It seems the BJP now rules India and steam-rolled over all other parties. The spectre of Hindutva is all-pervading and it seems India has been taken over their extremist ideology. What fuels this belief is the fact that no other party in putting up a real defence against the BJP.
India was a champion of secularism but now the extremist Hindutva ideology seems to have taken over and original Nehruvian Indian secularism is nowhere in sight. The Indian National Congress, it seems, has given a walkover to the RSS extremists. The truth is, however, otherwise. Just have a look: In the states where the BJP has a coalition government, its seat status is 2 out of 60 in Meghalaya, 53 out of 243 in Bihar, 25 out of 87 in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), and 13 out of 40 in Goa.
Out of total 4139 assembly seats in the country, the BJP has 1516 seats. Of these 950 seats are from 6 states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, UP, MP and Rajasthan.
What this means is that there is no wave or storm of BJP. Actually, BJP has lost 66% seats of the country.
The impression that BJP is dominant in India is because the Congress Party has become weak and the hope that people placed in Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi have dissipated because the brother-sister duo does not seem across as putting up a real fight. It is for this reason that the secular face of India has been obliterated under the BJP which seems to be at liberty to promote its extremist Hindutva ideology and tell the world that India is an entirely Hindu country and all non-Hindus are unwelcome in India.
The biggest BJP has taken on the Muslim minority, numbering some 250 million. The Muslims have almost been doctored as persona non grata. They are not free to follow the tenets of Islam and are besmirched in many other ways. Their courts have ruled against Muslim female students donning the Hijab while mosques are desecrated all over India. The Hindus consider the Muslims as an inferior race and so do they treat all other minorities.
In a secular India, all the people were treated as equals. This is the philosophy that Jawaharlal Nehru and the Congress Party were respected for and it was this secular approach that made India a respected country in the world.
India’s non-aligned policy emanated from this foundation and gave India a distinct place in world communities. It is also true that as the grip of the BJP tightened and the Congress became weak, Indian foreign policy had the best of both worlds. It continued to maintain its ‘non-aligned’ status. Under this, it continued to buy arms from the Soviet Union and later the Russian Federation. On the other hand, it entered into a strategic agreement with the United States of America.
As the world’s second largest country in terms of population and important market for America and Europe, India was able to build for itself a place that could not be contested by any other country.
Today, India has emerged as an important world power, both in the military and economic domain and other world powers are not willing to take chances with it because of its sheer size. The BJP is taking full advantage of this situation and giving the impression to the world that there is no other alternative in India.
This is time for the Indian National Congress to make a comeback. The hopes pinned on Rahul Gandhi have been false and he has not proved to be leader intended so far. Looks like he does not have it in him. His sister Priyanka shows some promise but she needs support within the Nehru-Gandhi family. There are no other men in sight in the family and there are no candidates in the party either. Perhaps it is time for the older woman like Sonia and Maneka to amend their relations and form a front with the help of Rahul and Priyanka to pep up the party and again find a place for the Congress that it has lost, mainly to the BJP, and it rightly deserves to lead India on balanced lines.
If they stop bickering within the family, there are bright chances for the Congress to revive and to again put up a fight against the extremist BJP. If this does not happen, such a large country like India will be ‘lost to humanity’. 
Leave a Reply