It is the only Indian political party that’s free from ideological slavery and has no qualms about being steadfast on familiar pro-Hindu urges
An undeclared war is going on in India in the name of discussion or narrative., which is purely political. Politics is nothing but a brief reflection of society. In discussion, this reflection can be somewhat small or large according to the subject and time. If we look at the BJP’s politics as a social reflection, we get freedom from ideological restrictions, taboos and limitations. From an ideological point of view, BJP is the only Indian political party that is free from ideological slavery. The BJP is steadfast and ‘Atal’ like Angad on its familiar pro-Hindu urges.
BJP has become an innovative confluence of new and old. RSS has given us a vast and free ideological canvas of politics through BJP. We — India's political, non-political and even BJP people — are not able to fully express BJP's politics in the right words. This depersonalisation is not because of the BJP’s leadership or the critics of the BJP's lack of words or understanding. Non-BJP people are crooked magicians of words. This personalisation is because BJP's goal of ‘all-inclusiveness, all-perception and all-pervading’ is presented to us with rapid changes in the society.
It is unquestionably accepted by all that in the last three decades, especially in the last decade, India has covered hundreds of years of change. The ideological apparatus of the BJP has become the biggest Indian institutional fertile framework to gently, rapidly and acutely express these social changes. The BJP gets this gentleness from the Sangh. Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya's principle of Ekatm Manavwad is the machine to accept this gentleness from the Sangh. BJP has learned very well both to protect its backbone and to stay on its backbone. This is the process of photosynthesis of the banyan tree called BJP.
Broadly speaking, there are four streams of politics in India: BJP, Congress, Left and Socialism. The BJP itself is a stream derived from the RSS Parivar. It did not create any dummies or surrogates of its own. The remaining three political ideas continue to deceive by producing dummies. Like Congress to Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banarji or NCP of Sharad Pawar. Congress, Leftists and Socialists produced less positive discussions but in negative discussions, these people have become master of masters.
People often say one thing after the BJP has come to power on a large scale; Hey, it's not a "Party with a Difference” anymore. The Opposition may say this for their comfort and enjoyment, but BJP is still a "Party with Difference"!! Crores of workers from various parties have come and joined the BJP, lakhs of office bearers, and thousands of MPs and MLAs have come and joined the BJP; But did the BJP leave Ayodhya? Or Kashmir? Or Common Civil Code? If you check the discussions and narratives developed by all Indian parties in the last one or two decades, you will know that from the ideological point of view, the rest of the parties have adopted a comfortable zone, but the BJP has not given up its tough ideological insistence. Even today, the BJP is standing steadfast on its Sanghi pole, on Ekatm, on Antyodaya, on Ayodhya, on the Uniform Civil Code and many other uncomfortable subjects. On the other hand, other parties do not want to make their ideological base these days.
They change their views, families and base. Congress has gone bitter by being Communist. Communists are pretending to be Islamists. Don't know what the Communist Socialists are doing. “Abandoning Indianness” is a big word, but I am placing before you some social contexts of the period after Congress clamped Emergency.
Describing tribals as separate from Hindus, making some communities separate religions or minorities, changing the court's decision in the Shah Bano Case, one country two legislations, Arya-Anarya's Issue, describing Ram Mandir as Sangh BJP's office, calling Shriram as imaginary, arrest of Shankaracharya on the night of Diwali, calling Covid vaccine as BJP's vaccine, opposition to vaccine diplomacy, Naxalism, Khalistan, Bodo, Maoism, Article 370, Pandit-less Kashmir, anti-Hindi politics in the south, separation of northeastern states, India's relations with China, et al.
There are other issues such as tilting towards China in a dispute. On this and many other issues like these, the so-called intellectual and progressive political elements of India have always behaved contrary to the basic spirit of the nation. These people keep celebrating the sacrifice of 75 CRPF soldiers of CRPF while fighting the Naxalites. After doing all these tricks, when these different political parties try to unite for the attainment of power, then a lot of humour arises.
A pair of snake-mongoose and dog-cat-rat is made and the support of the society is sought. Does society think about whom it should support? Seeing a dog, if you support it, it will eat the cat; if you give it to a cat, it will eat a rat; if you give it to a rat, it will gnaw at the country. The question is really huge and begs serious consideration.
(The writer is the official language advisor to the Ministry of External Affairs, the Government of India, Raj Bhasha)