1989 : A TURNING POINT IN POLITICAL HISTORY
Francis Fukuyama is a bright political thinker but many disagreed with him when in 1992 he wrote a book titled “The End of History and the Last Man”, in which he observed:
“What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold war, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of the mankind’s ideological evolution and universalisation of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.”
In the context of the last round of Assembly elections in our country whose results have been announced last week, the most significant result is the end of CPI (M) rule in West Bengal.
The left front led by CPI (M) has been in office in West Bengal since 1977. No other party has had the good fortune of ruling any state uninterruptedly for 34 years as the CPI (M) has done. And yet its achievement in terms of the State’s developmental growth and people’s welfare in the field of education and health has been conspicuously dismal.
Mamata has carved a place for herself in the history of West Bengal by achieving something that no one else has been able to achieve earlier, smash the stranglehold of the Marxists on this state.
***
Today BJP is not in office at the Centre, but we are in office in seven states; the NDA is ruling two other states besides.
On the basis of our six year long experience in New Delhi under Shri Vajpayee (1998 -2004) and the nine Assemblies where we presently are holding the reins of office, I can say that if either at the centre or in any state we get such an extraordinary opportunity as the leftists have had, or even continuously for just one and a half to two decades, it can be confidently claimed that the state population’s full potential can be brought to the surface, and the country as a whole brought to the level of other advanced countries of the world.
Problems like poverty, illiteracy, lack of healthcare, inadequacy of power, roads, other aspects of infrastructure and even irrigation, etc – all these can certainly become history.
***
I well recall the early years of independence and cannot forget the attitude of arrogance we used to perceive among the leftists who met us. The Jana Sangh was in its infancy at that time. I recall a Kerala Marxist reminding me of the proud boast of the British imperialists. He remarked: “The Britishers used to say: the sun never sets on the British Empire. It is only a matter of time before we also would be able to make the same claim. Already, we are in control of more than half of Europe. Not only in India, but in all the developing countries of Asia it is the Communist ideology which is seen as a beacon of hope for the future!”
As a ringside observer of Indian politics since independence, I hold that 1989 which Fukuyama called the End of History because it was the year which marked the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the Dismantling of the U.S.S.R was not the End, but an important Turning Point both in Global History as well as in Indian Political history.
1989 certainly marks the commencement of the decline of Communism as an ideology. In India the decline may have come two decades later, but it has arrived none the less.
***
The BJP was formed at a national conference held at New Delhi on April 5 and 6, 1980. The Conference was preceded by a meeting of the Janata Party’s Central Parliamentary Board on April 4, 1980.
It was at this meeting that the Board took a majority decision to throw out of the Janata Party all former members of Jana Sangh on the ground that all of them were also members of the RSS and this amounted to dual membership, and so disqualified Jana Sangh members from continuing in the Janata Party.
Incidentally, April 4 in 1980 was Good Friday, and April 6 on which BJP was formally founded, an Easter Sunday.
I have often commented on these two dates as conveying a message from the perspective of Christian mythology.
Good Friday is the day on which Jesus Christ is believed to have been crucified, and Easter Sunday the day on which he was resurrected.
The first Lok Sabha election our party had to face after being resurrected as BJP was the 1984 election held just a few weeks after Smt. Gandhi was brutally assassinated by her own security guards.
In this election held in December 1984, the BJP put up 229 candidates. But we won only 2 seats! Even in the first General Election held thirty two years earlier in 1952, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh had won three seats. So, this year marked the lowest point in our graph. In fact at places, I had often commented: this was for us not a Lok Sabha election, but a Shok Sabha election!
But it is no less important for us that the very next election of 1989 became for us the highest point till then. From two seats in 1984, we leaped to 86 in 1989! And after that we never looked back until in 1998 the BJP secured 182 Lok Sabha seats and successfully formed the National Democratic Alliance which ruled the country for six years, till 2004.
Indeed, it is the BJP’s ascendancy in the last two decades that have made Indian polity a bipolar polity with Congress and BJP as the principal poles of national politics.
***
For over six months now, in every nook and corner of the country, just one issue that has dominated all public discourse has been corruption. More and more people have been commenting: the dimensions of the scams that have surfaced have made the common man say: this isn’t the ordinary sarkari corruption we are familiar with; this is nothing short of loot and dakaiti !
