Asghar Ali Engineer is a rights activist and heads the two organisations, Institute of Islamic Studies and Centre for Study of Society and Secularism. He has authored or edited 44 books on such  issues  as  Islam and communal and ethnic problems in India and South Asia in general.  For links to his other articles, please go to the top page of this site.

 The crushing defeat of the BJP in the recent elections in U.P. Uttaranchal and the Punjab is, in fact, defeat of communalism. The BJP for long had been playing double game. It pretended to be secular before the Indian people in general but maintained its communal face before its hard core cadre. It is not possible to deceive the people for ever. Its leaders, including the Prime Minister Shri A.B. Vajpayee told the nation that the construction of the Ramjanambhoomi Mandir was not on its (NDA) agenda but whenever elections were declared its other face appeared in the form of VHP and Bajrang Dal. And these outfits of the Sangh Parivar would threaten to construct the temple from a declared date to satisfy the Hindutvawadis. This bluff now has been called off.

 Of course the VHP and some hard core elements still maintain that the BJP faced crushing defeat, as it did not fulfil its promise to construct the Ram temple in Ayodhya. They maintain that the BJP would have won had it taken up the cause of the Ram temple. However, this claim is not born out by the ground reality. All surveys show that people are tired of temple issue. They are more interested in developmental issues than temples and mosques. The BJP was defeated simply because it did not deliver.

 The BJP failed on all fronts. Its slogan was “bhay, bhook aur bhrashtachar se mukti i.e. freedom from fear, hunger and corruption. It was nothing more than a deceptive slogan. The BJP governments in all states – in Gujrat, in U.P. and in Uttaranchal indulged in record corruption. In Punjab too, along with the Akalis it was partner in corruption. It had several criminals among the elected representatives and even in the Cabinets. In Gujrat the VHP and the Bajrang Dal repeatedly attacked the minorities and minorities including Muslims and Christians have been living in perpetual fear in Gujrat. In U.P. they had to moderate their attacks on minorities as they ruled in alliance with other secular parties. The Gujrat was referred to as the ‘laboratory of Hindutva’ by the supporters of the BJP.

 The minorities in Gujrat are living in the constant fear of attacks. The attacks on Christians also began from Dang in Gujrat. Their churches were demolished and bibles burnt down in various parts of Gujrat. So much for their slogan of freedom from fear. While BJP launched a tirade against the corruption in the Congress it described itself as the ‘party with the difference’. Its governments turned out to be more corrupt than the Congress governments.

 As often asserted by this writer a democracy cannot be run by communalising the polity. A democracy has to be based on secular principles. In democracy it is citizenship which is fundamental category and not religion. Parties like the BJP in India and Islamic parties in other countries try to make religion as fundamental category rather than citizenship. Only a secular democracy can guarantee rights of all citizens irrespective of their religion, caste or creed. Communal parties cannot.

 It is unfortunate that even Prime Minister Shri Vajpayee was not above this kind of politics though he is projected as moderate in the BJP politics and Shri L.K.Advani as the hawk. Shri Vajpayee went to the extent of saying during his election campaign that he does not care for the Muslim votes and that the BJP will win even if the Muslims do not vote for his party. This resulted in furore and Mulayam Singh went to the extent of demanding his resignation. The party managers had to do the damage control and Vajpayee issued a clarification maintaining, as politicians always do, that he was misquoted by the press.

 But the fact is he did say the BJP could do without Muslim vote. No doubt he said this in sheer frustration. He was of course receiving the results of pre-poll surveys which clearly indicated that the BJP is losing and the Muslims will vote either for Samajwadi party of Mulayam Singh Yadav or the BSP of Mayawati. Muslim votes are crucial in more than 60 assembly seats of U.P. No party can win without the Muslim support in these constituencies and sixty seats matter a lot.

