The run-of-the mill politicians today are demonstrating a serious deficit – a poverty of ideas. Some of those from within the BJP, however, substitute this with an aggressive Hindutva agenda. The others, including those from the Left that once claimed to have a crop of intellectuals in its rank and file, rarely speak up. Most politicians today seem to lack a vision for the nation’s future. Some, instead, whip up communal passions. Note the way a BJP MLA from Telangana threatened to march Hindus from his state to adjoining Maharashtra and demolish the tomb of Aurangazeb, the sixth Mughal emperor in the 17th Century. He passed away in 1707, and what remains ever since is no more than his tomb. The vestiges of the British Raj too are here for all to see. The singular obsession of the Sangh Parivar and its adjuncts to however, target only the Muslim hallmarks, mosques or monuments, smacks of a deeply communal mindset – and this undercuts the cause of national unity. Muslims form nearly 20 per cent of the nation’s population.
Abysmally, the level of political discourse here keeps sinking to new lows. In the years immediately after Independence, western educated Jawaharlal Nehru with his modern and secular mindset sought to unite the people under one banner. Secularism eventually became an article of faith for the nation and it was added to the preamble of the Indian Constitution as a guiding principle in 1976. Yet, many in the BJP are unable to digest this. The Babri Masjid offensive helped the BJP come upfront and raise the communal frenzy in the Hindi belt. This eventually hoisted it to power from a negligible presence in Parliament in the 1980s. The BJP however did not go overboard during the past two terms of the Modi government, which rather retained the composure that marked the AB Vajpayee terms in power. For the sake of ensuring law and order, Modi kept the hardcore communalists in the party largely under control. Yet, there have been occasional eruption of such sentiments among the party’s rank and file, resulting in communal conflagrations in some states.
A tomb is, by all means, inconsequential. It harms none and should provoke none. Hardly anyone today cares a damn for Aurangazeb’s tomb, least of all the Muslims, and yet it is sought to be used by BJP-RSS hawks to whip up communal passions. They are doing a disservice to the nation. Within the BJP, even among ministers, there is hardly any leader who demonstrates an intellectual aura or a vision for the future. An exception, of course, is roads minister Nitin Gadkari. He demonstrates a rare understanding of the complexities of technology and the mechanisms that drive the modern world. In the present scheme of things, intelligent and educated people are generally kept out of politics. From top to bottom, the ranks are filled by semi-literates, manipulators and the muscle-flexing lot. This is a sad commentary on India as it is today.