When I complimented Jayalalithaji on her victory, I told her that her success would be no doubt very good for her State but this time the principal scam having been the Spectrum Scam, the Tamilnadu outcome has a national significance. If her opponents had won after all that had happened, the message to the country would have been shocking: the electors are totally unconcerned about corruption! Thanks to her achievement, this has not happened.
***
TAILPIECE
In the early years of independence, for us whose ideological grounding has been in cultural nationalism, we naturally reckoned communism as our principal ideological adversary. For book – lovers I would strongly recommend three of the books I had read those days, and which I enjoy reading even now. Two of these books are of fiction and by the same author George Orwell. These are (1) Animal Farm: A fairy tale (2) Nineteen Eighty –Four: A political novel. The first of these books was published in 1945, and the second in 1949.
The third book I wish to commend is not just non-fiction. It is a very moving autobiography, titled WITNESS. The author is Whittaker Chambers who after playing a prominent role in the Communist underground in Washington in the 1930’s painfully broke with communism and the Communist Party in 1938. He resurfaced to become a distinguished writer and editor of Time magazine. This book was first published in 1952.
Former US President Ronald Reagan said about the book: “As long as humanity speaks of virtue and dreams of freedom, the life and writings of Whittaker Chambers will ennoble and inspire.”
L.K. Advani
New Delhi
16 May, 2011
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
May 16th, 2011 at 7:55 pm
Dear Advaniji, I am proud to be an Indian. However, I have a serious question on the democracy we were following. We, the people are electing the government and if some thing goes wrong with them or they follow anti-people policies without any hesitance in the middle of there tenure.
For Example the current Congress Regime is an American Doll that rules with the word of The awful America. The price rate of all good are sky rocketing and they are providing irresponsible answers to the people’s questions. Now people are in a haste to dethrone them but left no options to do so immediately.
So, if people are the real kings of democracy, and if they have right to elect the government why don’ they have the right to dethrone the govt in the middle if they don’ like their policies. Please don’ say people has to come out and fight for their rights. If they can elect peacefully with out any difficulties and why they should not have to have a policy to dethrone a govt with a similar process?
May 20th, 2011 at 1:58 am
Namaskar advani ji,
I am vamsi from khammam, Telangana.
My Humble request about strengthen Hinduism.. and please run a hesitation for “Harijans”(Sc’s and ST’s) not to leave hinduism..
Why because its purely our fault to not encourage them to enter into temples in so many villages..
They are feeling that they purely ignored by hindu community. that’s why they jumping into other religions may be through funds like many things. They feeel happy happy because others are take concern of them..
so please take it as serious issue and strengthen Hinduism..
For We have to encourage these people to enter into temples must make feel them as Hindus..
so we have run Hesitation..
Jai Hindutva…
Jai BJP…
Jai Telangan…
Jai Bharat..
May 21st, 2011 at 1:01 am
Dear Advaniji,
I just came through an article written by a pakistani journalist Ghani Jafar in a newspaper published from Islamabad - DAILY TIMES, it is on the dis-illusionment of a Hindu minister and member of Muslim League, JOGENDRANATH MANDAL, in 1946,a member of Schedule Caste of Bengal, he supported the then government of Muslim League in Bengal, by voting in favor of the Muslim League government, and mobilising the support of fellow Harijan legislators. He was ultimately highly dis-illusioned by the communal card played by Muslim League in East Pakistan and resigned from the party in 1950. This wonderful article is published in the net edition of DAILY TIMES, May 04 2011. under the heading -
” The long journey backwards —Ghani Jafar. ”
Please go through this and highlight this positive aspect in your blog.
May 21st, 2011 at 2:39 pm
The cowardly assassination of Pakistan’s federal minister for minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, in Islamabad on March 2 has taken one’s thoughts back to the tumultuous times of the country’s creation more than 63 years ago. More precisely, to the time and circumstances that forced Pakistan’s first minister of law and labour, Jogendra Nath Mandal, to part ways with the government as a deeply distressed and disappointed man on October 8, 1950 — some three years after independence. The narrative that emerges then is one of Pakistan’s long journey backwards over these 60-plus years to medievalism. The rot had set in right with Pakistan’s coming into being as a nominally independent state.
