The Jan Chetna Yatra of BJP’s L K Advani against corruption would enter Punjab only next month but as the state is in a poll mode with assembly elections scheduled for February next year, the implications of the party patriarch’s campaign is already being talked about.
As the 38-day Yatra has just started, I find some uncanny similarities between some of the utterances of Congress and a section of the All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF), an organisation which was central to the disturbance in
While Congress obviously has no love for Advani, it was strange to find that the party was using the “communal” card like the AISSF even as the yatra has nothing to do with the issue being raised by the two parties but to raise the broader issue of corruption in the wake of Anna Hazare’s countrywide anti-graft movement. Also, Advani was the first who pointed out that black money stashed in the banks abroad, an issue later hijacked by Baba Ramdev.
Sometime ago, I was having a discussion with a senior politician. He told me a story which goes like this which explains how Congress and the faction of AISSF find themselves having similar views.
A particular sect was anti women and forbade its members from having any truck with women. The sect was so strict in following this norm that it took tough disciplinary action against its members if they were found interacting with women or had anything to do with women. It so happened that a new convert to the sect and his elderly guru were standing on the banks of the river. Much to their horror, they saw a woman, who was trying to cross the shallow river on foot, fell down. She started drowning as she could not judge the depth of the river.
The senior sect leader just kept watching and did nothing. He was a hardened member of the sect and this forbade him from touching women, even for the purpose of saving them for a sure death. The new convert to the sect saw the woman drowning and immediately jumped into the river to save her, forgetting the clause of the sect and saved her from drowning. He was immediately rebuked by the senior Guru. When they arrived at their headquarters, the head of the sect had gone to some other place for preaching. When the head returned after a few days, the senior Guru apprised him about the episode and explained how the young follower had violated the tenets and needed to be expelled from the sect.
“I have forgotten what I did. I do not remember anything. It was a momentary decision which I took. But you (the senior Guru) are carrying it forward. You will never leave it,” said the young follower.
This is perhaps what has happened to the Congress. BJP might no longer be interested in any issue which has communal implications and never highlights it but the Congress is carrying forward a tradition which says dub the BJP communal, come what may. Whatever the situation, be it a Jan Chetna Yatra on corruption or may be a cricket match organised by the BJP, it has to be communal. People now ask, “Will the Congress look beyond communalism and secularism, the two words which have lost their vote catching ability long time back? Wasn’t it time to focus on the basic issues which the aam aadmi (common man) wants – end of corruption, accountability of ministers, employment, infrastructure development, health and education? All sections, be the “communal or secular” of the Congress variety, of this or that caste, belonging to one or the other community want these aspects. I am not sure how many people are bothered on the communal-secular debate any longer.
No wonder, the situation has come to such a passé that Congress now finds itself on the same page like the AISSF (Peer Mohammad). The gentleman Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad, head of Peer Mohammad faction of AISSF who says that his organisation will not allow the Rath Yatra to enter Punjab because of Advani’s history of spreading communal disharmony and provoking violence against religious minorities during his previous Yatras. No one might be listening to the extreme views; nevertheless it has been made and will continue to be made by the fringe elements.
Coming on to Advani’s Yatra in Punjab on the issue of corruption, it would be pertinent to point out that five months ago, BJP, an alliance partner of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has to face a severe embarrassment on the same issue on which Advani is undertaking the Yatra. All the ministers from the BJP quota were asked to resign and there was a Cabinet reshuffle in which three new faces were brought in. The names of two ministers had figured in the CBI probe. While a section of the BJP dubbed the entire allegations as “Congress inspired” and said CBI was an extension of the ruling party at the centre and this was merely to defame the party, another section went into introspection mode to curtail the damage.
Five months down the line, the damage has been largely contained with hardly any one remembering the episode but the aftershocks remain. Three BJP ministers — Manoranjan Kalia (industries and local government), Mohan Lal (transport) and Swarna Ram (social welfare), had been left out of the Cabinet then leading to a resentment of sorts. There is infighting in the state BJP and leaders now hope that Advani’s Yatra would provide the healing touch to the warring factions of the state BJP and unite them for the larger cause.
BJP had won a staggering 19 seats in the assembly polls in 2007 and for the first time, the Akali Dal did not have a majority of its own. Urban areas voted for the party in large numbers and this is where BJP would like to retain the numbers for the 2012 elections. The strains between the alliance partners too has been worked out by the SAD by creating new municipal bodies and announcement of a package for urban areas, the core support base of the BJP. (October 16, 2011)
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