NaMo is the Reformer of the Nation: Twenty-three years ago, exactly on this day, India embarked on a journey of self-discovery. It was a journey so different from the Nehruvian construct that it would go on to redefine India. The Ram Rath Yatra began on this day from Somnath in 1990 and aimed to travel all the way to Ayodhya by October 30. It was a path of Hindu re-enlightenment that would change Indian political firmament forever. Those were heady days for the Indian Right when young men and woman rediscovered their self-confidence after centuries of oppression. Wherever the Ram Rath traversed, ordinary women came out in their traditional regalia and performed aartis, while men vowed to dedicate their youth in the service of Ram. “Tel lagao Dabur ka, naam mitado Babur ka!” was one of the slogans that rang through the air across the yatra. It was a politically incorrect slogan no doubt, but came to represent the angst of India and a civilisation’s longing to recapture its past glory. The original yatri and his charioteer have once again come together in the age old guru-shishya traditions of India. Twenty-three years ago, these two leaders among men had come together to embark on what was possibly the greatest public mobilisation in independent India and today, 23 years hence, they were once again sharing the stage in what is being dubbed as the world’s biggest political rally in the Jamboree Maidan of Bhopal. It is indeed poetic justice that the original yatri has had to pass on the baton of India’s future leadership to his charioteer. A gathering of seven lakh seventy thousand karyakartas in one venue is possibly the greatest celebration of democracy that India has ever presented. Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, was reminded of the Mahabharata when she witnessed the Karyakarta Mahakumbh and the gathering of the entire galaxy of BJP leadership on the dais. She reminded everyone of the historic responsibility of Arjun in the battlefield and implored the charioteer of 1990 to take the lead as the Arjun of Kurukshetra 2014. Twice during the speeches of other leaders, the State CM, Shivraj Singh Chohan had to intervene to calm the restless crowd chanting the only four-lettered name that interests them – Modi. This is something unprecedented in the political history of India, that one leader evokes such passion among the masses even when others are speaking; this is what happened in Bhopal today and in Jaipur earlier. In fact, in Jaipur, this passion among the masses surprised the Congress party workers when the crowd started chanting “Modi” during CM Gehlot’s rally! “Like all of you, I am just an ordinary worker,” Modi averred at the start of his speech to thunderous applause. This is the new Arjun, a warrior who has been propelled by the masses and still considers himself a part of the masses. This is the moment in history when Arjun metamorphoses into Karna and liberates the power of the elite on the dais to transform into the power of the ordinary karyakarta standing in the sun and applauding the speeches. This is also the moment to engineer new slogans for the new Indian Right. “Congress mukt polling booth = Congress mukt Bharat” is the new battle cry that Narendra Modi gifted to BJP in Bhopal. In this slogan is another journey, a journey of the masses and their changing priorities. If it was Babur and his machinations that India wanted to delete in 1990, it is Congress and her corrupt non-governance that India wants to obliterate in 2014. Only when Arjun recognises the change and incorporates the transformation in his armoury does he become a perfect warrior. Modi has successfully replaced Babur with Congress. Modi has transformed the Indian Right from a purely Hindutva model to a Hindu governance model of Ram Rajya. Modi is the change. Change is in the air in the political atmosphere of India. Possibly, apart from 1977, change was never such a powerful wind as today. A tsunami of change has the capacity to uproot many a tree in its path, but it needs to be channelized to direct change towards the Congress tree. It is this challenge that BJP seems to be waking up to. Modi recognizes that converting popular national mood into electoral realities involves correcting local level anomalies, therefore both his rallies in Jaipur and Bhopal engaged polling booth level karyakartas. The next challenge for him is to settle the differences among various factions of different state leaderships. The Bhopal rally would also go down as the setting where BJP displayed unity of national leadership for the first time in the run-up to 2014. This has been the hallmark of BJP – the ability to fight for the pole position and then fall in line once a leader is chosen. This is a template that political parties in India should adapt in earnest, so that we can fast move into the path of true internal democracy and also possibly the caucuses. Postscript: On October 23, 1990, LK Advani was arrested in Samastipur, Bihar, and the State’s Chief Minister, Lalu Prasad Yadav, became a ‘secular’ hero of the average Muslim voter. The Ram Rath yatra had thus come to an abrupt end. Not to be outdone in these secular games, Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh tried every trick in the book to prevent the Karsevaks from entering Ayodhya, but when he failed in that task, he even forced the police to open fire on unarmed Sadhus in the narrow lanes of Faizabad, thereby killing scores of innocent men and women. This was a naked display of competitive secularism to protect minority vote-bank. Both these Chief Ministers and their wives and sons have given some of the worst State Governments in India’s electoral history, but have managed to remain relevant owing to their minorytism. There is a different kind of competition among BJP Chief Ministers of India. A minor example of the same was visible in Bhopal today. Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Narendra Modi competed with each other no doubt, they competed with each other to make their respective States power surplus. Both the BJP-ruled States are the only ones that have 24/7 bijlee. And when bijlee flows through our homes, it doesn’t differentiate on the basis of caste, creed or religion. Time has come for India to decide: What does it want? Competitive secularism or competitive governance?
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 17:54:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015