May 21st, 2011 at 2:40 pm
A look at the latter years of Mandal’s political career brings that out graphically. A scheduled caste Hindu born in a small village in district Barisal of undivided Bengal on January 29, 1904, Mandal was an outstanding person. Having been exceptionally fortunate to receive good education, the backwardness of his own substantial community in the riverine eastern hinterland of Bengal that was to emerge as East Pakistan in 1947, disturbed him deeply. He decided it called for undertaking a life-long mission and entered politics. Through his devotion and commitment, Mandal was quick in making his mark in Bengali politics. He rose from the local level to become a member of Bengal’s legislature.
May 21st, 2011 at 2:41 pm
He was fully mindful of the shared plight of Bengal’s Muslims with that of his own scheduled caste of Hindus, the achhoot (untouchables). Thus, when he was approached by some prominent leaders of the Muslim League of Bengal, in February 1943, he had little hesitation to make a common cause with their party. He, together with other lawmakers from scheduled castes, agreed to work with the Muslim League in the Bengal Legislative Assembly.
May 21st, 2011 at 2:42 pm
Mandal’s support was soon to prove crucial to the continuation of the Muslim League government in Bengal — the only state in British India that had the party’s government. After the fall of Fazl-ul-Haq’s ministry the very next month, it was only with the backing of 21 scheduled caste members that Khawaja Nazimuddin could command a majority in the house.
He was later to record the reasons for not only his own support to the Muslim cause but also for winning over his fellow Harijan (the respectable name given the Hindu untouchables by Gandhi, meaning, ‘the children of God’) legislators to the same side. He saw two commonalities between these communities in Bengal at the time. In the first place, the economic interests of both Muslims and the scheduled castes were identical. Secondly, they were all educationally backward
May 21st, 2011 at 2:43 pm
After the general elections held in March 1946, Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy of the Muslim League became the chief minister of Bengal and included Mandal in his cabinet. August 16 of that year was fated to go down in history as a black day for Bengal. In the mounting heat of the struggle by the Muslim League led by Jinnah for the creation of Pakistan, which was bitterly opposed by the principal Hindu party, the Indian National Congress, and accompanying heightened Hindu-Muslim tensions, Jinnah gave out the call for the observance of August 16 as a ‘Direct Action Day’.
May 21st, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Mandal worked ceaselessly to help restore normalcy, going around the district and its surrounding areas from village to village and calling upon his followers to stay away from the frenzy. He also saved the Muslim League government from falling in Bengal. Immediately after the Calcutta riots, a no-confidence motion was moved against Suhrawardy.
Together with his group of scheduled caste legislators, Mandal was able to bring around not just another four assembly members from the Harijan community who had earlier sided with the Congress but also an additional four belonging to the Anglo-Indian group
May 21st, 2011 at 2:46 pm
Before the month of October 1946 ended, Mandal was taken completely by surprise when Suhrawardy, on the instructions of Jinnah, approached him with the offer of a seat as a Muslim League nominee in the contemplated joint Congress-League interim government of India that was to oversee the transition of power from the British rule to the two new states of India and Pakistan that were to emerge after partition.
He left Bengal for New Delhi to take up his position as law minister in the cabinet headed by Nehru. He was one among just four Muslim League nominees. After the creation of Pakistan, he moved to Karachi. Such was the trust reposed in him by Jinnah that Mandal came to occupy the prestigious position of chairman of Pakistan’s first constituent assembly. He was subsequently appointed law minister — a position he held till he resigned.
May 21st, 2011 at 2:51 pm
The resignation letter he addressed to Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan on October 8, 1950 is an eye-opener. The 8,000-word document is a painful record of the entire period of Mandal’s crucial and unstinting support to the Muslim League for the creation of a homeland where the millions condemned by caste Hindus could lead a free and peaceful life as equal citizens. That included not only his own community of the achhoot but the equally despised Muslims — the maleechh (impure or unclean).Jinnah had reinforced the same vision for Pakistan in the policy statement he made at the opening session of the constituent assembly on August 11, 1947. But the country he had created was already lost to him and usurped by a coterie of carpetbaggers within his most trusted lieutenants. What better proof of that than the fact that the same historic speech of Jinnah was censored by the government of Pakistan?
