Nothing serves to show up the hypocrisy of politicians and political parties better than an election. And so it is with the nomination by god’s own party, the BJP, of the veteran jurist Ram Jethmalani as a party’s candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections from Rajasthan.
On the one hand, Jethmalani, law minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee‘s cabinet, stood against Vajpayee from Lucknow after falling out with him. Yet, today, he claims that he has joined the party with the blessings of the former prime minister who, with all due respect, is in no physical shape to offer them.
On the other hand, there is Afzal Guru.
Hanging the parliament attack convict has been the BJP’s single-point agenda for years. It has demanded his hanging from every pulpit and podium. Yet, it nominates Jethmalani, whose position till yesterday was that Afzal Guru did not get a fair trial and should not be hanged.
There is also the additional irony of news reports which suggest that Jethmalani’s nomination was pushed by the “former future prime minister of India“, Loh Purush L.K. Advani, and—pinch yourself—Narendra Damodardas Modi, both of whom have exploited the Afzal Guru issue to deride the Congress’s “minority appeasement”.
One report even suggests that Jethmalani’s nomination at the behest of Narendra Damodardas Modi is a tacit quid pro quo for his support to Modi in his legal wrangles in the post-Godhra pogrom.
Questions: Has the BJP’s—and Advani’s and Narendra Damodardas Modi’s—doublespeak on Afzal Guru been exposed? Is the “party with a difference” which rolls up its sleeve and slaps its thigh the moment Afzal Guru’s name is mentioned been caught with its pants down? Or has the demands of realpolitik caught up with the BJP?
Also read: If death penalty doesn’t work, why thirst for it?
CHURUMURI POLL: Will Afzal Guru be hanged?
CHURUMURI POLL: A pardon for Afzal Guru?
Tags: Afzal Guru, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Churumuri, Narendra Damodardas Modi, Ram Jethmalani, Sans Serif
8 June 2010 at 10:20 pm
Jethmalani’s objections stem from his opposition to the death penalty and of course, as a criminal lawyer of 65 years of standing. It’s important to note that he probably agrees with the BJP on pretty much everything and has lost no opportunity in attacking the government at every possible opportunity. It’s hardly a case of doublespeak to have slightly different ideological positions with respect to a particular case. Jethmalani’s position is at least defensible to an extent, and Narendra Modi is at least consistent.
On the other hand, the Congress has consistently maintained that the reason not to execute Afzal Guru is that Muslims will get agitated. This conflation of the average Muslim with a terrorist sympathizer is, frankly, something one would expect from er… narendra modi. Where’s the doublespeak now?
8 June 2010 at 11:04 pm
If you had a fraction of honest bone in your body you would have pointed out that it is Jethmalani who has gone back on his position, not the party that he has rejoined. But expecting honesty from churumuri is like expecting empathy for human life from terrorists :)
8 June 2010 at 11:58 pm
This argument could be made both ways. In accomodating Jethmalani, one could also say that the party with a difference is giving space to divergent viewpoints. For that matter, Veerendra Patil who contested against Indira Gandhi in Chikmagalur too was ‘graciously’ accomodated by the Congress and went on to become CM years later.
9 June 2010 at 9:40 am
Concur with Alok. It will be doublespeak if BJP changes its position now on Afzal Guru. Right now, it hasn’t.
On the other hand, this shows that the BJP may be maturing and it can accommodate differing views on a subject. After the ugly Jinnah-Jaswant issue, this is a welcome change.
9 June 2010 at 10:04 am
Double speak and double-act, if I may term it so, are nothing new for the BJP. The urban media and urban diaspora have only aided them in these masquerades, using the BJP and its double-politik as a convenient anti-congressism tool, despite the grave dangers the country is repeatedly facing because of the same.
9 June 2010 at 3:25 pm
It is ridiculous to infer this since Ram Jethmilani has been made to contest to RS thru’ BJP, Ram Jethmilani’s take on Afzal Guru is his personal opinion and BJP is consistent with their stand and Afzal Guru. If BJP had gone back on their words then you could have inferred this.
9 June 2010 at 4:54 pm
@ Rajesh R:
>>Ram Jethmilani’s take on Afzal Guru is his personal opinion and BJP is consistent with their stand and Afzal Guru.
Wasn’t Jaswant Singh’s opinion on Jinnah and partition his personal opinion? That too could have been accommodated and he could have been retained in the party right?
Or is it that the ideological position on Jinnah and partition is non-negotiable where as the one in case of Afzal Guru can be winked at? But going by the decibel levels, it didn’t appear to be the case so far.
That said I hope it’s indeed a sign of BJP maturing in its outlook and accommodating divergent views in its fold. They should have a rethink on poor Jaswant too and get him back in. His was one of the saner voices in a party teeming with the likes of M M Joshi and Rajnath Singh.
9 June 2010 at 5:11 pm
Lol, a month is a really long time in a nation’s life I guess. RJ is a loose cannon, me thinks BJP will use him to set the agenda for sanctimonious media.
In the meantime Churumuriwalo, for your reading pleasure…..
http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/bjps-brand-of-hindutva-is-a-counterfeit-hindutva/
**
AP,
>That said I hope it’s indeed a sign of BJP maturing in its outlook and accommodating divergent views in its fold.
AP,
>That said I hope it’s indeed a sign of BJP maturing in its outlook and accommodating divergent views in its fold.
Why do you want this to happen? IMO BJP should not mature and accommodate any divergent views in its fold. If BJP changes, 1) there will be not be any significant electoral return and 2) public perception about BJP will never change. In fact the “Karnataka Model” of winning and staying in power should now be tried out nationally.
9 June 2010 at 10:41 pm
Swalpa Sihi Swalpa Kahi. Huli HinDi.
10 June 2010 at 12:34 am
Yet, today, he claims that he has joined the party with the blessings of the former prime minister who, with all due respect, is in no physical shape to offer them.
WTF is that?
10 June 2010 at 8:58 am
I am fed up of both the congress and the BJP, they both do the same old politics but with slightly different agendas. I think there is one man who is on a mission to change the way politics is done, he is Jayaprakash Narayan, an MLA from Andhra Pradesh. Recently, he was on a tour of the USA to garner the support of the NRIs,
I recommend seeing some of his views and get some inspiration.
http://www.youtube.com/user/peopleforloksatta
Sorry, for being off topic, but I heard him stress the fact we are all used to choosing the second worst in each election! Let us stop supporting the second worst and start supporting the best!
FYI, he won an election spending only about half of the stipulated amount all raised legally and accounted to last paise. Now, why talk about BJP or Congress?
11 June 2010 at 11:36 am
In today’s times of India, (11th June, Bangalore edition0 there is a news item on Shri Modi, releasing full page ads on the various welfare measures Gujarat govt has taken to help the minorities.
Clearly, the party appears to be in a brazen muslim appeasment mode.
Bjp realises that its shrill hindutva approach has reached saturation point. They have squeezed every possible vote out of the hindutva agenda. Still it couldn’t get them anywhere near power in 2004 and 2009.
they realise that if they ever have to rule India again, they have to go soft, even mollify and appease muslims.
While BJP is going soft on Minorities, Congress is doing the opposite. Congress is in no mood to listen to fundamental muslims (the fatwa on women not allowed to work with men and the noises made by a section of fundamental muslims that women should not be allowed to show their face for voter’s id card – was largely codemned by Congress.
11 June 2010 at 10:26 pm
This reestablishes the old adage that politics is made of strange bedfellows !!