NATIONAL POLITICS

CPI(M) Leader Prakash Karat on VHP's "Hindu Agenda"

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has come out with a 40- point "Hindu Agenda" which it wants political parties to endorse for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. This so-called agenda is nothing but the advocacy of a theocratic Hindu Rashtra and a recipe for national disintegration. The VHP's agenda falls in line with the strategy of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's political designs.

The Bombay session of the BJP had adopted an electoral platform which spelt out the Hindutva agenda in an understated manner while harping on national security, Kashmir, economic difficulties and corruption. The BJP leadership, in concert with the RSS, wishes to capitalize on the all-round discontent against the Congress regime, and is trying to pose as if it has a comprehensive platform which can appeal to all sections of the people who are fed up with the Congress rule. But whether it be economic policy, national unity or corruption, it is difficult for the BIP to pose as a real alternative to the Congress. The Gujarat tussle, the volte face on Enron and now the hawala scandal in which L.K. Advani has himself been implicated; all point to the difficulty in projecting the idea of a "party with a difference". Hence the communal agenda will be the mainstay of the RSS-BJP combine. But in order to maintain the fiction of not advocating a communal platform and inviting possible judicial retribution, the RSS has directed the VHP to underpin the BIP's electoral campaign with its rabid communal platform. This is the context in which the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has set out the "Hindu Agenda".

The VHP expounds the ideological position nurtured by the RSS that Hindutva and nationalism are synonymous and that "Hindu interest is the national interest”.

National unity is to be preserved by the imposition of a Hindu identity all over the country and on all communities. Article 370 of the Constitution with regard to Kashmir is to be scrapped and Autonomy (is to be) denied to the diverse communities and linguistic groups; Sanskrit is to be made a compulsory subject in schools.

Special attention is reserved for depriving the minorities of their elementary rights. Urdu will be deprived of the status of a second official language in the states where it is so; those who suffer social discrimination because they are of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe origin cannot avail of reservations if they leave the Hindu fold; only the activities of the Hindu religious institutions will be entitled to government patronage and facilities. Women definitely occupy a subordinate status in the Hindu patriarchal order.

Abortion is to be banned as it promotes "immorality".

History is to be rewritten as per the Hindutva ideology and the teaching of "Bharatiya culture and dharma" will be made compulsory.

Non-essential administrative expenditure is to be swollen further by the ridiculous proposal to set up "Gau Sewa" ministries at the centre and in the states. The demand for ban on cow slaughter is extended to all types of cattle. The food habits of a vast majority of Indians is to be modified, with "non-vegetarianism to be discouraged by the government".

Obviously, the Hindu agenda has to look after the interests of the swamis and the religious orders, many of whom are members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The VHP displays a practical and commercial attitude to religion: one of the demands is that puja, archana and religious construction activities of maths, mandirs and ashrams be exempt from income tax. Further, its demand that a specified portion of government revenue be earmarked for various dharmic objectives, is tantamount to making Hinduism the official religion.

BJP in Strait Jacket

These are some of the highlights of the agenda drawn up by the Ashok Singhals and Dalmias of the VHP who work under the direction of the RSS... BJP will find itself... constrained to espouse some of these issues on its electoral platform.Faced increasingly with the damage to its overall credibility after the hawala scandal, the BJP will be tempted to identify more with the VHP agenda.

One ought to be grateful to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for frankly stating its vision of a Bharat based on Hindutva. Such a Bharat, of course, will not come into existence, as the adoption or implementation of such an agenda by the state in India would bring out the death knell for the country itself.

The VHP talks about the freedom attained after a thousand-year slavery for the Hindu nation. But conveniently, it fails to say that the Hindu social order based on upper caste chauvinism has, for centuries, meant slavery for a large section of those who are called Hindus. The VHP-RSS combine's efforts to impose their narrow interpretation of Hinduism as a state religious order, will lead to the revolt of not just the minorities, but a big section of the oppressed Hindu themselves.

Any sane Indian who is patriotic, will find the VHP agenda reprehensible. It will be interesting to see how the BJP responds to the VHP call... The BJP cannot evade an answer. If it camouflages its support due to electoral and judicial compulsions, then the people will easily see through the subterfuge.

(Source: The People's Democracy)