The results of the Parliamentary Elections 2009 in India are just another proof that this country is a de facto single-party state not too different from a totalitarian regimes. Like it or not, the Congress has no real competition on the Indian political scene. Despite all of our desires and efforts, for simple demographic reasons, BJP has no chance to succeed in a country where around 20 per cent of the population are religious minorities and where for six decades the educational system has been brainwashing the Indian citizens, even from the crib, about the excellence of the Gandhi-Nehruvian dynasty and its huge merits for the nation.
Under those circumstances, the only wise thing BJP can do is to accept reality and change its confrontational policy for a policy of rapprochement to the Congress. Perhaps these words will sound heretical to many a follower of the Indian Right. But to them it could be said: In politics, and especially in religious matters, there are no eternal friends or eternal enemies; there are only everlasting interests. The everlasting interests of Bharat Varsha and of the whole Hindu community dictate that the only way for the forces of Hindutva to abandon their state of permanent opposition and begin to exert a real influence in community is to try and get closer to the only ruling party in the country: the Congress.
This is not as difficult as it may seem at first glance. There aren’t and can’t be real right politics in India because the country is still too poor. Almost all political parties except the BJP are in the left spectrum and prone to demagogy; that is why the BJP has no real coalition partners. But between a centre-right party like the BJP and a centre-left party like the Congress there can be sometimes fewer differences and more similarities than between the moderate and the extreme Left (the communists) because the parties of the Centre are more or less close in their ideology. A typical example of such rapprochement of parties from the centre in modern history is Germany where after the last parliamentary elections two years ago the Social-Democrats and the Christian-Democrats reached an agreement and formed a coalitional government although they used to be fierce political opponents for decades. If BJP succeeds in getting closer to the Congress both on the national and on the regional level, in a future election 10 or 15 per cent of the national vote should be enough for the forces of Hindutva to have a direct influence over the government of the country because in a coalition all partners are equally important. And is there anything more important for the Right than the triumph of the Hindu ideology? If the leaders of the BJP don’t understand this simple truth today, they risk to send Hinduism into a state of permanent opposition of the sole ruling party, which will hold the power as long as the Gandhi-Nehruvian dynasty exists in this world.
Of course, there is an alternative scenario. And it can be realised if the BJP and Sangh Parivar invest all their energy and skills to promote the figure of Varun Gandhi— because after an intensive sixty-year-long brainwashing a large number of Indian citizens are brought to ecstasy and owe by the mere uttering of the word ‘Gandhi’. We shouldn’t be worried by the fact that Varun Gandhi doesn’t possess the charisma of a political leader because Rahul doesn’t have it either. Actually in my opinion Varun Gandhi possesses more political talents than his cousin. It’s not excluded that in the future Congress party will try to attract this young and perspective politician in his rows giving him a high post, that’s why his detaining among the lines of BJP has to become one of the most important priorities of the party.
And finally as third alternative—half-seriously, half-joking—I can propose the following scenario: Let all presidents of the BJP adopt the name “Gandhi” from the very moment of their election. They are just as entitled to it as were Jawaharlal Nehru and Sonia Maino in the past. By the way, this political joke can lead to consequences much more serious than one could ever expect.
(The writer is a Canada based orientalist and can be contacted at [email protected]. His website on voice of India is bojilkolorov.voiceofdharma.com
