Is the BJP fit to rule India?

Over a decade ago, the then Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah was speaking at a Jamait-i-Islami event in New Delhi. Abdullah revealed that every time he visited a temple and someone applied a tikka on him, some Muslim group or the other opposed it. He made two points: first, as CM of a state comprising different religious, he represented all the people in the state, and thus if someone applied a tikka on him, he would happily accept it. Second, he asked, if his faith (and by extension Islam) was so weak that a mere tikka meant that he had given up his faith or that Islam was under threat?

Now compare Abdullah with Narendra Modi who recently refused to wear a skull cap offered by an imam. As the leader of a state with around 12 to 13% Muslims, does he not represent them? And is his faith (and by extension, the Hindu faith) so weak that merely wearing a Muslim cap could pose a threat to both?

This difference in approach towards their respective minorities sums up why Farooq Abdullah is a far better choice for PM than Narendra Modi. It also shows why the BJP as a party is not yet fit to rule India.

The BJP likes to think of itself as the right-of-centre alternative to the left-of-centre Congress, but as far as the people perceive it, the BJP is actually an alternative to the likes of the Muslim League/Jamiat-i-Islami and to the communist parties (though this isn’t always clearly defined). No one in India seriously ever expects (or even wants) religious or ideology-motivated parties to ever rule India. Can anyone imagine Prakash Karat as PM? The BJP is no exception to the average Indian’s dislike of extremes.

The BJP faces a dilemma. It wants to appeal to a broad spectrum — Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs. But to seek them out, it runs the risk of losing the support of their core — the upper-caste or dominant caste Hindu (and its RSS backers).
Modi could not have missed the fact that many Hindu Gujaratis are extremely unhappy with his sadbhavna fast. This may well be the reason he refused to wear the cap for fear of offending his core supporters, besides his backers in the RSS. But in making that choice, he missed a chance to truly emerge from the shadows — to go from Hindu leader to Indian leader.

If Modi and the BJP really want to change their anti-Muslim image, there is much they can do. For instance, the BJP never tires of pointing to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as a counterpoint to the 2002 riots. But the differences are more than the similarities. For one, being anti-Sikh is not a part of the Congress DNA the way anti-Muslim is so much a defining part of the BJP.

Seven years after the 1984 riots, a Sikh became the country’s finance minister; nine years after the 2002 riots, it is hard to find a Muslim politician of import in Gujarat (or in any BJP-ruled state for that matter). And of course, 20 years after 1984, we all know that a Sikh became the country’s PM and whatever the criticism against him, it has nothing at all to do with his religion. Now, can one ever image the BJP backing a Muslim as PM in 2022? The BJP core will never let that happen. And that is why no one believes the BJP’s pro-Muslim/minorities sentiments.

The BJP’s reluctance to become a political alternative to the Congress has consequences for India. It means that unless there is overwhelming opposition to the Congress, like in 1977, 1989, and the late 1990s, the party remains the preferred choice of the people. The post-2002 scenario makes it even more difficult to rustle up an anti-Congress opposition. Modi has few backers outside the BJP, and his party’s unwillingness to go the extra mile to win over the minorities simply means the party remains cast in the Ram Janmabhoomi mould.

Incidentally, this lack of political alternative also explains the overwhelming support for someone like Anna Hazare. The middle class loves the Congress for being liberal, forward looking, and concerned about the neglected; and hates it for its corruption and debilitating dynasty culture. Support for Hazare stemmed from the desire to not oust the Congress but to ensure controls on the party and its ministers to keep them in line. At all the pro-Hazare rallies, no one raised the demand for the Congress to quit office. And for that, the blame lies with the BJP and the likes of Modi.