes in August 1990. All political parties of the time, including the BJP, adopted that plank to seek the votes of this largest caste conglomerate. The scheme appeared designed to divide the Hindu community by caste and thereby undermine the BJP’s electoral project of mobilising support by playing the Hindu majoritarian card. In response, the Hindu movement led by the BJP and others, such as the RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal, became active and left a decisive effect on the party system. BJP leader L.K. Advani responded by undertaking a rath yatra and threatened to arrive in Ayodhya and start building the temple. It resulted in the polarisation of Indian politics on communal lines.
Most religious leaders oppose any change as a violation of religious beliefs. This attitude does not arise from religious beliefs per se, but by the interest associated with the status quo. Every religion in the world brought social change and a truly religious person would always fight against the status quo and try to change society to make it more just and meaningful
By doing this the BJP had taken on not only its political rivals but had also challenged one of the main ideological foundations of the Indian state. In coming years the dynamics of this trend has been fully played up in course of the fragmentation of the parties in the 1990s. It is in conjunction with other issues– economic, secular, federal– that these forces have played a substantial role in Indian politics. However, in this brief period the nature of the state and its dealing with issues remained unchanged. The Janata Dal had little option and it settled down to working within the established parameters of the compromise between formal democracy and covert authoritarianism. The incidents’ taking place severely damaged the secular façade of the Indian state. We do need religious values, but certainly not politicisation of religion.
Demolition of Babri Masjid: The campaign and blind wave of religion finally led to demolition of the Babri Masjid in the presence of the leaders of the BJP, the RSS and the VHP on 6 December 1992, setting off some of the worst attacks on the Muslim community in many parts of India. The BJP from the 1970s onwards sincerely executed its two-pronged policy. Especially after the dramatic success of the Rath yatras, its own agenda was rewritten in a retrograde direction but it also adhered to its more secular constituency. From the advertising tactics it continued to appeal to the constituency of modernist groups but on the other it persisted with its blatantly communal propaganda aimed at the more traditional Hindu groups.
But once again the political economy of India took a turn when Congress Party formed the government with a working majority after the 1991 elections with P.V. Narasimha Rao as PM. The new regime began economic reforms: privatisation of public sector units, liberalising of rules allowing freedom for investors and globalisation of flow of capital and consumer goods and services. The initial impetus for the economic reforms came as a result of an acute balance of payments crisis in mid-1991, making it necessary to seek a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and accept certain terms of a stabilisation and structural adjustment programme. However, the economic reforms pursued by the Congress government addressed only the first part of a two-pronged problem facing Indian economic development. The reforms concentrated on addressing the negative effects of over-intervention by the state in certain sectors and removing the more stiff bureaucratic controls on industry. They moved tardily to rectify state negligence of critical social sectors, notably, health and education. The political costs of pursuing a lopsided reform process contributed to the defeat of Congress in the 1996 elections.
Integration of Hindu votes: As a result of the 1996 elections, even though the anti- BJP forces acquired strength for some time, the BJP emerged as the largest political party. In this election the BJP’s election manifesto clearly adopted the theory of ‘cultural nationalism’ and noted, ‘Our nationalist vision is not merely bound by geographical or political identity of India, but defined by one ancient cultural heritage. From this belief flows our faith in cultural nationalism which is the core of Hindutva’. But soon the BJP’s electoral politics and desire to remain in power led it to forge alliances with other known secular parties. Till then the ‘Hindu nationalist BJP had been regarded as politically untouchable by regional parties, but the further decline of the Congress Party in the general elections of 1998 and 1999 created the conditions for the formation of BJP-led coalition governments at the centre. In the 1999 elections, it formed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with 22 parties in it and came to power at the Centre. The NDA’s agenda of governance set aside such contentious issues as building Ram temple in Ayodhya, abrogating of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and framing of a uniform civil code for citizens which would mean that the Muslim would not be governed by the Shariat law on civil matters.
Unfortunately, in India politics has not only been politicised but also commercialised. Religious leaders identity themselves with one or the other politician or political party. They have amassed wealth by exploiting people’s religious beliefs and lead a life of luxury. They enter into profitable bargains with powerful politicians and politicians go to them for money and votes. Both together they thus exploit the religious belief of common people. A state should never prioritise one religion over the other, particularly in a secular country like India. But most of our politicians while paying lip service to secularism grossly misuse religion for political purposes. The irony is that these politicians take oath for secularism while filing their nominations, but having filled that, beg for votes openly in the name of religion and caste. In addition, religion in our society has also become the greatest obstacle for any meaningful change. Religion, unfortunately, identified with the status quo. Most religious leaders oppose any change as a violation of religious beliefs. This attitude does not arise from religious beliefs per se, but by the interest associated with the status quo. Every religion in the world brought social change and a truly religious person would always fight against the status quo and try to change society to make it more just and meaningful.
The writer is head of the Department of Political Science at BNMU, Saharsa, Bihar, India, and can be reached at: [email protected]
