An India where both Hindus and Muslims live as equal stakeholders, where neither feel intimidated by the overwhelming or underwhelming presence of other; also, where there is neither any threat of Gazwa e Hind subsuming Hindus, nor the fear of Hindu Rashtra relegating the Muslims to the 2nd class citizenship.
Vivekanand Jha Ranchi: Writing his piece in The Wire, Yashwant Sinha, the erstwhile Finance and Foreign minister of India, concludes his piece with an open invitation: The ones who are interested in guiding the nation, at such a crucial times as this, are most welcome to join. Significantly, Yashwant Sinha, almost in sheer desperation brought about by the fast approaching tone and tenor of authoritarianism, and the fast erosion of institutional credibility, mournfully wondered, whether some definitive alternative to Narendra Modi could be put in place. Coming as he does from the erstwhile Vajpayee regime, which he represented in different capacities, Yashwant’s deep pang of pain and disillusionment is for all to see who have been keeping tab on his columns.
To his credit, notwithstanding the allegations galore against him, what Yashwant Sinha did, especially in the ongoing phase of his life, deserves national salutation-he dared to jeopardize his son’s career at the altar of his own conviction that the authoritarian Modi regime needs to be evicted from the corridors of power– even though his son’s career might end up as a casualty to his picking up a gauntlet against the ruling Czars. Regrettably, Yashwant Sinha’s frustration is shared by each and every thinking citizen of this country, when the nation is passing through the severest of its crises from all sides. On the one hand we have the deadly pandemic of Covid 19, on the other we have an increasingly fragile society, where the gulf between the two pillars -Hindus and Muslims–are ever widening. In fact, the mistrust between the two is an all time high. Worse still, with the BJP, inordinately intoxicated by its hubristic presumption of its invincibility, is emboldened to capture one after another bastion that were considered alien to it.
Moreover, as the domestic turmoil is unconscionably impinging on the conscience of the nation, the close neighbours, especially Nepal, a majoritarian Hindu nation, too, stands alienated from its elder brother, India. Regrettably, the reigning Asian giant, emboldened by India’s accentuating domestic crises, especially the one triggered by Covid 19, which incidentally is the Chinese gift to the global community, has laid a siege on Indian territory. With the ensuing standoff that started in summer, with the Galwan massacre aggravating the conflict, the latest strategic military pacts between Beijing and Islamabad on one hand, and Kathmandu and Beijing on the other, escalates the tensions of India. In fact, the Chinese conundrum that was an albatross around Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru’s neck, revisits Narendra Modi yet again with a double whammy-an aggressive Beijing accompanied by Pakistan on one side and Nepal on the other. Further, Chinese’ sense of vengeance is finding its manifestation in its notoriety in building up a dam to regulate the waters of Brahamputra, is an exemplification of the recourse that China is destined to take to browbeat India into submission. Unequivocally, China sensing India’s economic decline, is precipitating a further crisis by pressing India into investing more and more in arms and ammunition. Significantly, China, adept in the strategy of Salami slicing, has already nibbled part of India’s territory in Pangong Tsu and Depsang areas.
Inexplicably, with India locked from all sides, the domestic cacophony brought about by the sound and fury of Hindu nationalism, which is equally repulsed by the corresponding overtone of Islamic fundamentalism, India stands bedevilled from all sides. No wonder the intelligentsia, faced against this backdrop of an avalanche of odds stacked against the nation, appears to be flummoxed, with the alternative leadership nowhere appears at sight. The opposition Congress, paralysed as it stands with Nehru-Gandhi leadership, desperate to retain its stranglehold over the party, with Sonia Gandhi prepared to foist her own son on the fast eroding Congress, nation stands disillusioned with the state of affairs of the Gandhi-Nehru family. With the doltish mindset of Rahul Gandhi at the helm, the Congress Party is determined to write its own obituary in the years to come. In the meanwhile, the nation is helplessly awaiting the return of sanity in the polity. Writing a beautiful piece in NDTV, Manishankar Aiyar, had mourned that, alas, Atal Bihari Vajpayee were there today, the humongous nature of cascading crises that we see all around, perhaps could have been amicably solved. Alas, wishes were horses! Ataljee, as an individual cannot be resurrected from his grave but his ideology can be enforced by the palanquin bearer of his legacy. Sudheendra Kulkarni, his illustrious adviser, who intrinsically believe in Ataljee’s doctrine of secularism, which being in sharp contrast to Nehruvian Secularism, which meant appeasement to minority; actually orchestrated a system of India’s diversity getting reflected in ‘Sarva Dharma Samvao’. Sudheendra Kulkarnijee too, believes that India belongs to both Hindus and Muslims who should co-exist in mutual harmony; both should exist in tandem with each other because both the community have to live in this country in harmony for centuries.
Sudheendrajee, much like his boss, Atalje, believes in friendship with Pakistan and China, and has been avowedly working in that given direction. Further, he has been a politician with a strategic vision to take Ataljee’s mission forward. Hence in this backdrop, it is the requirement of the current situation that a politician who cut teeth with Ataljee, having a broad intellectual horizon, should take up the initiative to float a political party where the intelligentsia of the nation would be eager to extend their overwhelming support to him. Will Mr Kulkarni bite the bullet to pick up the gauntlet to challenge India’s invincible prime minister Narendra Modi, or he too will develop a cold feet when it comes to showing the steely nerve. Meanwhile, the nation is awaiting with a bated breath that Ataljee’s legacy is restored in the polity with a bang.
