The 'Great' Myth

The mask is finally off and hopefully for good. For long the Sangh Parivar has played this trick on theIndian liberals: projecting the so-called "moderate" face of Atal Behari Vajpayee to garner theirsupport. And unfortunately, many of the Indian liberals have also been gullible enough to buy this farce.

Indeed, the Indian middle class supported the BJP all these years believing that the Indian electoralcompulsions and Vajpayee's leadership would force the right wingers to moderate their stance on crucial issuesthat threaten to derail Indian democracy. And that Indian democracy would in a way get strengthened as theIndian right would reject its lunatic fringe and move towards the center.

Alas, this fallacious assumption of the Indian middle classes and especially the liberals who have beensupporting the BJP under Vajpayee has proved to be what it always was: absolute nonsense. Indeed this beliefwas constructed over all these years to give some kind of legitimacy to the support that the supine Indianmiddle classes wanted to give to the right wing politics. To alleviate their guilty conscience a bit, themoderate face of the BJP was seen as an alibi.

The country was told again and again how successful the BJP had been in controlling communal riots in thestates where they were in the government (conveniently forgetting the fact that the rioters were themselvesruling). We were told that the democratic compulsions of the Indian right wing would force it to becomesomething like the US Republicans (despite the fact that the US Republicans themselves are not particularlyliked by the Indian middle classes).

We were also told that Atal Behari Vajpayee is the greatest Indian leader after Nehru (without anysubstantial evidence available except that where Nehru wrote some first rate, intellectually stimulatingprose, Vajpayee writes third rate poetry which nonetheless is lapped up by an equally third rate Bollywood andpublicity-hungry media) and it was projected as if there was no other option but to ensure that he became thePrime Minister.

Indeed, the case for Vajpayee's Prime Ministership was made in terms that seemed as if it was India'sobligation to give him India's leadership for his long political career (boasts about which are made asreminders by Vajpayee himself whenever he can't face the consequences of his own decisions).

But all this claptrap should finally cease and with immediate effect. The aura of greatness surroundingVajpayee is gone. Indeed it never was there. But it's time that the Indian middle class opens its eyes andfaces the consequences of their support to the BJP. The country is going to the dogs and it's no time to sitand watch television, witnessing the unceasing horror in Gujarat.

It's time to demand accountability, which Vajpayee will never deliver. It's time to expect leadership,which Vajpayee neither has now nor had ever. It's time to get rid of the myth of Vajpayee's greatness.

His utter failure in Gujarat is too well known to be recounted again. Not only does he not know where hestands on the crucial issue of secularism but he has also allowed himself to be controlled by a lunaticfringe. The Prime Minister of India is being held hostage by a group of hooligans who are today ruling thestreets of Gujarat and tomorrow will be ruling the entire country.

Instead of providing a healing touch to the alienated Muslim victims of Gujarat by demanding effectiveaction from the state administration, the Prime Minister of this secular, democratic republic decides tosermonize them on Islamic intolerance. What about the intolerance of your Parivar, Mr. Prime Minster? This is,indeed, a long journey from the I-would-rather-die-then-be-associated-with-the-attackers-of-Orissa-Assemblydays. Or is it really? Maybe it were the electoral compulsions in Orissa that were doing all the talking?

He is no better than Narendra Modi who, at least, was explicit about his action-reaction theorizing. Butthe great Mr. Vajpayee is more subtle. And the great parliamentarian that he is, he lays all the blame for theGujarat riots on the Parliament. Had the Parliament denounced Godhra attack strongly enough, the riots wouldnot have happened? Indeed, only a poet can have such brilliantly sensitive explanation for the acts ofgenocide in Gujarat! As the country teeters on the brink, Vajpayee is busy with his semantics, makingirresponsible statements one day, issuing clarifications the other.

But this has not come about out of the blue. The signs were there for all who cared to see. Gradually, butdeftly, Vajpayee passed on decision-making to those who actually control the Sangh Parivar. When the countryrequired some administrative finesse, he was satisfied with mollycoddling a bunch of sadhus and mahants. Andmake no mistake, from now on it is they who will dictate the terms of the discourse on Ayodhya.

The economic situation of the country is worsening but who has time to give some direction to the economicpolicies. The Finance Minister seems helpless and has capitulated with a new round of rollbacks. Poor man, onefeels really sorry for him. He makes his budget keeping in mind the real economic constraints but forgetscompletely about the political constraints facing him. The result is a hue and cry from the swadeshi brigadeand then the decision by the BJP high command to roll back some decisions. This is the way the economicpolicies of India are being made for the last three years. Extraordinary, isn't it?

