For a BJP-Left Alliance

Bharat Jhunjhunwala

Cooperation between the BJP and Left Parties on the nuclear deal is a good sign. Truly, the economic policy of the two groups is mutually complimentary. The BJP is nationalist and focuses on creating a strong India and, therefore, sees America as a contestant rather than a colleague. This is most obvious in the way the BJP conducted the Pokhran explosions by giving slight to American spy satellites. Narasimha Rao had refrained from conducting the same nuclear explosions under American pressure, which is indicative of the Congress’ willingness to bend to American diktats. The BJP has stumped America in WTO talks at Cancun and Doha under the able leadership of Murasoli Maran and Arun Jaitley. In contrast, the Congress broke ranks with other developing countries in the late eighties to agree to inclusion of Patents in the WTO. Narasimha Rao, with Manmohan Singh in attendance, signed the obviously unequal WTO treaty in 1994 despite intense opposition by both the BJP and the Left Parties. The BJP opposes American interests to create a strong India while the Left Parties do the same to serve the common man. There is no conflict between the two objectives. A strong India goes well with a pro-poor India. Just as one brother wants to make a boundary wall to keep thugs from coming in while another wants to build the same wall to prevent children from going out to the busy street, similarly the BJP opposes American interests to prevent multinationals from coming in while the Left Parties do the same to keep national wealth from going out.T he Left Parties accuse the BJP of supporting American interests. Truly, the BJP has bowed to the Americans at times such as in offering refuelling facility to American forces during the Iraq war. But this should be seen as strategic, rather than ideological, support to that country. Just as the Left Parties often support national capitalists against multinational capitalists, similarly the BJP has at times supported American interests to promote India’s interests. The Left Parties may disagree with this assessment of the BJP but they should appreciate the underlying objective. The Congress has displayed no such anti-imperialist fervour. This organization was established by Mr Hume so that the perpetuity of British rule on India could be ensured. Nehru barked more and bit America less. Moreover, he attacked Western capitalist countries only to embrace Western Russia. Manmohan Singh is operating almost as an assistant to President George W Bush. Thus the BJP’s support to America is on an altogether different footing than that of the Congress. The Left and the BJP mostly oppose each other despite this overwhelming commonality because of errors on both sides. The BJP is mostly anti-common man in its policies. Prime Minister Vajpayee had promised to create 1 crore jobs every year. Critics, including this writer, repeatedly pointed out that the common man was not getting any relief. Now we know from the Economic Survey that jobs in the organized sector started declining since 1997 — coinciding with the BJP’s rule. But Vajpayee was more inclined to listen to insensitive yes-men because welfare of the people mattered little to him.Indeed, this attitude is part of the Hindu tradition which is responsible for its continuous shrinking. The most recent example is of the BJP’s support to ‘Hindu’ King Gyanendra. He had turned the entire economy to only feed the royal household. There was no place in the Hindu Kingdom for land reforms and other pro-people measures. That is similar to the situation of the poor in the princely states in India. Tribals in Dungarpur in Rajasthan told this writer that they would run away to British-ruled areas to escape from tyranny of the local Hindu kings. The main reason for the expansion of Islam and Christianity in India is that the poor have been despised under the caste system or otherwise. The BJP will have to correct this error. The complaint of Left, on the other hand, is regarding the Hindu fundamentalist nature of the RSS, of which BJP is an outcrop. Truly, the BJP-RSS combine is anti-Muslim in its orientation. But the root of this, in my reckoning, is the deep hate that Muslims harbour in their heart against polytheist Hindus. Muslims consider Hindus as believers in degenerate religion that places other gods at the same level as God; hence they are unable to love Hindus as brothers-in-arms. The irony is that both Hindus and Muslims believe in One God. Hindu Texts repeatedly assert that there is but only One Brahman. The difference is that Hindus consider that Brahman is manifested at lower levels in lesser gods like Vishnu, Indra, etc; while Muslims think that Hindus place other lesser gods equal to God. This Muslim view is an incorrect description of Hindu beliefs. This incorrect understanding leads to loss of love on the part of Muslims towards Hindus as fellow human beings and starts a chain reaction of hate and counter-hate which we see in the RSS-BJP reactions. The Left must understand that Muslim misunderstanding of Hindu religion is at the root of this problem. In the result, the correction has to occur on the part of Muslims first. In any event, the Left is on a weak wicket in focusing on Hindu-Muslim conflict on the issue of religion instead of the economic commonalities with the BJP. Lenin, writing in 1923 on the issue of cooperation, said: ‘‘Formerly we placed, and had to place, the main emphasis on the political struggle, on revolution, on winning political power etc. Now the emphasis is changing and shifting to peaceful, organizational, ‘cultural’ work.’’ He explains that the fight against imperialism was previously the first priority which had delayed taking up the educational and cultural works. The message is that first one must attack the economic foundations, and then approach cultural matters. In other words, the Left must first cooperate with the BJP on the critical economic matters where they see eye to eye, and leave religious issues for later solution. The Left is making a grave error in sacrificing cooperation with the BJP on grounds of its so-called Hindu fundamentalism.It is a tragedy that both the BJP and the Left focus on the degenerated practice of the other rather than on similarity of philosophy. The Left focuses on the anti-Muslim tirades of BJP while ignoring the Hindu philosophy of One Brahman. The BJP focuses on the class war practice of the Left parties rather than their philosophy of classless society of Communism. In focusing on the practice of the other, which often leaves much to be desired, they lose sight of their common philosophy. The coming together of the Left and the BJP on the nuclear deal provides one more chance for them to understand the similarity of their philosophical underpinnings and to forge a long-term and deeper cooperation for the welfare of the country. source: sentinel assam