VARUN CREATES JITTERS IN POLITICAL CAMPS

By S R Ramanujan
More than any political party, the Indian National Congress seems to be upset the most and is in jitters over the Varun episode. There are reasons for it. The entire galaxy of Congress leaders have been unsuccessfully trying their best to catapult the heir apparent of the Nehru dynasty, Rahul Gandhi, to a political slot which would automatically make him eligible to sustain the dynasty. And that was not happening. What is more, the ruling Gandhi appears to be a reluctant politician a la his father before he took the final plunge under pressure.

But here is a dissident Gandhi who was appropriated by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the grand old party’s arch rival, who is set to score a point or two against the ruling dynasty and he had made waves politically even before he could take the first step in electoral politics. How can the Congress digest it? He must be driven out of politics so that the BJP cannot claim a scion of Nehru family in its fold. Is it not something blasphemous that someone from the Nehru dynasty could embrace “communal” forces?

So, the Congress wanted to disqualify him by making an edited CD of his speech in Philibit available in public domain. In fact, it boomeranged on the party. While it did not want another Gandhi emerge in the political firmament of the country to challenge the official Gandhi what happened was the exact opposite. Had the Congress ignored it and did not go to the Election Commission with a petition, media would have made some noise a for a day or two and zeroed in on some other story for its daily sensational fare.

Interestingly, so far nobody had access to the text of Varun’s speech in any of those rallies in Philibhit. So far, there is no history of the judicial forums relying on edited version of anything, much less a tape. It is still a mystery as to how this edited CD landed in media houses. Whoever did it, it was a God-sent for the secular media to telecast the tape in all its bulletins for nearly a fortnight and demonstrate its secular credentials. Having prepared the secular mindset in the country with media blitzkrieg, the Congress petitioned the Election Commission which found Varun guilty of violation of model code of conduct.

FIR was filed under IPC and Peoples Representation Act and the Allahabad High Court refused to quash the FIR. Delhi High Court gave Varun only an interim bail which expired on 27th March. What were the options open to Varun? Either he should abscond himself or surrender before the Law enforcement authorities. He chose the second option. What did the media say? It was dubbed “Arrest Drama”. When he surrendered in due deference to the law of the land, it was a drama, because politically it was not advantageous to his opponents. Had he not surrendered, he would have been castigated for ignoring the law of the land and a verdict would have been delivered by the media that Varun was a law unto himself. When the media and seculars accused him of “communal and divisive politics” based on his speech, the media, to be fair and objective, should have hailed him for his act of surrender instead of running him down.
Both the media and the “secular” parties knew that Varun’s act of surrender had only furthered his political image, especially in view the spontaneous crowd that gathered at Philibit on 28th March. I am saying “spontaneous” because there was no time either for the BJP or the candidate to mobilise such a crowd. The presence of emotionally charged crowd in such numbers much to the consternation of everyone, sent a clear message to the opponents of the BJP. Varun had become a hero without much effort thanks to the hyperactive media. What many Sangh leaders could not achieve after years of struggle, Varun achieved in a jiffy. That is the reason the Congress tried to divert the attention from Varun to the BJP and particularly Advani. When Advani did not comment immediately on the events in Philibit, the party’s spokespersons said his silence itself reveals his “nod” for the “arrest drama” and that he was in tune with what is happening. When Advani backed Varun in a media meet, it was “we-told-you-so” tone and tenor.

When the Congress was trying to put the blame on Advani for the whole turn of events saying that Varun was only a pawn in BJP’s game, Mayawati became a spoilsport. She booked Varun under National Security Act and brought the focus again on Varun. She had a limited objective. Varun should not be available for the BJP during the poll campaign. NSA may render him to be behind the bars for a year without bail. Since Varun has become a red rag for the so-called secular brigade and as his campaign not only in Philibit but throughout Uttar Pradesh might change the shifting fortunes of the BJP, Behenji wants him to be safely ensconced in a jail. It suits every one – the Congress, the Samajwadi party and the Bahujan Samaj party. But is it going to be so simple. Whenever the establishment took to such short cuts, people’s mood has always been against the establishment.

If Varun can be accused of indulging in “divisive politics”, what is the record of Mulayam Singh or Mayawati? By charging Varun under NSA, Mayawati is having an eye on 17% of the Muslim votes in the state on which Mulayam claims proprietory control. If someone wants to mobilise Hindu votes, he is “divisive” and “communal”. If somebody else tries to consolidate Muslim votes, he is secular. This is the definition of the so-called secularism in this country.
What did Varun do to attract NSA? He went to Philibit court to surrender and he did not give a call for people to protest in front of the court or the jail. It was a spontaneous upsurge because he was espousing a cause that appealed to a major section of the electorate, the proof of which was in the turnout. It is a different matter that it was not palatable to the “seculars” and for the secular media, it was “mobocracy” and not democracy. When Sanjay Dutt arrived in Lucknow to a tumultuous welcome from fans in thousands, it was democracy and not mobocracy.

Many political parties and leaders had led protest marches in the past and there were violent incidents. When Praja Rajyam Party leader Chiranjeevi conducted roadshows, quite a few died because of stampede and the Andhra Pradesh High court had to intervene and impose a ban on road shows. He was not booked for attempt to murder. There were many political rallies in the past in which people were lathi-charged and injured and public properties were damaged. No politician was booked under NSA. We must ask Trinamool leader Mamta Banerjee and an ally in the UPA, as to what sort of hardship she might have caused to the public during her dharnas in West Bengal.

To be fair to Behenji, she did not discriminate between the Congress and the BJP. She cancelled the rally of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi months back in her constituency and imposed section 144. Sonia did defy the section 144 and there was no case against her. But Varun is different, you see. Sonia can get just two seats in UP which are almost her fiefdom. Varun is all set to set the Gangetic plain on fire as the new found icon of BJP. How can Mayawati or the Congress allow him to get away with that?