The western Indian state of Goa with an azure coastline dotted with pristine beaches and idyllic setting remained witness to the unveiling of the country’s principal opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) true hard-line face, months ahead of the next general election scheduled for early 2014. By anointing Narendra Modi — the presiding deity of the horrendous communal riots that destroyed many innocent lives in Gujarat — as the chief of the party’s parliamentary election campaign committee, BJP has chosen to send out an unambiguous message to its political allies and the core vote base. With Atal Behari Vajpayee, the patriarch and most visible face of the party, drifting into incapacity caused by multiple strokes and another veteran Lal Krishna Advani effectively cut down to size, it is time for them to run a government of only the majority Hindus rather than providing an able administration that impartially works for all Indians irrespective of caste and creed. Egged on by its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swaymsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP leadership has decided to shed the mask of secularism under which its real hidden agenda of steamrolling the minority lay concealed for all these years. The exercise of elevating the controversial chief minister of Gujarat to a position equivalent to shadow prime minister prior to the crucial final is indeed intriguing given the fact that responsible senior leaders were clear in their mind that the party’s only hope of electoral success lies in their ability to promote moderation by reining in the rabid hardliners and not bulldozing the political allies into accepting their brand of partisan politics. Surely, some of the allies of the BJP, whose politics is based on socialist planks, will find it difficult to digest a man who prefers to call his state a political laboratory that would add to his fortune. So why is the BJP so adamant to project a leader who relished the heart wrenching images of Muslims being butchered like animals during the 2002 genocide in Gujarat, as this author learnt from a very reliable and senior party source? The reason is equally shocking. Apart from a section in the BJP and RSS, a motley group comprising selected industrialists eyeing government largesse on prime minister’s arbitrary discretion is desperately rooting for Modi as prime minister. The group with strong vested interests are the near and dear ones of the former Prime Minister Vajpayee and family members of Subhash Chandra Bose — one of India’s tallest freedom fighters who was probably revered by the Muslims more than any of his contemporaries.
Notwithstanding the fact that Narendra Modi was in loop when his party undertook the appalling “Muslim retribution” operation in 2002, these elites are hell bent on seeing Modi occupy the prime ministerial chair sooner than later.
Perhaps, more than anybody else, a beleaguered Advani must be ruing the deed of unstintingly backing his protégé, who did not hesitate to ditch the mentor at the very first opportunity. Indeed the veteran politician, who played a leading role in swinging the fortune of a sectarian outfit, is reaping what he has sown years ago. Modi, an RSS volunteer, was an unknown entity in the Indian political circuit till the 80s when Advani handpicked him for strengthening the BJP’s brittle organizational structure in Gujarat. The Gujarat chief minister was with Advani through thick and thin ever since and even participated in the infamous cross country tour in 1992 that ended in the destruction of Babri Mosque. A very authoritative source had once confided in this author, on how Advani was even ready to put in his papers if Vajpayee had gone ahead with the decision of sacking Modi from chief ministership in the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Vajpayee, the serving prime minister then, was of firm view that Modi had failed miserably to uphold his constitutional obligation of protecting the life and property of each Gujarati especially the weaker sections and minorities. Even though Advani might be lamenting the fact that his one time confidant has thwarted his ambition of taking one last shot at the top slot in the coming election, the BJP, realistically speaking, has very little chance of dislodging the ruling Congress party by wiping them out at the hustings.
Modi on the other hand will be a disaster for India’s unique multi-cultural and ethnic fabric given his penchant for grabbing every opportunity to make teasing remarks against the Muslim community. Since he nurtures a deep seated antipathy toward Muslims, an India with him at the helm will only give rise to fake encounter killings, harassment of individuals belonging to the minority community by intelligence agencies and what not. Moreover, the myth of Modi being the prime architect of a blooming Gujarat is a complete farce as it is one of the most unequal states in the country where only the upper middle class and the super rich have benefited. Pathetic social indicators that include a sex ratio of 918 for every 1,000 men, stagnation of employment since 2004, dismal job opportunity for women, abnormally high displacement figures and depletion of natural resources, pitiable condition of the subaltern class, faulty irrigation project planning as well as the tendency of granting patronage to selected individuals speak volumes about the hollowness of Modi’s big claims. Besides, anybody conversant with Modi’s style of functioning and his act of vengeance toward critics will inevitably tremble in awe. It is an irony that a despotic individual who has virtually rendered the Gujarat Assembly dysfunctional is sought to be projected as the most potent prime ministerial candidate that the largest democracy on earth can deliver.
