Uma and Her Illusions:

Posted on Monday, July 18, 2005 at - Post Comment

Uma Bharti, the lady sanyasin of BJP, was on a popular Hindi Channel. She was interviewed in the programme which may easily be termed as the Hindi version of HARD TALKs. The premises which she floated during the discussions were following:

(a)        RSS is the mother of BJP and therefore the relations between the two can never be severed;

(b)        Ideology is more important than the individual;

(c)        Without RSS BJP is nothing;

(d)        RSS and LEFT converge on economic issues;

(e)        Bihar elections will be fought on Bijli,Pani and Sadak;

On the first issue Uma Bharti was committal that there can’t be any severing of the relationship. Citing the analogy of mother and son she asked whether a mother can be separated from her son.  I have deliberated in detail on the issue in my article “Mr. Mahajan: Mother RSS May Understand These Realities::when Promod Mahajan cited the same relationship between RSS and BJP. Still I would remind that in the changing social conditions these days, the sons have started living separately particularly after marriage and so the concept of jointness is not reflected in physical terms. The same is replaced by a sense of jointness. Mother RSS also will have to understand these realities and will have to allow the basic freedom so that the son BJP may survive in the tough competitive environment. Secondly, being the mother and the son doesn’t mean that the son dogmatically follows the mother. Infact a good mother is one who herself changes with time or else will have to feel the sorrow of strained relationship with her son. And lastly, mother dies also as nothing in the world is immutable. Here, if the mother RSS is not ready to change and allow sufficient leverage to the son BJP and if some how succeeds in pressurizing the son to follow her direction in toto than the dooms day is not far off for the son. Let mother than also see the death and participate in the cremation of the son BJP. And of course BJP is dead if from an all India party it is again trapped into a meaningless party with double digit representation in parliament and considered as pariah by the mainstream parties. That would be a historical blunder in plain and simple terms.

Mrs. Bharti said that ideology is more important than the individual. But this is an incomplete understanding of the subject. She forgets at least two things.(A) Ideologies also change with times and with changing realities. The capitalism of 18^th century is not the capitalism of today. The Communism as theorized by Marx and Lenin is either rejected today or has changed as in China and (B) there are individuals who invent ideologies and change and modify them. It was Marx who revolutionized the politics of an era by his dialectical materialism. It was Gandhi who defined democracy as RamRajya based on satya ahimsa and gave his own theory of human meaning and life. Innumerable examples can be cited which show that the individuals make history by abberating from the dogmatic ideas. And so if Advani wanted to give a push to the fate of BJP he may have been allowed. If he rejected the concept of Akhand Bharat or tried to redefine Indo Pak relationship or the concept of nationalism  by accommodating the minorities in that at par with the majority, there seems to be nothing wrong in that. Advani as an individual should not have been deprived of this opportunity to put BJP on a larger canvas( minority appeasement is wrong but creating fear in the mind of minority is also wrong, of course whether it is minority or majority everybody will have to follow the rules of the game in toto and there can’t be any relaxation in that).

When Uma Bharti says that without RSS, BJP is nothing the statement is incomplete. It is completed when we add that without BJP RSS is not complete. In fact RSS must realize that the opportunity to have a say in the power it got was only when the BJP came in power and its swamsewaks held the highest position in the government. If RSS reduces BJP to a small reactionary political party with outdated ideas and resistance to change which doesn’t recognize the realities of today than forget about BJP any other outfit of RSS too can never come to the center stage of Indian politics. The spirit of Indianness is in the madhyam marg of Budhha. An extreme rightist position can only be to create pressure on the government so that it doesn’t get involved into anti-people policies. The policies of the government must serve the interest of all communities including the majority community. But the political outfit governing the nation will have to be accommodative of the interest of all groups. If RSS shuns BJP or makes BJP  a party as mirror image of RSS than it would not be unfair to predict that BJP will be reduced to less than 50 seats in Lok Sabha. And so Uma Bharti must check on this also.

When Uma Bharti says that the views of RSS and left converge on economic policy than it strengthens my views that both the outfits are hijacking the socioeconomic policies of the country. They intend to distribute poverty and not prosperity. Can any leftist showcase West Bengal as the model of development for the entire country? If Mrs. Bharti thinks that when you come to absolute power than stop talking of human beings but talk of the cattle as the policy of development then it is a sorry state of mind of an enlightened Indian politicians. If WB is distribution poverty then so is Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand where the respective CMs are more interested in asking the government servants sing Vande Matrama and purchase of flashy cars for the ministers. Where is the concern for poor gone? When you get the opportunity then you waste the same and when you don’t then you speak of idealism. It is a pathetic theory of development. Thus the two deviants if they join hands then definitely the disaster is not far away. Poor Manmohan Singh must be experiencing the real heat of Left’s tantrums. Just as RSS didn’t allow Vajpei to realize his fullest and the party collapsed, similarly Left won’t allow the UPA government to get its best and would allow it to collapse. It is only a matter of time, if Left is not checked. And so I agree that both left and RSS have one convergence point and that is not to let the governments run smoothly and thereby let the public suffer.

 Lastly Uma Bharti says that the Bihar elections will be fought on Bijli, Pani and sadak. May I ask her what progress have been made in her own state where too the elections were fought on the issues of Bijli, Pani and sadak? Is their any real progress in MP except demagoguery? Don’t cheat the public. Now speech will not do. Action needs to be displayed so that public could be convinced that there is a development model existing for real and can be followed by all. Live by example. Make faster delivery with transparency as the moto in the states where BJP is in rule. People are not going to give you a chance again and again. Any such chance in future can be only by default like the congress got this time.

Thus to sum up I feel that the BJP leaders like Uma Bharti must shed their dogmatic ideas and experiment with modern and progressive ideas. Advani should be give freedom to take the party along the path he has decided recently. If he can take the party to the glory in the last 10 years then he must be given another opportunity. Else BJP’s bad days are ahead.  

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