A particular style of politics unites the vandalising of yet another church in Delhi and the expression of righteous fury at the allegation that the Aam Aadmi Party had received donations from four companies involved in money laundering. This style of politics is unmistakably the Bharatiya Janata Party’s, as also of those who possess power and pelf. In their arrogance, they assume that they can either fashion the world in their own image or turn their rivals into a parody of themselves.
The defining features of the BJP’s style of politics is to breed suspicion in people and divide them, to justify its own patently illegal actions through vicious smear campaigns against its opponents, to deliberately lower the standard of politics to create a level playing field for itself, to maintain a measured distance from episodes it knows will invite opprobrium, thus allowing it to deny direct involvement in them yet reaping electoral benefits if they are available. Ultimately, and quite pathetically, its style of politics is predicated on deeply loathing ideas it opposes and targetting those who subscribe to them.
Examine the episodes concerning the church and AAP and you will see in them manifestations of the BJP’s style of politics and culture.
A clear pattern
The vandalising of the church in the South Delhi colony of Vasant Kunj is not an isolated incident. This is the fifth such occurrence over the last two months. Yes, no BJP or Sangh Parivar activist has yet been implicated in these acts of sacrilege. Yes, the BJP hasn’t publicly campaigned against churches in Delhi, as it had, for instance, against the Babri Masjid. Yes, the Central government’s control over the Delhi Police is perhaps the reason why it hasn’t named any of the Sangh affiliates as a possible suspect.
Yet there is no denying that the vandalising of churches has been spawned by the BJP’s style of politics and culture. For months, Sangh leaders have been targeting Christians, as also Muslims, accusing the two communities of forcibly converting Hindus, and portraying the religious minorities to be engaged in a sinister conspiracy to change the country’s religious demographics.
The inevitable consequences of this style of politics are to make a large segment of Hindus suspicious of minorities, foment hatred against them, as also frighten them. For all its talk of governance and development, Make in India and Swachh Bharat, the BJP primarily relies, as it always has, on communally vitiating the political ambiance. In this atmosphere, the absence of vociferous protest is not surprising, for Delhi is where the Prime Minister lives and he hasn’t spoken yet.
Coarsening standards
This lowering of political standards and debate – by substituting the politics of interest with that of identity, by mouthing the slogan of development for all and yet pursuing exclusivist policy – is the surest way the BJP can hope to win tight elections, as the forthcoming Delhi election is turning out to be. This is because the BJP remains the party representing primarily the interests of the rich, the conservative middle class, and the corporate sector. It is through communal polarisation the BJP can divide the lower classes and manufacture majorities.
But the rhetoric of hate and the ensuing social instability are also deeply upsetting for segments of the middle class. To ensure that this class isn’t alienated, the BJP is forced to keep a certain distance in order to be able to deny its role in communal polarisation or else to convey that its hatred for religious minorities is justified. This is why the Sangh floats innumerable outfits and the BJP claims it has no control over them because they function autonomously. This is why it must spin bogus theories of the Hindu population being outnumbered, to make its constituents feel insecure and pose as their protector.
These elements of the BJP’s political culture have inspired it to attack the AAP. True, it is a splinter group of AAP that has accused the party of taking donations through the hawala channel. Yet, look at the alacrity with which the BJP’s big guns were brought to fire volleys against the AAP. It seemed they were waiting for the story to break, more so because the BJP issued advertisements in the next day’s newspapers claiming the allegation was yet another example of Arvind Kejriwal’s hypocrisy.
Dirty tricks
Call it the rapid response of the BJP’s dirty tricks department, whose forte includes executing ideas of love jihad, gharwapsi and other such divisive strategies before elections. Just as the BJP often says it has no control over the Bajrang Dal and the VHP, it can claim it is the AAP splinter that is responsible for this unseemly drama. This provides the BJP the opportunity to try confuse AAP voters and yet avoid incurring the wrath of those voters who might perceive this brand of politics as unbecoming of a party that claims to be different from others.