The Finance Minister’s able colleague, Murli Manohar Joshi is trying his best to help him. With coursesin Vedic astrology, karmakand, yogic consciousness etc., India might just succeed in producing a brand newgeneration of astrologers and pandits that can be exported to earn foreign exchange.

The Human Resource Development Ministry' crowning glory has been its attempts to rewrite the schooltextbooks. We are being told that all the old history textbooks are written by the leftist, Congress supportedhistorians and so they require rewriting. What is conveniently forgotten in this debate is that all those"leftist" historians are academicians of world repute.

It is the peers and the peer review of the works of scholars that makes or breaks the reputations ofscholars, not the fact that they are supported by political parties. Most of the scholars who are now beingsupported by the government have little or no standing in the realm of academia and yet they are beingcompared to the earlier authors. Had it not been for the Supreme Court, Indian students would by now bereading T.P. Verma and Makkan Lal in place of R.S. Sharma, Romila Thapar and Bipan Chandra. Only Joshi, withhis own great academic credentials, can prefer T.P. Verma to Romila Thapar.

The Home Ministry is in shambles. Before the BJP's advent to power, we were told L.K. Advani would make fora great (yes, again great) Home Minister. Indeed, he was to be the next Sardar Patel. Forget Sardar Patel, hehas not yet shown the caliber of S.B. Chavan. He considers the conflagration in Gujaratworthy of only a cursory, touristy visit, which he uses to heap praises on Modi for his "commendable"performance in containing the situation in 72 hours. Those 72 hours seem like 72 days and our home ministerstill has nothing to complain.

His only achievement in the last three years is the forcible passing of POTA by the Indian Parliament. Itis astounding how much importance this issue was given by the BJP that a joint Parliamentary session wasconvened. And instead of responding to the debate on POTA, the Prime Minister ended up telling this countryabout the valuable contribution he has made to India in his long public career.

Indian Army is standing at the borders, directionless. The government thought that just by creating acrisis-situation at the borders, it would be able to get concessions from Pakistan, especially as it washopeful of America's support. But none of this has happened and without any alternative policy, it seems thatPakistan has an upper hand, at least for now.

It is known since the days of Clausewitz that military strategy has to be accompanied by a politicalstrategy in order to achieve desired ends, as it is politics that dictates the goals of a military strategy.But it seems that even this basic fact is not known to the government, as there has been no attempt todelineate a political roadmap vis-à-vis the military buildup at the borders.

And lastly, what about the nuclear tests that India conducted in May 1998? They were hailed as the biggestachievements of Vajpayee who had shown to the world India's military and scientific might. The world, itseems, has not been terribly impressed. Indeed, India was on the verge of signing the CTBT without thinkingthrough the techno-strategic parameters of the changing security environment. Thanks to the change in the USAdministration, which is no longer interested in the CTBT or any other arms control measure, this country wassaved from signing the CTBT. The nuclear doctrine has not yet been given a final shape and contradictionsabound in India's nuclear posture. So much for the greatest foreign policy success of this government.

Today, India is courting a diplomatic disaster. The international community has started reacting to thedevelopments in Gujarat and the democratic republic of India has to take refuge in the age-old slogan of "sovereignty",which in these times is used mostly by the repressive regimes the world over. This, certainly, is the greatIndian transition to the league of Milosevic’s Yugoslavia, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Kim Jong II’s NorthKorea.

So where is that great leadership of Mr. Vajpayee that the Indian middle class had been raving about? Thebottomline is that Mr. Vajpayee has always been an ordinary politician and the recent events in Gujarat makeit clear that he is also incompetent and weak. If the BJP led NDA government's performance has been shabby,the buck stops with Mr. Vajpayee. The political alternatives in India today may not be great but that’s noreason to put up with the slow poisoning of our country. Political apathy and frustration make for a toxicbrew.

It was heartening to see the strong French Reaction to the winning of about 17 percent of votes by JeanMarie Le Pen. The Europeans have learnt their lessons the hard way but they have learnt them well. The merefact that they have a candidate from the far right fighting for their Presidency, has shamed the French andbrought them out on the streets.

It’s time the great Indian middles class learns its lessons. They have played with fire for far too longand the results are there for all to see. It would be too much to expect them to be out on the streets but isit too much to even ask them to wake up and save whatever is left of India?

The author is a PhD candidate in the Dept of Political Science, University of Notre Dame, Indiana (USA).