By Ashutosh
A very senior journalist asked me, ‘What is the purpose of bringing the Waqf Bill now?’ He was greatly puzzled, as no election is near and the assembly elections in Bihar are almost six months away. I tried explaining to him that it would be a grave mistake to see the BJP simply as a political party. I told him that the BJP, in its earlier avatar as Jan Sangh, was created to help the RSS achieve its civilisational goal to unite Hindus. For the RSS, winning elections is secondary. Politics is only a facilitator in their great project. He was quite puzzled. I explained to him, giving the example of the Congress in pre-independence times.
The Congress then was not formed to contest elections. Its main purpose was not to capture power or participate in the government. Its main function was to fight British imperialism and free India from its clutches. The Congress was a liberation movement, and Gandhi was the commander-in-chief of that movement. Once India got freedom, it turned into a political party in the classical sense, and its decline started. Today, if the Congress is facing a terminal illness, it is due to the fact that it ceased to be a movement. It is now there to capture power and enjoy the fruits of governance. The BJP is different. It captures power to fulfil its agenda. Its ideology is Hindutva, and the purpose is to make India a Hindu Rashtra. Despite being in power, it is still a movement. That is why its language, phraseology and idioms are different. My friend shook his head in disbelief.
In my opinion the Waqf Bill has nothing to do with the welfare of the Muslim community. Their argument that the Bill has been brought in to help and empower the poor among Muslims and women of the community is a deception. It’s a camouflage. Their main goal is to contain the so-called ‘land jihad’. In their make-believe world, Hindutvavadies think that Islam is out there to turn India into an Islamic state and land jihad is one of the tools, and Muslims with a design want to grab as much land as possible, and Waqf is an instrument in that direction. In their understanding, Muslims have been expanding their presence across the country. The problem with any ideology is that it is not necessary that their epistemology should be based on historical facts, and truth should be their guiding principle.
Communism believed that capitalism created a repressive society and the state was there to serve only the affluent class, which was not the reality. Every society has rich and poor, and so did capitalism. But in order to find a cure, communism created a monstrous system which killed the basic spirit of human freedom. Communist regimes were the most repressive; they killed millions of their own people; rich and poor both were victims. Similarly, the Hindutva ideology believes in a particular worldview, has concocted a conspiracy theory that is based on the narrative that Hindus have been engaged in a 1200 year-old war with Muslims, and Hindus have no option but to win this war if the Hindu society has to survive and flourish. Like the removal of Article 370 and laws for NRC, CRR, and triple talaq, the Waqf Bill is also being used as a weapon to counter this Islamic threat and win this war. The Waqf bill is an ideological push to consolidate its gains achieved in the last ten years under the Modi regime and build a powerful Hindutva castle for the future. Political gains are only a byproduct.
This story was originally published in freepressjournal.in. Read the full story here.
