Fw: [VFA-members] BJP apes Congress, fails By Koenraad Elst

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----- Forwarded Message ----sri venkat <ahvenkiteshTuesday, May 19, 2009 10:43:56 AM[VFA-members] BJP apes Congress, fails By Koenraad ElstBJP apes Congress, failsBy Koenraad Elshttp://dailypioneer.com/177112/BJP-apes-Congress-fails.htmlTuesday, May 19, 2009Right-wing parties all over the world have a common trait: Once in ornear power, they betray their own support base. The BJP is nodifferent. It is needlessly described as a 'Hindu chauvinist' partywhich it is not. To prove its 'secular' credentials, the BJP chose tobecome the 'B' team of the Congress. And was rejected by the votersWith great satisfaction, the

world has taken note of the defeat of theHindu nationalists: “The Indian voter has rejected Hindu chauvinism.â€Subtleties such as the likelihood that the BJP has been abandoned bymany of its supporters for not being Hindu chauvinist enough, don'tcome into the picture. The typically Indian failures of the BJP thatexplain its defeat, I now leave to Indian authors to discuss. What hascaught my attention is a trait the BJP shares with Right-wing partiesall over the world.The label 'Rightist' is open to various definitions, the themes withwhich Rightist parties attract voters are different from country tocountry, and even on a single theme, their positions may differbetween countries. But they have one behavioural trait in common: Oncein or near power, they betray their own support base.In France, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy came to power on a distinctly Rightistplatform, which he largely disowned

once installed as President. Thus,he had promised to oppose the entry of Turkey into the EU, but thefirst thing he did was to nominate as his Foreign Affairs MinisterBernard Kouchner of the opposition Socialist Party, a declaredsupporter of Turkey's entry.In Britain, the Conservative Party is a copy of New Labour on allissues of consequence. People who favour its traditional positions nowturn to the UK Independence Party or even the proletarian BritishNational Party. Those who insist on loyalty to the old party-line,even top-ranking veteran Norman Tebbitt, are threatened withexpulsion.In the US, the real (so-called paleo-) conservatives have been frozenout of the Republican Party and are being starved by institutionalboycotts. The party shuns matters of principle and limits its supposedconservatism to mindless flag-waving. While the party base favoursChristian politics, the part elite

downplays ideology and promoted aspresidential candidate the faux war martyr John McCain, a liberal inthe Culture War. Like other plutocrats eager to suppress labour wagesby exploiting illegals, he laughed at the party activists' demands forcurbs on immigration. Consequently, conservative mobilisation for theparty during the elections was lacklustre and defeat inevitable.Doesn't all this remind you of the BJP? The party favours mindlessflag-waving over ideology and takes its constituents for granted. Itassumes that they have nowhere else to turn and will follow the partyin all its erratic policy shifts. Well, not really erratic, there is atransparent logic in the party's betraying its core party-line: Itdreams of enjoying the warmth of approval from its enemies, who happento dominate the cultural and media sectors. It tells its voters: Sinceyou are lambasted as reactionary communalists, we don't

want to be onyour side. But no matter what non-Hindutva postures it adopts, thehoped-for approval from the secularists remains elusive.In 1991 already, right after the election victory that made the BJPthe leading Opposition party, it discreetly disowned the Ayodhyamovement that had earned it this breakthrough. The media scapegoatedMr LK Advani for the subsequent Babri Masjid demolition, thougheverybody knew that it had taken place in spite of him. He had gonethere to demonstrate to the secularists that he was the one man whocould control Hindu anger and prevent it from demolishing this symbolof secularism. When the crowd bypassed him, he broke down in tears,and ever since, he has been deploring the event as the 'blackest day'of his life. Disowning his role of flag-bearer of Hindutva, he shouldhave bowed out gracefully. Instead, his clinging on to the leadershipreminds us of Mr Jean-Marie Le

Pen, the aged French Rightist leaderwho has sacrificed his party to his own pitiable ambitions.While Ayodhya was 'merely' a symbolic issue, the more politicaldemands were likewise cast aside. When in power, the BJP didn't makethe slightest move towards a Common Civil Code, abolition of Jammu & Kashmir's separate status or Governmental non-interference in Hinduschools and places of worship. The single attempt at doing anythingpro-Hindu -- Mr Murli Manohar Joshi's exercise in rewriting theMarxist-distorted textbooks -- turned into a horror show ofincompetence.During the latest campaign, the BJP downplayed ideology (excepterratically in the Varun Gandhi incident) and betted all on 'goodgovernance'. Some BJP State Governments have provided that, to besure, and in these States the BJP has been rewarded. But it couldnever be a decisive election-winner because Congress hasn't done toobad in

that regard either. Ever since Mr Manmohan Singh read out the1992 Budget, the world sees his signature written all over India'seconomic success. Even BJP contributors to that success, likeerstwhile Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie, won't deny him thathonour.In these circumstances, only a clear ideological profile, mature butdistinct, could have won the election for the BJP. If it didn't wantthat ideological distinctness and was content to remain the Congress'sB-team, the party could have learned from Mr Sarkozy to show this onlyafter the election. Before, it should at least have kept up thepretence of being a party with a difference.- The author is an Indologist based in Brussels.---