Iftikhar Gilani
From a modest beginning of just two seats in 1984, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) steadily increased its foothold on the Indian political spectrum, winning 300 seats in the 2019 elections. Now, it audaciously targets 370 out of the 543 Lok Sabha seats.
The BJP stalwart Lal Kishen Advani often criticised media scepticism towards his party’s rise, comparing the BJP to other right-leaning parties like the US Republicans, Germany’s Christian Democrats, and the UK’s Conservatives. However, what makes it different from its global counterparts is that the BJP, once empowered, tends to impose its dictates across various aspects of life, from dietary preferences to social associations.
Election strategist Prashant Kishore asserts that the BJP establishes a psychological dominance over its voters, aiming to imprint its ideology across all societal segments.
Journalist Qurban Ali, who has delved deep into the genesis of communalism in his research, points out that the secular Congress and the socialists became inadvertent nurturers of Hindu communalism, which ultimately overwhelmed them as well.
Decades ago, the socialists were a formidable force, challenging the dominant Congress party and governing several states. Prominent figures like Jayaprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia initially combated communalism fiercely, especially following Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination in 1948.
They had called for the prohibition of sectarian Hindu organizations and denounced the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as the source of malevolence, attributing Gandhi’s murder to a perilous ideology in need of firm suppression.
However, by 1975, their stance had softened, allowing engagements with groups like the RSS.
By 1998, socialist leader George Fernandes was instrumental in bringing the BJP, the political face of the RSS, to power through various alliances. In 2014, under Narendra Modi’s leadership, the BJP won a decisive majority, no longer needing socialist support.
The influence of socialists by then had dwindled, with many of their leaders, including Ram Vilas Paswan and Nitish Kumar, rubbing noses before Modi. While the socialists succeeded in toppling the Congress from power in 1977 and 1989, they inadvertently empowered a force that swiftly devoured them as well.
Today, few in India are familiar with socialist parties like the Janata Party, Lok Dal, Forward Bloc, Sanyukta Socialist Party, and Praja Socialist Party, etc., which once stood as formidable political entities and primary adversaries to the Congress.
The socialists’ previous victories over Congress in 1977 and 1989 had inadvertently strengthened a force that eventually overshadowed them.
Congress’ hand in the rise of communalists
Turning to Congress, India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru once identified communalism as a severe threat. However, under Indira Gandhi and subsequently Rajiv Gandhi, the party shifted from Nehru’s secularism to a more overt communal stance, particularly visible during their tenure.
But over time, his own Congress party stoked imaginary fears in the Hindu majority to make them feel vulnerable and polarised.
The change was palpable under Indira Gandhi and reached its zenith with her son, Rajiv Gandhi during their premiership. Indira Gandhi’s rule marked a departure from Nehru’s secularism, and her association with the RSS had become quite apparent.
As a result, Rajiv Gandhi was the last Congress prime minister to rule the country with his majority. The next two Congress governments under Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh were dependent on the support of allies.
In his essay “The Hindu Card: How the Congress legitimised the Sangh’s communal politics,” Qurban Ali states that the RSS allegedly helped the Congress win the 1980 and 1984 elections.
According to Ali, the famous Dalit leader Jagjivan Ram, who contested the 1980 elections as the Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate, said after the election results that Indira Gandhi used the Hindu card to outwit him and come to power.
To stay in power, Indira Gandhi made extensive use of the crutch of religion. Besides visiting temples across the country, many sadhu saints, including Yoga Guru Dhirendra Brahmachari, were given access to the corridors of power. She now began to seek advice from astrologers in everything she did.
Quoting several political analysts, Ali says that Indira Gandhi’s slogan of poverty alleviation had lost its effectiveness. So, a new slogan was needed to woo the voters and so he started playing the Hindu card.
In 1981, some 800 Dalits in Meenakashipuram, Tamil Nadu, had enough of the atrocities of the upper Hindu castes and embraced Islam.
In an interview with the New York Times, Indira Gandhi attributed the incident to petrodollars from the Gulf States. She said that the dollars from the Gulf States encouraged poor Hindus to convert.
In the 1983, assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Indira Gandhi openly used the Hindu card. For the first time, someone used a political advantage by polarising the Hindu-majority Jammu against the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley in such a sensitive region.
As prime minister, she took charge of the Congress election campaign and stayed in Jammu for nine days. The entire Prime Minister’s Office was shifted to Jammu.
In 1991, socialist leader Madhu Dandavate wrote that Indira Gandhi had told Hindu voters at a rally in Jammu that their lives and property were in danger. She was referring to the political parties based in the Kashmir valley and stoking fears within the Hindu population.
