BJP seduces the Left

Photo: AFP

THE Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has triumphed in its tactics. It has emerged as the real opposition. After losing the last parliamentary election, it was keen to win over the Left, which could give the BJP -- rightist in outlook -- the image of being economically liberal. It finally duped the communists into believing that its Indian development agenda was more or less what the Left follows. In fact, efforts to woo the communists began the last session, but bore fruit only during the budget. Both found an understanding in their hurt.
This was visible when both the BJP and the Left rose in the two houses against the government on price rise, shouted in the same vein and walked out hand-in-hand on the budget session's first day. It was about the same on subsequent days. Apparently, the two had met and consulted beforehand to finalise their strategy. Both were seen having floor coordination, suggesting who would speak when.
No doubt, the topic was the inept government's handling of price rise and abnormal inflation. The BJP also discussed the India-Pakistan secretary-level talks. Yet, the Left did not realise that making a common cause with the party with communal credentials may rub off on the communists' secular ideology. Why couldn't they retain their entity in parliament and still criticise the government? They would have found support in Mulayam Singh's Samajwadi Party and, possibly, Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal.
It is unknown what advantage the communists saw in diluting their identity with the rightists. But BJP leaders have already gone to town to propagate the Left joining their side. People are confused because they cannot reconcile what they saw on television: the BJP and the communists thumping the table to congratulate each other's speeches, attacking in tandem the treasury benches and raising anti-government slogans.
When vision blurs and political parties think of their immediate gain, pluralist India has every right to worry. It sees the communists hugging BJP members who swore a few days ago at their Indore sitting to build the Ram temple where the Babri masjid once stood, to have common law in place of personal laws and to abolish the constitution's Article 370, which gives Jammu and Kashmir special status. The communists forgot to underscore these points during the debate and did not realise that their bonhomie cannot disguise the BJP's parochialism. The party's core agenda has not changed.
The BJP's appeal to the Muslims to allow them to build the temple may have been worded differently but the content remained the same. The party should recall that it came to power only when it put aside its three-point agenda. By doing so, the BJP gained the much-needed credibility to attract secular parties, except Congress and the Communists, to support the relatively moderate Atal Behari Vajpayee government. True, the BJP honoured its promise to not touch the issues of mandir, common law and Article 370. Yet, it saffronised all other fields, particularly education and the Information and Broadcasting ministry.
It looks as if the communists have let the BJP off the hook on communalism. Battering the government for its non-performance is justified, but not sharing the platform with the party which has been openly taken over by the RSS. Surely, the communists, after the rout in the Lok Sabha election, have not strayed from their ideological moorings so much that they want support from known communalists. How does the Left square with the party which hates communism and all that it preaches?
Word has spread that the entire opposition was against the India-Pakistan talks. Even if the communists have a different view, it remains unclear. They seem to be joing in the BJP's rants. Talks between the two countries are not yet in stride. The communists should have stood farther away when the BJP poured venom. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has unnecessarily introduced China in the bilateral talks. He has given a "blank cheque" to China to become a part of improving Indo-Pak ties, knowing well New Delhi's stand against mediation.
Unfortunately, a Muslim gathering, the National Meet of Reservation Activists at Delhi, gave a handle to the BJP and the Shiv Sena by passing a resolution to reserve 10 percent of the seats to Muslims. Even the banner at the meet's back wall said: National Movement for Muslim Reservation. Understandably, backwardness can be the criterion, not religion. Some high courts have already rejected religion as the basis for reservation.
The constitution makes the government obligated to address the problems of poverty and educational backwardness. The reservation activists should have tried to get reservations without translating the demand in terms of Muslims. The RSS, the BJP's mentor, began propagating that reservation will lead to another partition and induce Hindus into embracing Islam and Christianity.
The Sachar Commission on the plight of Muslims was correct in diagnosing the malady. It pointed out how the community had been denied its share in education, economic benefits and services on the basis of its population. However, the subsequent Ranganathan Commission has recommended reservations for all minorities on the basis of religion.
India is a pluralistic society and cherishes diversity in the name of religion, language and customs. The community consciousness the reservation activists are trying to arouse may deliver a serious blow to pluralism. The old question of separate identity will come to the fore when there should be only one identity -- Indian. Reservation for Muslims may open a Pandora's box of communal and divisive politics.
Yet, the country's 12 to 13 percentage of Muslims should be reflected in government and private sector employment. The community's share should also be tangible in the economic fields. There is no alternative to affirmative action. The government has done little since the submission of the Sachar Commission report two years ago.
However, mixing the Muslims' genuine aspirations with religion will misdirect the effort to find a remedy to their long-time neglect. The louder the reservation activists raise their voice, the more favourable the fallout for the BJP to exploit. Pluralistic India cannot afford it. Nor can the Muslims in the discussion.
Kuldip Nayar is an eminent Indian columnist.