This ploy is aimed at making them suspicious about AAP, since it will be impossible to check the veracity of the allegations through an independent investigation in the few days left for voting. This also seeks to undercut AAP’s USP that it fights elections on a thin budget.
The BJP’s is not an attempt at flaunting its own credentials, but at eroding the credibility of others. Not for it to advocate transparency in political funding, of which it is the biggest beneficiary every election. Like the Congress, it isn’t keen to annul the legal provision that allows parties to disclose the names only of donors who donate more than than Rs 20,000, enabling them to park slush funds with political outfits in a series of instalments of this amount. By contrast, AAP registered the alleged hawala amount of Rs 2 crore on its website and took it in cheques.
Old tactics
This style isn't something the BJP has acquired recently. More than a decade ago, it harped on the foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi and, in the 2014 general election, took to calling Rahul Gandhi shahzada or prince. It called Kejriwal a bhagoda (a deserter) and AK 49, an anarchist, Naxalite and benaseeb-wallah (or ill-fated man). This is unmistakably the style of those who thrive on ridicule and consider leaders competing against them as enemies.
From Gujarat, Gandhi emerged to provide India a new political language and a style of politics that was gentle and fetching. Even as the BJP seeks to appropriate the Mahatma, there has come to Delhi another Gujarati, Amit Shah, who has turned India’s politics, and Delhi’s particularly, meaner than ever before. On February 7, Delhi will not only elect a new government but also make a moral choice.
This isn’t just one example of the BJP trying to pull down AAP to make it appear as no different from it and other mainstream players. For instance, it has sought to turn the battle for Delhi into a contest of personalities and fling mud at its rivals, refraining from even issuing a manifesto and mouthing tired clichés about development. It has belatedly released a Vision Document for Delhi, promising to turn the city world-class. This is a status Delhi can scarcely hope to claim, regardless of infrastructure it builds, as long as churches come under attack. It's a classic case of a backward mindset imagining modernity.
Ajaz Ashraf is a journalist from Delhi. His novel, The Hour Before Dawn, published by HarperCollins, is now in bookstores.
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The defining features of the BJP’s style of politics is to breed suspicion in people and divide them, to justify its own patently illegal actions through vicious smear campaigns against its opponents, to deliberately lower the standard of politics to create a level playing field for itself, to maintain a measured distance from episodes it knows will invite opprobrium, thus allowing it to deny direct involvement in them yet reaping electoral benefits if they are available. Ultimately, and quite pathetically, its style of politics is predicated on deeply loathing ideas it opposes and targetting those who subscribe to them.
Examine the episodes concerning the church and AAP and you will see in them manifestations of the BJP’s style of politics and culture.
A clear pattern
The vandalising of the church in the South Delhi colony of Vasant Kunj is not an isolated incident. This is the fifth such occurrence over the last two months. Yes, no BJP or Sangh Parivar activist has yet been implicated in these acts of sacrilege. Yes, the BJP hasn’t publicly campaigned against churches in Delhi, as it had, for instance, against the Babri Masjid. Yes, the Central government’s control over the Delhi Police is perhaps the reason why it hasn’t named any of the Sangh affiliates as a possible suspect.
Yet there is no denying that the vandalising of churches has been spawned by the BJP’s style of politics and culture. For months, Sangh leaders have been targeting Christians, as also Muslims, accusing the two communities of forcibly converting Hindus, and portraying the religious minorities to be engaged in a sinister conspiracy to change the country’s religious demographics.
The inevitable consequences of this style of politics are to make a large segment of Hindus suspicious of minorities, foment hatred against them, as also frighten them. For all its talk of governance and development, Make in India and Swachh Bharat, the BJP primarily relies, as it always has, on communally vitiating the political ambiance. In this atmosphere, the absence of vociferous protest is not surprising, for Delhi is where the Prime Minister lives and he hasn’t spoken yet.
