I am a secular being, I believe in what’s right is right , what’s wrong is wrong , what’s ethical and what’s not but more importantly in the equality of all human being irrespective of caste, creed, religion or ethnicity. And like you and many others (according to the media, the whole nation), I was shaken by the hate speech saga propounded by Varun Gandhi. Their seems to be a lot of fuzz around Varun Gandhi’s treacherous comments.( these are the adjectives given by the media world to it).But there is a difference, I am not annoyed with what Varun Gandhi for making such statements but I disapprove of what followed suit.
The congress, media, election commission or anybody else for that matter, can blame Varun Gandhi to be a communal hardcore proponent of hindutva. I couldn’t approve more that the comments were communal and not secular. But, is he the only communist in our country? Is he the only one with non-secular track record among those participating in the elections? The answer is NO!! news channels have pointed the names like Jagdish Tytler( the controversial name relating to communal violence of 1983 riots in Delhi), Sanjay Dutt( a big Bollywood star found guilty under the arms act and have served 18 months in jail) and Shibu Soren (who was believed to be involved in the infamous 1994 sashi nath murder case) and we know that there are more. It’s rather ironic that all these communal criminals are contesting elections for the secular congress party.
The Indian national congress (as we already know) is the oldest and the most decorated national party in India. It has produced leaders from Jawahar Lal Nehru to Rahul Gandhi all proud of their secular principles. They certainly seem proud if we go by what priyanka Gandhi spoke in the media. She advised Varun Gandhi to read Geeta and better understand the meaning of hindutva. Well, it seems that we all need a Geeta updesh from an indo-Italian half hindu. (It’s a shame).
My head is buzzing off late because of this great Indian political tamasha. Election time is serious politics time in my country (after all, we are the world’s biggest democracy). I might not approve of a lot of things in our political system but am sure proud of the size and vastness of Indian politics (Our country must be producing the best political researchers in the entire world). For managing such a big election event, we need a competent authority to manage it. So, we have the election commission, a major player in the whole story. The election commission has come strongly against Varun Gandhi denying him any right to prove his case of video tampering and editing. They went a step further when EC chief Navin chawla advised BJP to ban Varun Gandhi from contesting the elections in their name and also reprimanding him to be used in the election campaign. The EC have also found the Gandhi in question guilty of violating the code of conduct.
I think any voter of our country who knows about politics a little is aware of the incompetence and biasness of the Election Commission of India. I would site a story dated 31st January, 2009 (http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=15709356) in which N Gopalaswami (the chief election commissioner) has recommended issuing a pink slip to Election commissioner Navin chawla following the complaints from BJP regarding his partisan functioning at the office. The election commissioners of India have surely lost its credibility and time and time again have proved their affiliation towards different political parties (Who is guilty now of violation of code of conduct?)
If you have followed the whole “hate speech story” in the media or even if you haven’t, you would agree that the people most affected by it are the Bhartiya Janta Party. BJP came out in full force to deny any link of theirs with Varun Gandhi’s hate speech. BJP spokes person Ravi Shankar Prasad spoke to the media distancing BJP from Varun Gandhi’s statements.
The BJP’s reaction to the whole issue has not surprised me. The party think tank is worried that their association with Varun Gandhi will dilute the party’s image and will weaken their stand in the forthcoming elections. It is understandable as the party is trying to project a secular image for some time now. L K Advani’s visit to Pakistan and calling Mohamad ali Jinah secular or BJP’s rift with RSS and VHP have made it very obvious to the voters of the BJP’s new secular avatar.
The BJP’s ideological confusion is a result of their improper identification of their target market (the vote bank). The party has always been a hardcore hindutva party marketing itself to the Hindu middle class. The “JAI SHRI RAM” has lost its shine in the recent years and the party is now caught right in the middle of nowhere (no proper leadership or ideology – only Ram can save them).
Varun Gandhi’s speech has been certainly hyped out of proportion. In politics, the politician has to take a stand and define what he believes in and what he rejects. The Gandhi being talked about here has adopted an ideology and has explained the nation his principles and ideas. The media, nation or the political clout can call him communal, fundamentalist or so on and so forth. But sadly, he is the only politician of all available on display who has no ideological confusions like BJP, no double standards of congress, knows his lessons of Geeta and who cares about EC anyways.