She was telling the Hindu voters in Jammu that only the Congress can protect them. To the Muslims in the Kashmir Valley, she conveyed the message that their future is not safe in the shadow of Indian democracy.
All the seats in Jammu fell to the Congress in these elections, but the situation changed rapidly thereafter, culminating later in the armed movement of 1989. Indira Gandhi had left her mark on the whole thing. The RSS openly supported the Congress in these elections.
Politicisation of the Ayodhya movement
Similarly, in 1984, in a speech at Garhwal after the Indian army had raided the Sikh holy shrine Golden Temple in Amritsar, Indira Gandhi said that Hinduism was under attack. She made a strong call to protect Hindu civilization from the attacks of Muslims and Sikhs.
A few months after her return to power in 1980, riots broke out in Moradabad on Eid day, in which more than a hundred Muslims were killed. The Muslims had protested against pigs being brought into the Eidgah during prayers.
A series of riots followed this. Bihar Sharif, Meerut, the town of Baroda in Gujarat, and Bhiwandi on the Mumbai border were stained with Muslim blood, and the Congress-ruled in all these places.
In 1983, more than 2,000 Muslim Bengalis were massacred in Neeli in Assam. Hardly anyone was punished for this massacre. Indira knew that he had suffered a defeat in the 1977 elections because of the Muslims. Did she want to take revenge on them?
According to Ali, Indira Gandhi met RSS leaders three times between 1982 and 1984. She extended support to the Ram Mandir campaign of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), another branch of the RSS.
Citing the journalist Neerja Chaudhary, Ali reports that the leader of the VHP Ashok Singhal, told her in 1986 that Indira had assured him that she would make the Ram temple an election issue at the right moment. When the Ram Mandir campaign was first discussed in 1983, Congress leaders Devi Dayal Khanna and Gulzarilal Nanda attended the meeting.
In January 1986, during Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure, when the Babri Masjid was opened and Hindus were allowed to pray there, RSS chief Muralidhar Deoras described Rajiv Gandhi as the “King of Hindu Hearts.”
Rajiv Gandhi’s advisor Arun Nehru believed that he could attract Hindu voters by opening the locks of the Babri Masjid. Earlier, Parliament had overturned the Supreme Court’s decision on triple talaq to appease the Muslims.
As a balancing act, a move was now needed to appease the Hindus and so the Babri Masjid was opened for worship.
Similarly, an epic serial on the Ramayana was aired on the state television channel Doordarshan. This added fuel to the Ram Mandir movement. The then Minister for Information and Broadcasting, HKL Bhagat had strongly opposed it, saying it would unleash the poison of communalism and open Pandora’s box.
Similarly, in 1989, the foundation of Ram Mandir was laid by no one else but by Rajiv Gandhi himself at the request of the RSS. On the occasion, Rajiv Gandhi said that if he came to power again, he would declare Ram Rajya.
But the Congress lost the elections. Its tally in the parliament was drastically reduced from 414 to 196 seats. In 1990, when the Congress-backed government of Prime Minister Chandrashekhar was making serious efforts to find a solution to the Babri Masjid issue, RSS leaders again met Rajiv Gandhi and urged him to withdraw support from the government.
He was told that Chandrasekhar would become a hero if this issue was solved. The RSS had a clear plan to use the Ram Mandir movement politically to pave the way for the BJP. If this issue was resolved, the very purpose of the RSS would be defeated.
Deserting Congress, supporting BJP
Meanwhile, the RSS had decided to withdraw its support from the Congress and bring its political wing, the BJP, to power and strengthen it politically. In these elections, the BJP had jumped from two seats to 85 seats.
This blurring of boundaries set a precedent that led to today’s political polarisation. The Congress’s use of the Hindu card, the Ram Mandir campaign, and the aggressive screening of religious epics on state television — all actions that fanned the communal flames — demonstrate this.
The consequences of these actions are not only historical but also impacted current politics. This complex interplay of politics and communalism underscores the urgent need for a robust commitment to secularism to steer India away from divisive politics and towards a more inclusive future.
If the Congress wants to embark on a path of secularism, the only way to pull the country out of this quagmire is by taking the communalists head-on. There is a need to learn from the fate of the socialists, who compromised and were finished from the political landscape.
The party also needs to learn the fate of its own leaders and hold Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi accountable for appeasing communalists.
Otherwise, the monster of communalism is ready to devour and digest the Congress and Modi’s dream of a Congress-free India will be realised.
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