Short Takes
Unpleasant Public Quarrel
Mohammed Ataur Rahman on BJP’s endless quarrels and its washing its dirty linen in public
The party that thrives on creating and sustaining violent conflicts between Hindus and Muslims and Hindus and Christians is caught in a conflict of its own that refuses to be settled.
It seems the party can stick together only in its violent campaigns against Muslims and Christians. Peace time is bad for its survival and growth. Also, it can stay together only in victory. Defeat exposes its false veneer of unity.
Once the party began sustaining defeat in parliamentary polls, its internal squabbles came to the fore. Then came repeated defeats in the states.
With that came the devastating blow of Jaswant Singh’ book that presented Pakistan’s founder as less villainous than the Sangh Parivar’s portrayal of the man. This difference of opinion snowballed into an ugly public quarrel.
A humiliated Vasundhraraje Scindia, who saw many stalwarts of BJP acting like factotums to her mother, on whose largesse they were living, refused to oblige the Sangh Parivar. Of course, she had to resign from her chiefministerial gaddi. But that was that.
Soon she exposed the shenanigans of Sangh bigwigs. And, as was natural, the bigwigs squirmed in discomfort.
The latest in the Sangh Parivar circus is the disgusting melodrama in Karnataka. A chief minister who has no tears to shed for the victims of organised anti-Muslim and anti-Christian violence in his state, wept in public as he was forced by his party to jilt old friends.
However, even that betrayal of friends was not to satisfy the dissident Reddy brothers, using whose immense wealth the party had come to power. The Reddys are naturally demanding their pound of flesh, even though they already have got more than their pound of flesh in the form of ministerial berths.
The central leadership is claiming that the Karnataka quarrel has been settled. However, the Reddys have not stopped demanding Chief Minsiter Yadavappa’s head.
You have not heard the last of the “Party With a Difference”. Tall claims not withstanding, this “Party of Differences” has more tricks up its sleeve. Wait and watch.
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