Bal Thackeray has every reason to be upset. After all, the hype about Ramjanmabhoomi, the rath yatra and subsequent riots, masjid demolition and subsequent riots, the targeting of more mosques for demolition, the 'reawakening' of Hindus after a thousand years of slavery, what does the BJP do but to reinvent the wheel of 'pseudo-secularism' to woo the Muslims.

... Will the Muslims no longer be regarded as the children of Babur who must atone for the sins of their fore-fathers? Will the history books be re-rewritten by Murli Manohar Joshi to erase the saffron slant? Will the National Commission of Women produce fresh 'studies' saying that the subjugation of women did not after all begin with the Muslim invasion? Will the Khans continue to reign unchallenged in Bollywood ?.

... The BJP suddenly realised that its share of vote was stagnating. Earlier, RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan had acknowledged that attendance at the organisation's shakhas was falling. Clearly, at both the political and organisational levels, something was going wrong ...

The BJP ... is part of a Parivar. Not only that, it isn't even the head of the Parivar. The head is the RSS. Unless the BJP wants to break with the RSS, it cannot follow a policy which is diametrically opposed to what is favoured by the RSS. True, it can influence the RSS to moderate, even change, its stance. Or at least not to oppose the BJP too vociferously for a time. But the two following different lines and yet remaining in the same Parivar is out of the question.

The reason is that the RSS world-view has no place for Muslims and other minorities. As Golwalkar pointed out with disarming candour, the Muslim is Internal Enemy No. 1 and the Christian is Internal Enemy No. 2. The feverish rewriting of history which Murli Manohar Joshi has undertaken is based on this premise. He wants to change the standard historical view which has been treating the Muslim invasion of India on a par with other invasions, including that of Aryans, as a part of worldwide migrations.

It wasn't seen by historians and sociologists as a disaster but as an event which initiated the process of synthesis of various cultures and produced a rich heritage. The emphasis on assimilation was deliberate, for the objective was to encourage all the communities – invaders and natives - to bury the past and build a common future.

The RSS wants, however, to focus only on the dissonance of the past and see it as a conflict which will not end till the Internal Enemies are defeated and Hindu rashtra is established. If the BJP went merrily along with this view, it is not only because the party subscribes to it, but also because it believed that the strong communal feelings generated by its championing of the Hindu cause will obliterate the social, political and other differences among the Hindus and bring them under the saffron banner.

But it read the Indian mind wrong. Not all Indians want to continue fighting the battles of the old against the children of Babur'. Nor does the devotion of the Hindus to their faith mean that they regard other religions with disfavour and approve of the intimidation of their followers. And, above all, the political purpose of the saffron campaign has been exposed. The realisation has also dawned that, for all their sanctimonious pretences, the BJP stalwarts are really no different from the other politicians and are probably a lot worse.

Indeed, the BJP's latest ploy is typical of grasping politicians with nothing on their minds but power. Having realised that an overall Hindu unity is not possible, they have decided to reach out to the Muslims in the same manner in which they earlier spoke of starting a process of 'social engineering' by stitching together the votes of the upper and lower castes. But voters cannot be gathered like sheep in a pen. While herding some in, others may escape. While the intermediate castes are parting company with the BJP, its latest move may cause consternation among the party's upper caste supporters as well.'

It is difficult to understand why the BJP made such an unthinking move, for it will probably hurt the party more than help it. While the minorities are unlikely to be fooled, given the seven decades of propaganda against them by the RSS, the saffron camp's own supporters will be confused and alienated.

Not only Thackeray, but a host of others – Ashok Singhal, Acharya Giriraj Kishore, et al - will shudder at the idea of supping with a community whose disinclination to sing Vande Mataram made the VHP call for its disenfranchisement. (Source: The Hindustan Times, 18 September, 2000)

H. Hashim Kidwai On BJP's Secret Agenda

Khushwant Singh ... has rightly pointed out that ... training pandits to perform religious rituals must never be the function of a secular Government.

Justice demands that if there are courses in colleges to teach Hindu rituals, similar courses for teaching Muslim, Christian, Sikh Buddhist and Parsi rituals should also be put in place in these institutions.

This is another instance of the BJP implementing its secret agenda of saffronising education. (Source: The Pioneer, 31 August, 2000)