Political parties are protective of their folks and spread a ring of security around the errant among them even when grave acts of crime are committed. Scruples are thrown to the winds. Parties take the people for granted, project a larger then life picture of their ‘good deeds’ and win votes and elections. As public memory is short, people forget the past and pay attention to only what is trumpeted before them. It might come as a whiff of fresh air, however, that the BJP has expelled two of its prominent faces on TV and social media, Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar, from the primary membership of the party over the way they “vitiated communal harmony” and acted against the BJP’s “core beliefs.”
At the same time, scores of Muslims have been arrested over the violence in Kanpur in protest against the anti-Muslim comments by Sharma and others. An expulsion of the two will, by itself, not do. They must be brought before law. That can send out the right lessons to the wider society. Having won the opportunity to hold power, the BJP would earn more support if it acts more responsibly. The party, with its present eminence, should show the way to others. Though the communal scenario had worsened after the arrival of the BJP as a strong force, its rule at the Centre and in the states are generally on secular lines with exceptions like the way the CAA–NPR provisions were conceived. The nation paid a price for that too as this caused fresh ulcers on the body politic. The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh run by a hawk in the form of Yogi Adityanath too charted a safe course free from any aggressive pursuits.
Notable, in this context, is also the recent statement by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in relation to a tendency among some Sangh Parivar outfits to “go and search for an idol under every mosque and create a new communal problem.” This, he ruled, was unacceptable. The RSS showed the maturity to cry a halt to this obsession. In fact, the pro-Hindu outfit is evolving into a more socially responsible entity and has stated it treats all Indians in the wider framework of Hindus. The right for all communities to co-exist in this country is a fundamental right guaranteed under the Constitution. The Indian psyche is dominantly tuned to such a social and political ethos. It will be in the fitness of things that the RSS and its feeder organisations keep this in mind, enabling the nation to rise as one and march forward.