Coarsening standards
This lowering of political standards and debate – by substituting the politics of interest with that of identity, by mouthing the slogan of development for all and yet pursuing exclusivist policy – is the surest way the BJP can hope to win tight elections, as the forthcoming Delhi election is turning out to be. This is because the BJP remains the party representing primarily the interests of the rich, the conservative middle class, and the corporate sector. It is through communal polarisation the BJP can divide the lower classes and manufacture majorities.
But the rhetoric of hate and the ensuing social instability are also deeply upsetting for segments of the middle class. To ensure that this class isn’t alienated, the BJP is forced to keep a certain distance in order to be able to deny its role in communal polarisation or else to convey that its hatred for religious minorities is justified. This is why the Sangh floats innumerable outfits and the BJP claims it has no control over them because they function autonomously. This is why it must spin bogus theories of the Hindu population being outnumbered, to make its constituents feel insecure and pose as their protector.
These elements of the BJP’s political culture have inspired it to attack the AAP. True, it is a splinter group of AAP that has accused the party of taking donations through the hawala channel. Yet, look at the alacrity with which the BJP’s big guns were brought to fire volleys against the AAP. It seemed they were waiting for the story to break, more so because the BJP issued advertisements in the next day’s newspapers claiming the allegation was yet another example of Arvind Kejriwal’s hypocrisy.
Dirty tricks
Call it the rapid response of the BJP’s dirty tricks department, whose forte includes executing ideas of love jihad, gharwapsi and other such divisive strategies before elections. Just as the BJP often says it has no control over the Bajrang Dal and the VHP, it can claim it is the AAP splinter that is responsible for this unseemly drama. This provides the BJP the opportunity to try confuse AAP voters and yet avoid incurring the wrath of those voters who might perceive this brand of politics as unbecoming of a party that claims to be different from others.
This ploy is aimed at making them suspicious about AAP, since it will be impossible to check the veracity of the allegations through an independent investigation in the few days left for voting. This also seeks to undercut AAP’s USP that it fights elections on a thin budget.
The BJP’s is not an attempt at flaunting its own credentials, but at eroding the credibility of others. Not for it to advocate transparency in political funding, of which it is the biggest beneficiary every election. Like the Congress, it isn’t keen to annul the legal provision that allows parties to disclose the names only of donors who donate more than than Rs 20,000, enabling them to park slush funds with political outfits in a series of instalments of this amount. By contrast, AAP registered the alleged hawala amount of Rs 2 crore on its website and took it in cheques.
Old tactics
This style isn't something the BJP has acquired recently. More than a decade ago, it harped on the foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi and, in the 2014 general election, took to calling Rahul Gandhi shahzada or prince. It called Kejriwal a bhagoda (a deserter) and AK 49, an anarchist, Naxalite and benaseeb-wallah (or ill-fated man). This is unmistakably the style of those who thrive on ridicule and consider leaders competing against them as enemies.
From Gujarat, Gandhi emerged to provide India a new political language and a style of politics that was gentle and fetching. Even as the BJP seeks to appropriate the Mahatma, there has come to Delhi another Gujarati, Amit Shah, who has turned India’s politics, and Delhi’s particularly, meaner than ever before. On February 7, Delhi will not only elect a new government but also make a moral choice.
This isn’t just one example of the BJP trying to pull down AAP to make it appear as no different from it and other mainstream players. For instance, it has sought to turn the battle for Delhi into a contest of personalities and fling mud at its rivals, refraining from even issuing a manifesto and mouthing tired clichés about development. It has belatedly released a Vision Document for Delhi, promising to turn the city world-class. This is a status Delhi can scarcely hope to claim, regardless of infrastructure it builds, as long as churches come under attack. It's a classic case of a backward mindset imagining modernity.
Ajaz Ashraf is a journalist from Delhi. His novel, The Hour Before Dawn, published by HarperCollins, is now in bookstores.
