*****Will the real Vajpayee please stand up?***** On Bharat Ratna and Vajpayee’s contributions. The man chosen by the RSS to play the role of the ‘liberal’, ‘moderate’ face of the BJP and who successfully essayed that role with occasional doses of poetry and lip service to ‘Raja Dharma’, Atal Behari Vajpayee has been awarded with the Bharat Ratna by the Modi Government. This seems to be the apt moment for us to recollect his contributions over the years. (All related links in comments) *****1.Role as freedom fighter – participation in the quit India movement**** Now, this is the first item in every celebratory article about Vajpayee, most often titled ’15 things you should know about Vajpayee – “His involvement in politics began as a freedom-fighter during the Quit India Movement of 1942-1945 and was jailed briefly for participating in it.” This is one of those patent lies that the Sangh Parivaar has been spreading around, especially when he took charge as the Prime Minister. In 1988, there was a investigation into this episode by the Frontline magazine which demolished all these claims using his own confessional statement and other court records. (Yes, Sanghis are allergic to old records as it causes non-stop sneezing). The confession statement says that I along with my brother followed the crowd and witnessed the event, I did not cause any damage. I did not render any assistance in demolishing the government building. Vajpayee says, in effect: I was part of the crowd, but I did not share its objectives and I did not participate in any culpable act. This point is of exceptional importance since, half a century later, the Sangh Parivar still lionises the fighting, if not heroic, role he played in 1942 - a role he explicitly denied then and has denied again, in his January 1998 interview to Frontline. In that statement, Mr Vajpayee also named Liladhar Bajpai alias Kakua as one of those who led the mob that had damaged the building. In an interview, Liladhar Bajpai contended that though the confessional statement signed by Mr Vajpayee was not used as evidence against him in court, it was a major factor in his being sentenced as the Vajpayee brothers were, unlike the rest of their village, educated and hence, considered more dependable in their testimony by the police and the court. Not only did Vajpayee stay away from participating in any struggle against the British, he also betrayed the ones who actually led the struggle. So much for patriotism! But then, for someone who joined the RSS as a teenager, this is not surprising as they had vowed never to fight the British and to concentrate all their energies on fighting the Muslims. The Bombay Home Department, during the 1942 Quit India Movement, observed, “The Sangh has scrupulously kept itself within the law and in particular has refrained from taking part in the disturbances that broke out in August 1942.” Vajpayee was just following the tradition of other senior leaders of the Sangh like ‘Veer’ Savarkar who meekly pleaded with the British to let him go - “I am ready to serve the (British) government in any capacity they like, for as my conversion is conscientious so I hope my future conduct would”. ****2. Babri Masjid demolition – Ayodhya**** Those who automatically use the word ‘moderate’ whenever they hear Vajpayee’s name seem to have not heard his inciting speech to RSS-BJP karsevaks at Ayodhya a day before the mosque demolition, in which he thundered “Hum karseva karenge!!”. (Refer comment section for video) A few years later, as the Prime Minister, he said in Parliament that the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya is an expression of national sentiment which is yet to be fulfilled. The entire country wants the temple. Muslims do not oppose it. The issue is how to make it and where” (on December 6, 2000). This was a moderated version of his statement a decade earlier - Hindus are the rightful claimants of the Ayodhya site. When the Opposition moved a motion seeking the removal of Ministers L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, who were involved in the demolition of the mosque, to save their skin, the high-minded Prime Minister coined a new doctrine of grave consequences. A Minister will resign only if he is guilty of corruption or any offence relating to his office. The NDA endorsed this pernicious doctrine - an issue that has no bearing on their constitutional duties. ****3. Gujarat riots, Rajdharma and some forgotten statements**** Everyone quotes the ‘Rajdharma’ line that he delivered to Modi, to embellish Vajpayee’s liberal credentials. But most of us have forgotten his later pronouncements on the same issue. Quoting from A.G.Noorani’s article in the frontline (Also quoted in Manoj Mitta’s brilliant book on the Gujarat riots – The Fiction of fact finding) ***** “A record of Vajpayees comments from March 1, 2002, to this day does more than put his recent remarks in perspective. It is of decisive importance in any appraisal of his personality as a politician and worth as Indias Prime Minister. It was a moment of trial that tested him. But neither humanity nor morality governed his or Advanis responses. They were shaped by politics throughout from the very beginning to this day. At the BJPs National Executive meeting in Goa on April 12,2002, Vajpayee revealed himself in his true colours, for all time. No Prime Minister has ever spoken publicly in disparagement of a section of his own people and of the faith to which they subscribe as Vajpayee did on April 12. That he did so while defending Narendra Modi, the man responsible for the carnage that had engulfed Gujarat since February 28 and while a lakh of Muslims lay forlorn in relief camps, only aggravates an offence that is grave enough even on a textual reading of his remarks. Vajpayee said, first, what happened after the Godhra incident is reprehensible, but the issue is, who started it? This was communal linkage in its grossest form. Not the identified individual criminals of Godhra, but the Muslim community started it and bore responsibility for what it had suffered. Victims of a carnage are taunted, not consoled; still less succoured. Secondly, the Muslim community was condemned en bloc globally. Wherever there are Muslims, they do not want to live with others. Instead of living peacefully, they want to preach and propagate their religion by creating fear and terror in the minds of others. There were problems even in Indonesia and Malaysia, which have large Muslim populations. Islamic fundamentalists are spreading terror and intimidation. This is [the] opposite [of] the culture of Hinduism.Once Islam meant toleration, truth and compassion. From what I see now, it has come to mean forcing their opinion through terror and fear. Islam [sic] is run on jehad. Thirdly, we are different from and superior to the later arrivals; we were secular even in the early days when Muslims and Christians were not here. We have allowed them to do their prayers and follow their religion. All through 2002 Vajpayee spoke on Gujarat as a Hindutva ideologue, bar the occasional expression of sorrow. There is continuity of theme in all his pronouncements, which is ignored by those who cite one statement here or another there. To repeat, Goa was no aberration. Nor was the somersault during the 2004 election campaign when he sought forgiveness from Muslims, nor for that matter the somersault in June 2004 when he called for Modis ouster. In every single case, political considerations moved Vajpayee leaving his ideological commitments unaffected. On every single divisive issue the Parivar raised since the Jan Sangh was set up in 1951, Vajpayee enthusiastically followed its line - communal acts, Indianisation and Babri Masjid, you name it. He has also been its most successful vote-getter.” ***** So yeah, that’s the real Vajpayee who was lost among the copious amounts of whitewash used by our media and the Sangh. Of course, he would look like an angel when compared with present day monsters. A deserved Bharat Ratna, I say.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 10:14:42 +0000
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