 And it is interesting to note that it was not the first time that the BJP leaders had made such statement. In previous elections too, in U.P. in 1991 elections as well as in the Centre in the 1999 elections the BJP leaders had said that they have shown that one can win without Muslim votes. Shri A.B.Vajpayee spoke in the same vein. Somewhere it is the desire of the BJP to win the elections without the Muslim support and then dispense with their democratic and constitutional obligations towards minorities. This is what the communal politics is based on. After all the RSS talk about the Hindu Rashtra is not just a slogan. It is their deep desire and their political logic is based on this. Zial-ul-Haq also marginalised the Hindu and Christian minorities in Pakistan politics by introducing separate electorate for them

 Shri. Vajpayee also sings different tunes in different places. First he said in Staten Island in USA among the crowd of the VHP sadhus that “RSS is his soul” and changed his statement when he returned to India. To please his Hindutva constituency he made a statement that construction of Ram temple reflected national sentiment but when he came under attack from opposition he mused from his holiday resort in Kerala that “ do not disturb the status quo” at Ayodhya, Kashi, Mathura and other places. “The Government will not remain a silent spectator” he said ”and adopt delaying tactics, as unfortunately happened eight years ago.” 

 The BJP, and any communal party for that matter, tries to arouse communal sentiments and bases its politics only on these sentiments. Under compulsions of the NDA politics the BJP-led Government at the Centre tries to maintain a moderate and secular face but reverts to its communal face when it comes to winning election taking people’s religious sentiments for granted. The BJP had totally failed to provide good governance in U.P. and other states and as soon as the U.P. elections were announced it resorted to various emotional measures like banning the SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India), enactment of POTO in the teeth of opposition to fight terrorism and raise the Mandir issue through VHP and Bajrang Dal.

 However, as the results show nothing helped it. The BJP by itself could not get even 100 seats in U.P. The SP of Mulayam Singh Yadav has emerged as the largest single party with 148 seats and Mayawati’s BSP got 94 seats, which is an impressive gain. This is the worst performance of the BJP since its ascendance to power on the Ramjanambhoomi issue. Not only this Shri Vajpayee, sensing the defeat, was not referring to local issues in his campaign speeches at all both in U.P. as well as in the Punjab. He was referring only to emotional issues of cross border terrorism and attack on parliament on 13th December.

 Again it was keeping in view the U.P. elections that the Vajpayee Government severed all connections with Pakistan. Rail, bus and air links with Pakistan were snapped to arouse emotional hysteria. The people to people contacts in both the countries are very important to promote amity and friendship between the two countries and peace in South Asia depends on peace between India and Pakistan. Now it will take, one does not know how long, to restore these links again. Pakistani rulers of course are no less to blame. It is, however, another story.

 The BJP should now learn a lesson that its communalism and politics of religion will not take it far. The basic issues of the people will have to be addressed which are issues of development, poverty, unemployment and housing. People cannot vote for it indefinitely on issues of temple and mosque. The defeat in the U.P. elections is a clear writing on the wall for the BJP. The Hindutvawadis, it must be understood, will not rest in peace. They may put more pressure on the BJP leadership to intensify the Mandir issue arguing that it lost because it did not fulfil its promise to build the temple.

 Thus one has to wait and watch. One does not know who will form the Government in U.P. If Mulayam Singh forms the Government the BJP may intensify the Mandir issue to embarrass the Mulayam Singh Government. Or under pressure from its hard core elements the BJP leadership may try to intensify it and put the country again on fire. The Gujrat elections are due in next 11 months and conditions in Gujrat are also not very congenial for the BJP. The BJP lost heavily in Panchayat elections in Gujrat last year despite weak and faction ridden Congress. In bye-elections in Gujrat along with the elections in U.P. though its Chief Minister Narendra Modi scrapped through the BJP lost two other seats to the Congress.

 Thus it is not the end of woes of the BJP. It has lost the biggest state of U.P. and is likely to face tough time in its ‘laboratory of the Hindutva’. It may play its Hindutva card much more intensely as Gujrat is also quite crucial to the survival of the BJP. The secular forces, unfortunately, are endlessly divided. The future of the country lies only in strengthening secular democracy. 

 There may not be immediate fall out of the U.P. results on the NDA Government at the Centre but cracks may appear soon. There are already rumblings within the BJP against the Vajpayee leadership. They now doubt his capacity to deliver. His charisma is wearing thin and the hawks may gain upper hand. And if the secular forces fight among themselves as in Maharashtra, only the communal hawks will gain. 

Institute of Islamic Studies, 
Mumbai:- 400 055