Hindu communalism as also Muslim, Sikh and Christian communalism have, however, grown since 1977 ... Sections of the middle classes and the intelligentsia ... have (not) gone over to communalism, but rather they have failed to understand the basic character of BJP. Many see it as some sort of right-of-the- centre Christian Democratic type of party with some religious or cultural appeal for Hindus. They also regard it as functioning within the limits imposed by its own constitution, leaders and programme. Both these assumptions are wrong.
There is also a misunderstanding regarding communalism. Communalism is not a set of specific policies such as the building of a temple at Ayodhya or the enactment of a uniform civil code. Communalism is basically an ideology, a belief system, a way of looking at society and polity. Various policies acquire a communal character only when they are articulated with a communal ideology.
BJP ... is a communal party because it is structured around communal ideology. The cadres of BJP (and RSS) - the sinews of any party or movement - are recruited and enthused over the years through strong and naked communal ideology. To suggest that BJP minus communalism would be 'alright' is to ignore the centrality of communal ideology to its existence. BJP minus communalism would not be 'alright', it would be a big zero - and BJP leaders know it. They can sugarcoat the communal ideological pill but they cannot function without it. Many people also think that once in power, BJP would be 'tamed' ideologically and would gradually get humanised and secularised, especially under the leadership of liberal and decent persons like Vajpayee and Advani. Such people forget that once an ideology spreads widely and prevails for a long enough period it acquires a life and force of its own and not even those who nurtured and spread it can control its effectivity.
Furthermore, and above all, BJP is not its own master. Like its predecessor, Jan Sangh, it is a creation of RSS; its ideological character and strength and its cadres - its steel frame - are provided by RSS. Critically important in this respect is the thought of M.S. Golwalkar, the only major ideologue of RSS, whose two books, We or Our Nationhood Defined and Bunch of Thoughts continue to be the only ... ideological guidelines for RSS and BJP cadres.
Some object to this critique of ... BJP-RSS on the ground that all this was said and written in the past and Golwalkar has in any case been dead for years. But apart from the fact, pointed out earlier, that Golwalkar's writings are the only published works (on the) ideology (of) RSS and its front organisations, their basic content is daily propagated orally among young persons in the RSS shakhas. It is also to be noted that RSS and BJP leaders have at no stage publicly or in their two journals Panchjanya (Hindi) and Organiser (English), disowned or critiqued or even expressed their disagreement with any of Golwalkar's views. In fact, the very opposite. In the pages of their two journals, the RSS ideologues and propagandists continue to propagate the basic ideas of Golwalkar.
Lastly, the danger of BJP coming to power is not that it would immediately take anti-Muslim or anti-Christian steps or that it would start implementing its agenda regarding temple construction at Ayodhya, Article 370, etc. or that it would not give enough or important portfolios in its Cabinet to its secular allies such as Samata Party, Hegde's Lok Shakti or Jayalalitha's AIADMK. The real and long-term danger is that it would start using state power to communalise society. The State can through its myriad channels, from educational system to mass media and administrative measures, promote various elements of communal ideology. BJP- RSS can also start penetrating the state apparatuses, the educational institutions and the information channels through hardened communal cadres recruited and communalised at an early age.
In fact, this is precisely what they attempted even in 1977 and, of course, later when they were in control of several state governments. They could not go far because their rule in the states did not last long; and what is more important because basic state power in India lies with the Central Government which has been hitherto under the control of Congress, Janata Dal or the UF. To learn and understand what happens when communal-type forces capture state power, we have the experience of not only Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Japan under Fascism but also of Pakistan where the secular forces find it difficult, and even impossible, to get out of the quagmire after the communal forces captured state power in 1947 under the leadership of the mild- mannered, sober and personally decent persons like Jinnah and Liaqat Ali Khan. (Source: The Hindustan Times, 13 February, 1998)
