The BJP’s greatest strength was its ideology of Hindutva, which it inherited from the RSS. Hindutva in politics is the working out of Hinduism’s vision of freedom – freedom from want, freedom from fear and indeed attaining the freedom of all freedoms – that of moksha. This covered the grounds of economics, defense and spirituality. However, somewhere down the line BJP appears to have become embarrassed by Hindutva, probably because it got infected by pseudo secularism, which it had earlier criticised. The fall is obvious because now the BJP has become a votary of restoring Wakf Land to the Muslims.
Right from its inception, the RSS has been organizing people not on the basis of their religion, but on the basis of Indian nationalism with a view to make our nation, the great ancient Hindu Rashtra, a glorious nation once more. Neither the RSS nor the BJP sought to attract people on the basis of religion. And those attracted towards it were taught to be Indians first and Indians last. But this appears to have changed.
BJP is now seeking Muslim votes by promising to get Wakaf lands back for them, without any attempt to teach the Muslims that the Indian nation ought to be greater than Islam, which is a product of Arabic nationalism – that there ought to be an Islam rooted in Indian culture which says that though the truth is one, it is expressible in many ways. This proves that the Muslim leaders in the BJP have themselves not imbibed the nationalism that the Sangha Parivar seeks to have imbibed on its members. Instead, its Muslim leaders are pandering to the exclusivity of Islam. It is even more ironic, considering that Muslims believe that once a Wakaf land, forever a Wakaf land, without the right of the state to even think of acquiring it for the greater common good. Precisely a case of diluting nationalism, which the BJP once swore to represent.
Right from its inception, the RSS has been organizing people not on the basis of their religion, but on the basis of Indian nationalism with a view to make our nation, the great ancient Hindu Rashtra, a glorious nation once more. Neither the RSS nor the BJP sought to attract people on the basis of religion. And those attracted towards it were taught to be Indians first and Indians last. But this appears to have changed.
BJP is now seeking Muslim votes by promising to get Wakaf lands back for them, without any attempt to teach the Muslims that the Indian nation ought to be greater than Islam, which is a product of Arabic nationalism – that there ought to be an Islam rooted in Indian culture which says that though the truth is one, it is expressible in many ways. This proves that the Muslim leaders in the BJP have themselves not imbibed the nationalism that the Sangha Parivar seeks to have imbibed on its members. Instead, its Muslim leaders are pandering to the exclusivity of Islam. It is even more ironic, considering that Muslims believe that once a Wakaf land, forever a Wakaf land, without the right of the state to even think of acquiring it for the greater common good. Precisely a case of diluting nationalism, which the BJP once swore to represent.
The BJP ought not to take its core constituency of nationalists for granted.
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