#dnaEdit: BJP’s dual-speak

It is but natural that there were different emphases in the speeches made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah and in the text of the political resolution at the two-day Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national executive in New Delhi. On the second day of the meeting, Modi made some pertinent observations. He said that the party has to take to the last village and the last man the developmental work that is being done by the BJP government. The other remark was a more curious one. Modi said that the party has to decide between being a strong organisation like an iron structure and becoming like the banyan tree, which spreads its roots and branches and gives shade to all. He has made it clear that he would want the party to be a banyan tree. At another point in the speech, Modi said that efforts should be made to reach out to those who differ from the party.

Shah takes a now-hard-now-soft position on the issue of nationalism, though it has to be admitted that this is but a small part of the speech. At one point he says that those who raise anti-national slogans need to introspect. He also says that it was not wrong on the part of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi to go to the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), but it was wrong to have supported those who raised anti-national slogans. But he warns that the party will not tolerate anti-national slogans.

The political resolution takes a curious stand on the issue of the slogan, “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”. It says, “Our Constitution describes India as Bharat also; refusal to chant victory to Bharat tantamount to disrespect to our Constitution itself.” Finance minister Arun Jaitley at his press conference said that nationalism and dissent are not mutually exclusive, but reiterated the point made in the political resolution. At another point, the political resolution proclaims: “The BJP is also a member of the International Democratic Union (IDU), an esteemed organisation of over 80 democratic political parties from across the world, who have their established commitment to the ideals of liberal democracy and the freedom of the individual.” The BJP and its leaders have to recognise that dissent means disagreeing on the fundamental issues. The government can intervene only if unrest and violence are unleashed as a result of the dissident acts.

Though the issue of nationalism and Bharat Mata Ki Jai forms a small part of the speech of Shah and of the political resolution, and it does not occur in any significant way in Modi’s address, it is going to attract more attention than the other subjects like poverty elimination, rural electrification and successes on the foreign policy front because the BJP’s second and third-rung leaders and workers will go to town with emotive issues like nationalism and Bharat Mata Ki Jai in order to gain publicity as well as imagined political advantage. Shah has himself admitted that those who raise anti-national slogans are a microscopic minority. 

The BJP should know more than anyone else that once  emotions are raked up,  it is difficult to control them. The demolition of Babri Masjid by the mob on December 6, 1992, should remain a cautionary tale for the party.

People have voted the party to power in 1998, 1999 and again in 2014 on the issue of development and not on Hindutva plank.