07-07-2009, 10:15 PM
From elsewhere..........
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In the debates generated by the BJP's electoral defeat, the focus is stil mostly
on petty politicking, on electoral strategy, not on ideology. Some say the party
should disown Hindutva, others say the opposite, but most all of them discuss
this merely as an instrument for the BJP's fortunes (how much votes will
clamouring Hindutva cost/bring us?), not as a goal in its own right of which the
BJP is the instrument.
It's only maverick commentators like Radha Rajan and Sandhya Jain who see any
pressing need for a Hindu politics. They see time running out for Hindus in
Bangladesh, in the Northeast, in Kerala, in the missionary frontline zones.
Typically, they don't care about the term "Hindutva" one way or the other, only
for tangible Hindu interests: institutional, military, educational, demographic.
By contrast, in the BJP's internal debates, these concerns hardly even figure in
the background.
The Liberhan report on the Ayodhya demolition has once more highlighted the
BJP's and RSS's ideological vacuity. While someone undoubtedly demolished the
mosque, and quite wilfully, nobody now seems willing to claim responsibility.
RSS and BJP publications hilariously try to shift the "blame" to the then
Congress government. Mind you, probably PM Narasimha Rao did purposely remain
passive until the demolition was complete, because it was so politically
advantageous: it allowed him to sack the BJP state governments, it put the BJP
on the defensive, and most of all, it moved the Ayodhya affair one step closer
to a solution. (Imagine if the demolition had not taken place: the affair with
all its riiots would still be dragging on. Come to think of it, by ending that
stafge of the controversy, the demolition, in spite of its immediate violent
fall-out, has saved many lives in the longer term.)
But Rao could only play his cards like this because there already was a movement
on to demolish the Babri Masjid. So of course, there was a non-Congress and
Sangh-affiliated Hindu hand behind the demolition (I could give a few names),
but it was not Advani or the BJP nor the RSS top brass. But at least these
leaders could now have chosen to stand by "their" boys who had demolished the
Masjid. Instead they take the ridiculous position that the demolition was the
enemy's handiwork. They have neither ideological commitment nor honour.
kind regards,
Koenraad Elst
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In the debates generated by the BJP's electoral defeat, the focus is stil mostly
on petty politicking, on electoral strategy, not on ideology. Some say the party
should disown Hindutva, others say the opposite, but most all of them discuss
this merely as an instrument for the BJP's fortunes (how much votes will
clamouring Hindutva cost/bring us?), not as a goal in its own right of which the
BJP is the instrument.
It's only maverick commentators like Radha Rajan and Sandhya Jain who see any
pressing need for a Hindu politics. They see time running out for Hindus in
Bangladesh, in the Northeast, in Kerala, in the missionary frontline zones.
Typically, they don't care about the term "Hindutva" one way or the other, only
for tangible Hindu interests: institutional, military, educational, demographic.
By contrast, in the BJP's internal debates, these concerns hardly even figure in
the background.
The Liberhan report on the Ayodhya demolition has once more highlighted the
BJP's and RSS's ideological vacuity. While someone undoubtedly demolished the
mosque, and quite wilfully, nobody now seems willing to claim responsibility.
RSS and BJP publications hilariously try to shift the "blame" to the then
Congress government. Mind you, probably PM Narasimha Rao did purposely remain
passive until the demolition was complete, because it was so politically
advantageous: it allowed him to sack the BJP state governments, it put the BJP
on the defensive, and most of all, it moved the Ayodhya affair one step closer
to a solution. (Imagine if the demolition had not taken place: the affair with
all its riiots would still be dragging on. Come to think of it, by ending that
stafge of the controversy, the demolition, in spite of its immediate violent
fall-out, has saved many lives in the longer term.)
But Rao could only play his cards like this because there already was a movement
on to demolish the Babri Masjid. So of course, there was a non-Congress and
Sangh-affiliated Hindu hand behind the demolition (I could give a few names),
but it was not Advani or the BJP nor the RSS top brass. But at least these
leaders could now have chosen to stand by "their" boys who had demolished the
Masjid. Instead they take the ridiculous position that the demolition was the
enemy's handiwork. They have neither ideological commitment nor honour.
kind regards,
Koenraad Elst
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->