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The BJP in dire straits

Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury
The expulsion of senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh from the organisation for his observations in a much talked about book on Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah has come somewhat as a bolt from the blue and is definitely the most debated issue in the Indian political arena.
The book raised a storm in India because ofthe views on Jinnah and Indian leaders, including Nehru and Ballav Bhai Patel, but the expulsion of an influential leader from the party for authoring the book is something that few expected from the BJP leadership.
Mr. Singh was a minister in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and was ranked after prime minister Vajpayee and deputy prime minister Advani. The ouster of Jaswant Singh took place within days of the launching of the book called India Jinnah, Partition and Independence, and that too on the eve of the crucial BJP conclave where senior leaders were expected to take stock of the situation following the party's electoral debacle in the last elections.
Jaswant Singh, who won a parliamen-
tary seat and from West Bengal and not his native Rajshtan state this time, was expected to play an important role in the party meeting. But his expulsion suddenly changed the entire political milieu, not only within the BJP but also in India.
Debates revolve around the future of the BJP, with the tussle intensifying between the moderates and the hardliners over the extent of Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) that would guide the fundamental policy of the organisation. Judging by the latest developments, the hardliners are seeking to seize every opportunity to push the moderates to the corner and establish their supremacy in the organisation.
In his book Jaswant Singh praised Jinnah as a "Great Indian" and also considered him as a secular person, and blamed Nehru and Patel for the partition of the Indian sub- continent. His views sparked off an intense controversy for obvious reasons since Jinnah is seen as being responsible for the division of India.
Most Indians seem to believe that it was his intransigence that paved the way for creation of Pakistan. But Singh says Jinnah was driven by compulsions, and the partition could have been avoided if
Nehru and Patel played a pragmatic role. The book mentions a crucial meeting of the Congress that approved the partition in principle, in which Mahatma Gandhi and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad were absent but Nehru and Patel were present.
Singh, who stuck to his views even after his expulsion, says he wrote the book after 15 years of painstaking efforts and collecting many documents and evidence. He says Jinnah and Gandhi both came from Gujarat state and had certain things
in common. Jinnah was among the leaders who received Gandhi when the latter returned to India from South Africa in 1915.
The comments infuriated the BJP and other organisations that believe in Hindu nationalism and also drew sharp reactions from many other quarters. But the BJP is particularly angry because of the criticism of Ballav Bhai Patel, whom they consider as a great patriot with similar ideals even though he was with the
Congress, While the BJP is not expected to relish commendation of Jinnah, it has no love for Nehru.
The BJP is licking its wounds following dismal performance in the last national election. A raging debate has engulfed the BJP whether over-playing of the Hindu card cost it dearly in the polls. Former BJP chief Advani was the prime ministerial candidate for the party and he is leading the hardliners in the organisation.
It is Advani who conceived the idea of " rathajatra" several years ago that helped BJP gain a foothold as a strong political organisation. But many within the party feel that as an organisation of multireligious and multi-ethnical India, BJP needs to be liberal. A.B.Vajpayee was the liberal face along with several others, including Jashwant Singh.
Vajpayee is no longer a force to reckon with in the party. Rajnath Singh, the current president, and Venkataiya Naidu, the former party chief are hardliners. In the last elections, Advani led a campaign largely on Hindu nationalism and it is believed that the hardliners encouraged Varun Gandhi to make anti-Muslim speeches and take a tough religious line. In the end, this appfoach backfired.
But hardliners still believe that BJP can only flourish as a truly tough Hindu nationalist organisation and the party is under constant pressure toward this end from the R.S.S., the Shiv Sena and Vishwa Hindu Parishad. TYue, Advani himself had praised Jinnah, but it was when he was in a high official position and on a trip to Pakistan that took him to his birthplace in Karachi. Jashwant Singh’s case is different.
The debate in the BJP apd its allies op the role of Hindu nationalism in their politics has assumed a serious proportion that is threatening the unity of the organisation. The party has minorities even among its leaders, like Mukthar Abbas -one of the general secretaries - but the hardliners are pushing the leadership towards a theocratic identity.
Jashwant Singh sought to give BJP a liberal face and did not hesitate to criticise even Patel, while criticism of Nehru is not unusual for a BJP leader. Praising of Jinnah appears somewhat inexplicable, but not uncommon among many Indians. The hawks in the BJP are desperate to gain ascendancy in the organisation, and it is amply clear from the banning of Jashwant's book in BJP-ruled Gujarat, where rabidly communal Narendra Modi is the chief minister.
Vajpayee could not accept Jashwant's expulsion. Now Arun Shourie has also fired a salvo against the central leadership. Now it remains to be seen how far the hardliners go. The incident exposes the tussle in the organisation over religious fundamentalism in the world’s largest democracy, where fortunately the secular forces are now in dominance.
Jashwant Singh has come out with several interesting incidents involving Advani showing the latter’s political and personal opportunism. This may only be the tip of the iceberg of many interesting disclosures and developments to come in the future.
Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury is a senior journalist and analyst of international affairs.