NAMONIA AND CHANGING EQUATIONS
The political landscape in
India is changing fast with different national and regional parties preparing
for the forthcoming parliamentary elections in 2004 and the raging NaMonia [a term coined to describe the fanatical admiration for the Gujarat CM Narendra
Modi in BJP circles] in the most
potential challenger – the Bharatiya Janata Party – is disturbing not only the
general secular-minded public but also causing much discontent among veterans
in that party even, as illustrated by the recent resignation drama enacted by Lal
Krishna Advani. Though it is true that more bloodshed has been caused in
communal riots during the Congress regimes than under the BJP rule, the
definite commitment of that party to a pro-Hindu political and governance
system coupled with the atrocities against minorities in Gujarat under Modi
have made that party a virtual outcast for several centre/left parties.
Strangely, that party patriarch, Advani, who was indeed responsible for the
rise of Hindutva forces by his famous rath
yatra and then destruction of Babri Masjid and commitment to the
construction of Ramjanambhoomi Mandir, all of which were key factors
catapulting that party with mere 2 MPs to the ruling echelons with Vajpayee as
the No. 1 [and PM] followed by himself as No. 2 [and Dy. PM], alone could have to some extent mollified the
aversion and discontent of other parties towards BJP by his more mature and
more-liberal-now approaches. But, it is perplexing and also saddening
to see such a veteran, who should have been normally accepted as the No. 1 and
pushed as the prime ministerial candidate, being shunned by younger upstarts in
that party out of their NaMonia. Now that Nitish Yadav of JD (U) has also
broken alliance with the BJP, it seems the coming elections can be damaging to it
and lend a definite advantage to the incumbent ruling party, though it is steeped
in the mire of corruption, loathed by the public in general and badly mauled by
attacks from the left-extremists and other terrorists. Parliamentary left parties,
with no vision or program for forging a left democratic front even, seem to be
in the lurch and may but tail this or that centre/left national/regional parties
with all their illusions about, and in their peaceful march to, parliamentary
socialism. §§§
No comments:
Post a Comment