May 21st, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Mandal’s resignation letter is a must read for all those who want to understand where, how and when Pakistan went wrong and who started it all. Most horrifying are the details of the excesses against innocent Hindu men and women by the early rulers and the army of Pakistan as recorded by Mandal. At one point, he notes that the only reason the abduction and rape of Hindu girls in East Pakistan had reduced to a certain extent was that no caste Hindu girl between the age of 12 and 30 had been left in the province by then.
@@@@@@@@@@
I have copied and pasted this article for your reference, please do comment and mention in your blog,so readers are aware of this important fact of our history. UJJAVAL SHAH, Baroda, Gujarat.
May 22nd, 2011 at 9:06 am
Sir, in the Indian context, Communism has failed expectations on all counts. It has tried to project itself as intellectually superior species, but its actions hardly show anything similar.
Far from bringing “class” or any ideological point into the national debate, they have preferred sprinkling Pseudo-intellect in someone else’s domain. Left wanted to be the moral guardian of the Indian polity with an outdated ideology. Moreover, Left has supported separate civil codes on religious lines & have nourished extremists among the religious minorities e.g. Madani et al.Their recent loss in both their strongholds is more a natural justice to their “better than thou” claim.
Leftists have now moved from the “armchair” to “wheelchair”. However, I hope that Left will survive this democratic onslaught. It will be good to have an active cadre-based party as a competition for the BJP and its cadres to keep improving themselves.
July 2nd, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Dear Advaniji, UMESH/2-7-11, TIME 00:20PM
State BJP wing had elected Mr.Yediurappa as CM of Karnataka Govt. to provide better governance & meet all sections people requirements apart from State development. This expectations had become zero. There is an extreme rise in corruption,nepotism, groupism & castism reached alarming stage to keep their seats/positions/power intact in the state from Palike corporators to CM after Yediurappa came in to power. All of us are aware that similar bad practices were existing during 30 years of other governments ruled the state, but ————-continued in next…
July 2nd, 2011 at 12:24 pm
—CONTINUED—-
it was not effected common man to the extent that what we are seeing today. Most of the “state BJP leaders or politicians or ministers” have got multi faces to convince “central leaders / voters / whoever” to protect their kin’s/wealth/properties/business & to escape from scams. One step further-I can say our state politicians like Yediurappa/Eswarappa/Ashok/Reddys had divided the unity in central leadership & put the seeds of castism in innocent people of Karnataka. Whole country is expecting a change of government in central which is to be led by you Sir. Can you identify a good person to lead Karnataka administration which can improve the image of BJP & central leadership ? Wealthy politicians in BJP can enjoy their another term win, but in long term the result may be disastrous. Request you to interfere in Karnataka Politics & damage control is necessary.
Regards
Umesh.A.M
Bangalore
July 3rd, 2011 at 2:04 pm
Dear Mr. Advani,
I respect BJP & there coalition for only two people, viz, Mr. Narendra Modi & Mr. Nitish Kumar, whose government, though I cannot claim to be 100% corruption free are atleast far more efficient than most of the other states, be it BJPs’ or any other party. there governance is way ahead of most of the other government. why cannot the BJP have a uniform governance policy & a disciplined approach towards democracy??? We need a hint of communism in our democracy, & it gets easier for BJP with different wings including the RSS.
I cannot expect this from Congress, who it seems could be soon ranked as the most corrupt political party.
Atleast We can see development in those 9 states that BJP has a major stake in.
Sir, I am 30 Yrs of age, but haven’t voted ever only because I hate the approach of present breed of politicians who are not even agreeing to make democracy better, as in other parts of the world.
Regards,
N. Shetty
Bombay
July 3rd, 2011 at 2:19 pm
Sir,
We certainly need a stronger Lokpal Bill, not the poorly drafted bill to be presented by the present government.
Congress talks about AAm AAdmi, & it seems such a hypocrisy to talk about the common man & not cover the lower rung of bureaucracy under an anti-corruption law.
We, the people deal with the bureaucracy on day to day basis & can never appreciate an inefficient & corrupt lower rung bureaucracy & officials.
That is were, we need the change immediately.
Please, give it a thought.
I am expecting a lot from BJP.