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POLITICALLY
CORRECT
Drifting
Truths
The RSS
with a disastrous agenda positions itself for battle should Vajpayee demit
office
By
P. Chidambaram
 The
National Democratic Alliance Government is a coalition which could fall
apart any time. If you say it is no different from the previous coalition
governments (H.D. Deva Gowda, I.K. Gujral), I would tend to agree. There
are many obvious reasons for the instability. Among them, regrettably,
is the prime minister's illness. It is uncertain when Atal Bihari Vajpayee
will return to the capital and when he will be able to attend full time
to the affairs of the state. It is this uncertainty that has cast a pall
of gloom over the stock market. Foreign investors are pulling out (latest
example: Daewoo Power) or keeping away. Foreign institutional investors
are holding their booked profits in foreign currency and watching the
movement of the rupee. GDRs, ADRs and ECBs are on hold. All because of
the growing uncertainty.
 The
sense of drift, centred on Delhi so far, has begun to spread. The rise
in inflation (over 7 per cent) is the first sign. Next will be interest
rates and, expressing his foreboding, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman
K.C. Pant has cautioned the Government against haste in taking anti-inflationary
measures.
Having just
completed the first year of a mandated five-year term, the Vajpayee team
should be brimming with confidence. Far from it. It appears tired and
listless, like a losing side going through the motions of batting in the
slog overs. The people-the spectators-have started the slow hand-clapping:
witness the comments on television and in the letters columns.
The RSS seems
to be the first to have captured the drift in the Government and the mood
of the people. And it has upped the ante. It has come out with guns blazing
against virtually every policy stance of the Government. Its six-point
development model, unveiled at the Agra conclave, includes use of low
capital and little energy. Any model based on low capital and low energy
requirements in a country short on capital and power is, by definition,
autarkic. The RSS thus does not hide its contempt for capital (Indian
and foreign) or new technology (which requires larger resources of power).
The RSS' swadeshi model is a recipe for sure disaster.
Add "Indianisation"
to swadeshi and you will have an explosive mix. The RSS has thrown down
the gauntlet. It has challenged the Muslims to acknowledge that they have
"the blood of Ram and Krishna in their veins". It has challenged
the Christians to found their own "Indian" church. It has exhorted
the Sikhs to accept that they are part of the Hindu religion. All this
betrays colossal ignorance of history and of what makes a nation out of
diverse people who inhabit a land.
Conquests
and migrations have been a part of life on planet Earth. When people move,
they will take with them their languages, their religions and their cultural
values. Indians have done so. They have taken the Hindu faith to many
distant countries and now, in ever increasing numbers, to Australia, Canada
and the United States. When they seek a visa or a work permit or citizenship,
no civilised country will ask them to leave their faith behind. And when
they beget children, no civilised country will question the loyalty or
patriotism of those children on account of their "foreign" religion.
If religion
is confined to the boundaries of a country, the RSS should ask itself
why its ally styles itself as the "Vishwa" Hindu Parishad. If
Christians could be asked to Indianise their churches, should not the
Hindus in the US be asked to Americanise their faith? And perhaps install
their own Shankaracharya? The churches in India are as Indian as our temples.
So are our mosques and gurdwaras. The Church of South India and the Church
of North India owe no allegiance to any religious head outside India.
The Roman Catholics, of course, acknowledge the Pope, just as many followers
of the faith acknowledge the Shankaracharya or the Aga Khan.
I suspect
that the RSS is gearing up to do battle in the situation that may arise
if Vajpayee demits office. It will support a formation which subscribes
to its disastrous swadeshi agenda and perverted Indian nationalism. But
who will be the leader?
In recent
months, L.K. Advani has shrewdly won over many of the NDA partners to
his side. He has silently encouraged Jana Krishnamurthi and J.P. Mathur
to make approving comments on a helpful poll published by The Hindustan
Times. He has allowed himself to be photographed saluting the RSS flag
without yielding on sartorial propriety. He has implied that as prime
minister he will be like Jawaharlal Nehru and, in a final blow, he has
accorded to the RSS the place that Gandhiji occupied!
Don't we
live in exciting times? Much of it is excitement that we can gladly do
without.
(The
author is a former Indian finance minister and a TMC leader)
Top
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CII’s
conference on Friday on corporate governance is called Independent Directors:
Why, How and Who. Why Not, How Not and Who Not, would have been better,
says INDIA TODAY Associate Editor, V Shankar Aiyar