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| But in J&K, NC, PDP, Congress continue to ignore minorities | | Secular parties after Hindu votes | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Sept 16: After all their fire-breathing, the secular parties across India appear to be coming around to the realization that "it's time to cut their losses and reach out to the Hindu community". And so, AICC chief Rahul Gandhi is portrayed as a Shiv Bhakt; as the wearer of the Hindu sacred thread; as a humble pilgrim to the Kailash Mansarovar. His whistle-stop visits to various temples during the course of campaigning for the Gujarat and Karnataka Assembly elections, has attained legendary status. More recently, a senior Congress leader told the media that "his party had a Brahmin DNA".
Other opposition party leaders are not far behind. The Samajwadi Party leader and former UN CM Akhilesh Yadav has announced the construction of a "grand complex dedicated to Lord Vishnu adjacent to the Lion Safari in Etawah in Uttar Pradesh". For good measure, he added that the "complex would have a Vishnu temple, inspired by the world-famous Angkor Vat of Cambodia" and that "all this he would be able to do provided his party is voted to power in the State".
Coming to Yadav's promise of an Angkor Vat like grandeur in Uttar Pradesh, it needs to be noted that his remark came on the heels of an off-the-cuff statement that the State's Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Keshav Prasad Maurya made, that the Government would bring in a Bill to facilitate the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed place in Ayodhya.
The Samajwadi Party chief's promise is more of a tit-for-tat than being driven by any heart-felt devotion.
The game is thus clear. Opposition parties have understood that they can no longer win elections by taking the Hindu votes for granted, or by siding up to a section of the minority communities, Muslims and Christians. So far, they had managed because the Hindus didn't vote as one bloc. They still don't, but a large section has been consolidating behind the BJP. It happened in the Lok Sabha election, and even more effectively in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll last year.
The fact of the matter is that "secular" leaders have begun to understand the importance of Hindu voters. They will realize that being pro-Hindu is not necessarily the same as being communal (anti-Muslim) and that they will gather the courage sooner than later to unapologetically express their Hindutva credentials.
Paradoxically, in J&K, the situation continues to remain the same. At least four parties, Congress, PDP, NC and CPI-M continue to pursue the line they have been pursuing since decades: Work for Kashmir, speak for Kashmir and keep the majority community in Kashmir on their right side at whatever cost. The manner in which they tried to impose their will on the people of the whole state as far as the issues of civic polls has only widened the gulf between these four "secular" parties and the minority communities in the state, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Christians included. There are reasons to believe that the minorities would reject these parties outright if they continued to jeopardize the interests of the minorities in the name of "secularism". |
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