NEW DELHI, 27 April — The expected adjournment of the parliament today, ahead of the upcoming assembly polls schedule for May 10, is said to be a well-calculated strategy of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
Had the uproar in parliament over the Tehelka expose been allowed to drag on, after the passage of the budget, the BJP’s poll campaign would have suffered. The BJP, according to sources, believe the prolonged adjournment would push the Tehelka scam into oblivion.
Had the assembly polls not been in the offing, the possibility of politicians and voters forgetting the Tehelka scam would have been stronger. But now the opposition parties are likely to exploit the issue in their favor.
In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine was formed only when Trinamool chief Mamata Bannerjee decided to walk out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) due to Tehelka expose. Dissident members from other parties have refrained from joining the BJP, primarily because of the Tehelka. The BJP and its allies will perhaps suffer most on account of the communal card that the BJP has played in the recent past. The minority votes (Muslim vote plus Christian vote) bear a crucial significance in all the states where assembly polls are scheduled to be held. This is aptly reflected by percentage of minorities in these states. In Assam, they constitute 31.75 percent, Kerala 42.65, Pondicherry 13.77, Tamil Nadu 11.16 and in West Bengal 24.17 percent of voters.
Of late, the BJP stalwarts, including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Home Minister L.K. Advani have been quite vocal in making public their association with the Sangh Parivar’s Hindutva (Hindu revivalism) drive.
The cards being played by Human Resource Development Minister M.M. Joshi to “saffronize” the education system fall in the same bracket. When he was the BJP president in 1992, he had said: “The Babri Mosque is a sign of slavery. An independent India won’t accept it.”
According to a former member of the National Council for Education, Research and Training (NCERT), R.S. Sharma, who has been removed from the panel: “They (BJP appointees in the panel) want to make sure that Islam can be blamed for Hindu evils.” This is BJP’s attempt, according to Sharma, to give a back-door entry to its version of history.
In Assam, Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu, dependence on allies has placed BJP in a no-win position. Here, the minority vote is expected to further marginalize its standing. Communal image is likely to prevent BJP from securing a foothold in Kerala and West Bengal.
