It’s a pity that the BJP, the nation’s largest political establishment, has no character to it other than its Hindutva obsessions, to which the party is tied steadfastly. Proof is also the way it draws into its fold veteran Congress leaders, who prove beyond doubt that they have no distinctive character and are game with religion-based politics. Maharashtra’s former chief minister Ashok Chavan joined the BJP and would go to Rajya Sabha on a saffron nomination soon. Speculations are rife that Madhya Pradesh’s former chief minister Kamal Nath, who rode the Congress to defeat in MP, is ready and willing to join the BJP that has extended an olive branch to him. These leaders were the main campaigners against Hindutva and BJP till the other day. Notably, former AP chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy too joined the BJP recently though he has been given no major position.
While the commitment of the BJP is pro-Hindu nationalism even as it might not openly state so, the ideology of the Congress has always been anchored in secularism. These two ideologies are contradictory in themselves. An overnight change from one side to the other is proof that the sole agenda of the present-day politicians is to promote themselves at the gross expense of the people and their interests. By such change of colour, these men let the people down and demonstrate how unscrupulous and unprincipled they, as leaders, are in their words and deeds. It’s all a drama.
Those like Kamal Nath carry with them the stigma of corruption. In the past half a century, such men enriched themselves beyond comprehension. In the last 10 years of governance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not touch most of the corrupt politicians. The central investigating agencies danced around them. Modi’s aim, it would seem, was only to browbeat them into submission. Hardly any such investigation progressed along proper lines. If making compromises is a part of Modi’s political character, the BJP has thus lost its character in most respects. A difference between the BJP and Congress is that till date there are fewer corruption allegations against BJP ministers. This by no means is a certificate that they are incorrupt or incorruptible. Normally, ministerial level corruptions are exposed by the CAG through its reports — this, in the absence of an alert Opposition. In looting the exchequer, rival political establishments are perceived to be protecting each other. Clearly, India does not have a strong Opposition. Worse, they remain as divided as ever — a guarantee to the continued domination of the BJP and PM Modi in the political sphere.
