Soon after the results of 2009 polls were out, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Ram Vilas Paswan, whose party and himself drew blank, said that he was happy that the “secular forces” had won. So was the chorus from other so-called “secular” party leaders that “communal” forces have been routed. They seem to have simply ignored the fact that the great champion of “secularism” in the country, who does not spare any opportunity to brag about his “secular” credentials has been made to bite the dust by the people of Bihar. Atleast he got four seats – a sort of consolation – but his troika partner Ram Vilas could not open his account in the same state. But, they have given a resounding victory to Nitirsh Kumar of JD(U), who had made an electoral alliance with the so-called communal NDA and what is worse participated in the Ludhiana rally. How do we interpret this? Have the people of Bihar become “communal” to stand by an ally of “communal” forces. Certainly not. The so-called divide is only in the imagination of “netas” who play one community against other and in the media mindset and people seem to have different yardstick to judge the parties. They are not carried away by the labels.
Let’s come to Uttar Pradesh. The Indian National Congress scored an impressive victory and this was the state where the Congress and the BJP were written off. It was also touted by the media and pundits that the future belonged to regional formations and the hegemony of national parties were over. It is quite clear that both the regional players – Samajwadi party and Bahujan Samaj Party – who were adopting ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude on the issue of who is more secular, even as they were playing all the tricks to woo Muslim votes, have not been favoured by the minorities. It appears that the Muslims, especially from UP, have seen through the game of Mulayam Singh and Mayawati. To appease Muslims, Mayawati even invoked, illegally though, to put Varun Gandhi under NSA. It did not help her and the voters of Pilibhit, constituting a sizeable number of Muslims, elected Varun to Paraliament. What should have come as a rude shock to Mulayam is the fact that all the 12 Muslims candidates he fielded in Uttar Pradesh, have lost. It is always said that the Muslims resort to tactical voting and they vote only for those who would stand by them through thick and thin. Mulayam has failed obviously in this test. BSP contested 500 odd seats in the country and could get mere 21 seats. Can we interpret UP results to mean that people saw the Congress more “secular” than other state parties who have been practising political untouchability? If that is the case, people should have rejected JD(U) in the neighbouring Bihar. But, they rewarded Nitish for good governance and punished Mayawati for her style of functioning, vindictive politics and greed for power. Not that all politicians are in the business of charity, but they should have a reality check once in a way. Well, an interesting fall out is that people are vying with each other to credit crown prince for the UP results. He must thank Mayawati and Mulayam for what is credited to be his adchievement in UP.
The story of ultra-seculars in the country is quite interesting. I mean the Left parties. They were saying that they would align with any party other than BJP and Shiv Sena to form a Third alternative and that they would also ensure that the NDA did not exploit the number game to come to power. They did not anticipate that their position would become so miserable that they were reduced to one third of their 2004 strength. Does this mean that the people of W Bengal and Kerala turned against “secular” forces if the pre-poll debate on “secular-communal divide” was reflecting the ground reality? If the Trinamool Congress and the Congress are also “secular” parties, what marks the difference between Left brand of “secularism” and the “secularism” of other parties? Either the so-called “secular-communal divide” is only the talking point for the talking heads or there must be three brands of “secularism” in the country. One is the Left brand of ultra secularism that does not hesitate to take the help of alleged terrorist like Madani and keep out JD(S) in Kerala, the second is Mulayam-Lalu-Paswan brand of secularism which does not see anything wrong in appeasing one community against the other and brazenly play caste politics and the third is Congress brand of secularism which sees MIM and Muslim League as secular parties.
The myth of “secular-communal” divide was completely exploded in Andhra Pradesh when the state PCC chief D Srinivas was defeated by a BJP candidate from a constituency where there were 80,000 minority voters and obviously a large number of them voted for the BJP candidate rather than for the state Congrress chief. The Congress fielded 10 Muslim candidates for the state Assembly and one for the Lok Sabha. Barring three Muslim candidates elected to the Assembly, the remaining lost the elections. Therefore, the reality is this. Minority voters also, like their counterparts in the majority community, vote for candidates whom they feel will deliver the goods, rather than looking at the religion. May be the exception is the Old City. Will it be too early to say that the minorities are no longer gullible and can take decisions on their own without being swayed by political rhetoric.
Secularism debate apart, it should be said to the credit of the Congress for its disinclination to take on board Lalu and Mulayam’s party. It should deal with DMK also in a similar manner as Karunanidhi’s lust for power for his family has been exposed. He enacted a similar drama in 2004 when he took a written undertaking about the choice of portfolios from N Janardhan Reddy. Basically, he wants cash-cow portfolios and everyone knows the story of T R Balu and D Raja who became fatter being in power. Therefore, Karuna wants only ATM portfolios (just insert the card and you get instant cash) for his family and partymen. He does this even as his “friend” Velupillai Prabhakaran is awaiting mass burial in Sri Lanka. So much for his love for Sri Lankan Tamils whose cause he shamelessly exploited during the polls.
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