Is the BJP or its "Parivar" a Friend of the Muslims?

 

Is the BJP or its "Parivar" a Friend of the Muslims?

Shrikant G. Talageri

 

 

 

A recent tweet by Koenraad Elst:

What exactly are the facts beyond this sloganeering? Here is a prominent and typical BJP minister saying loudly, clearly, and in very categorical terms, and in Parliament itself, what I and many others have long been saying (and Koenraad Elst also in the above tweet) in our writings: that the BJP is far more zealous in "appeasing" the "minorities" than the Congress ever was or ever could be.

[The BJP leadership gets a kick out of getting their female ministers to speak out loudly and proudly what any of its various critics are saying against them ─ remember Uma Bharati declaring that the Ayodhya issue was a political "card" and "you cannot play the same card twice" ─ and they know all this will not make any dent in the fervent and worshipful faith of its "Hindu" followers. Remember also in a different context Sushma Swaraj proudly announcing that foreign participation in (i.e. foreign control of) the Indian media was "an idea whose time has come", as the Vajpayee regime overturned the all-party consensus, till then, of not allowing foreign participation in the Indian media].

 

The question arises: Is the BJP really a friend of Muslims, striving hard to correct the "injustices" done to the Muslims by previous Congress regimes? The BJP has certainly always tried to present such an idea in order to try to convince Muslims that they are a better bet for Muslims than the Congress or any of the other "secular" parties. I distinctly remember the live-televised (on Doordarshan) Parliamentary debates on the Vajpayee government's confidence motions (or alternately the opposition parties' No-Confidence motions) during the turbulent 1996-1998 period of three Parliamentary elections (1996, 1998, 1999), where the BJP and non-BJP ministers made every effort to push this line of thinking. Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate the recorded videos of those Parliamentary debates, but I still remember vividly a speech (in support of the Vajpayee government) during those debates where George Fernandes "revealed" that after the 1971 war, the Indira Gandhi government had passed secret circulars seeing to it that Muslims were kept away from vital and sensitive national security departments and data, and that this situation prevailed till the Vajpayee government, immediately after coming to (then temporary) power, reversed the secret circulars and orders!

[It was after this that the BJP government, in its five years of rule, made every effort to (among many other things) rope in as many Muslim mullahs, religious leaders and communal politicians into its folds, and confidently thought that a large section of Muslims had been won over and would add their sizable strength to the captive Hindu BJP-vote-bank kitty. To avoid misunderstanding, let me clarify that this does not refer to genuinely great Muslims like Arif Mohammad Khan, and a few others, who also happened to have joined the BJP then] 

 

The answer to the above question, to give it first and in short, is: The BJP is not a "friend" of anyone ─ Hindu or Muslim (or ghar-wapasi), murdered sadhu or targeted Hindu writer/speaker/film-maker, rich or poor, Indian or foreigner, political-foe or political-ally ─ not even of its own supporters or members: the fate of Bengali Hindus who rallied behind the BJP in the last assembly elections and paid heavily for it (to the utter and total indifference of the BJP leadership) is too well-known to bear repetition here. And a glance at the MP/MLA/MLC/local-elections candidates of the BJP, and the lists of its ministers and office-bearers in every state, will show how every new and formerly "anti-BJP" individual, who joins the party, is rewarded with prime positions and control of the party organization and election apparatus. While the horses, cows and sheep of the BJP Animal Farm, who have toiled devotedly for the party for years and even for decades, are neglected or cast aside (like used "cards") and left to do the only work they are perhaps worthy of doing: shouting slogans, getting worked-up with devotional fervor, filling up rallies, doing intensive election campaigning, sometimes being thrown a few monetary and positional crumbs, and finally casting their votes (and the votes of all those whom they are in any position to influence) for the BJP and the neo-BJP candidates.

 

Then what exactly is the BJP doing: endless multi-crore-rupee schemes (funded by Hindu tax-payers and by income from Hindu temples and institutions controlled by the government) meant only for the "minorities"; special laws, acts and commissions meant to empower them and them alone; deliberate reiteration and perpetuation of pro-"minority" and anti-Hindu historical accounts and myths; special encouragement and facilities to missionaries converting Hindus; looting and draining-out of temple lands and funds; calculated westernization, de-Indianization and de-Hinduization of the Hindu youth, etc., etc.? If not out of special love for Muslims (and other minorities), what exactly is their motive?

I have already pointed out the basic motive in my earlier article, "Why is the "Hindutvavadi" BJP more Dangerously Anti-Hindu Than the Openly Anti-Hindu "Breaking India Forces"?". The BJP is showering all kinds of massive monetary and other crucial benefits on sections of Muslims (certain sects or classes of Muslims, Muslim students, talaq-oppressed women, etc.) with the aim of making a dent in the Muslim bloc votes which go against it and to thereby add to their more-or-less unshakeable "Hindu" vote-banks, which, as I have written many times before, will continue to consider the BJP the "Only Alternative" for Hindus even if the BJP government opens up concentration camps and gas-chambers for Hindu sadhus and genuinely Hindu thinkers and activists. They have little fear of large losses from among their Hindu voters, but a few losses here and there can be filled up with the few Muslim votes they expect to gain by these tactics, apart from the fact that even those few losses can easily be reversed by strategic last minute (pre-election) Hindu issues, Hindu-Muslim riots and India-Pakistan skirmishes!

Muslims who genuinely come to believe the BJP is their "friend" in any way will certainly be fools, but not if they realize that the BJP's crocodile friendship can be used to their own personal advantage and for the furtherance of their own ideological agendas, and therefore willingly and consciously become ready to play "friends-friends" with the BJP with such an aim in mind. The only fools in the whole game will be Hindus (but I am really beginning to believe that being made fools is what Hindus in general like best). And the only winners will be the BJP and their crony Capitalists in the short run, and the enemies of Indian culture and Hinduism in the long run ─ whether Islamists, Christian Evangelists, hard-core leftists, or any other class of Hindu-haters.