BJP must remember the nation has elected it to be an alternative to the Congress not the CPI-M
It's a bit rich for Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury to berate the BJP for being dependent on “political violence” to further its agenda given the blood of hundreds of its political opponents is on the CPI-M's hands in Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. But the breathtaking hypocrisy of the Indian left aside — which once swore and sections of which still believe that power flows from the barrel of a gun — there is no merit in over-enthusiastic anti-left Front activists engaging in condemnable displays of public vandalism which is what pulling down a couple of statues of Vladimir Ilych Ulyanov alias lenin of Bolshevik Revolution famein Tripura after the saffron win in the Assembly election amounts to.
Hardline BJP supporters may argue till they are blue in the face that what's gone down in Tripura is more akin to the ‘spontaneous' demolition of statues and othersocialist icons across Eastern Europe in the aftermath of fall of Communism as an outcome of decades of oppression by the party-state. But the fact is that comparisons will and are being drawn, especially across social media, more with the US-backed forces/Iraqis pulling down Saddam Hussein's towering statue in Baghdad in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq and the Taliban blowing up the Bamiyan Buddhas. For a party that knows the importance of having a cogent narrative, this should be a cause for deep worry. Yes, the CPI-M has presided over a party-state in Tripura for over two decades like it did in West Bengal for 30-odd years, and atrocities, violence, intimidation and vandalism have been a part of its governance record too. And yes, social media was awash with pictures on Tuesday evening from the Sri lanka communal flare-up being passed off as “right-wing violence in Tripura”.So, is the BJP trying to match the Marxists lumpen for lumpenIJ Already, Tripura copycat vandalism against a statues/busts of Periyar in Tamil Nadu, Syama Prasad Mukherjee in Kolkata and Ambedkar in Uttar Pradesh have been reported. How does the BJP like it when memorials to its icons are defaced in Opposition-ruled StatesIJ History may be written by the victors but in democratic politics there are no permanent winners and nobody stays in power forever. We can all do without this nonsensical ideological narrow-mindedness.
The Prime Minister and Union Home Minister along with the BJP president and Tripura's Chief Minister-elect have intervened to condemn the vandalism in the State and promised strict action against its perpetrators, apart from taking stockof allegations of political intimidation and violence from both sides. But there are still many within the fold, including at senior leadership levels, who don't see anything wrong in what has transpired. The BJP has a choice to make. Does it want to get into a tit-for-tat situation with the CPI-M and emulate the peripheral Marxists in theiragitprop or does it want to be the natural party of governance in India to replace the CongressIJ Pulling down statues of ideological foes is not the way forward; the BJP must rein in the strand of a pretty vicious anti-intellectualism within its ranks which is more suited to Mao's Cultural Revolution than Mother India's inclusive embrace.