India's credibility on the world stage has been to a large extent because of the secularism practised in the country. India has not only cashed on this support of the international community for its secularism, it has turned on the rest of South Asia, particularly at Pakistan and later on Bangladesh, for its religion-based politics. That claim to fame of India that it is the world's largest democracy as well as secular has been on the decline for quite some time although not enough to come to light in the international media in a manner to damage India's international standing.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged on the national level by openly playing, and blatantly so, the Hindu card or Hindutva and won power in New Delhi in 1998 under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. That open flirtation with Hindutva by the BJP was largely ignored in the international media and in the West. Both refused to wake from their pro-India slumber and it allowed it to retain its secular credentials intact for which they gave great credit to Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru.
The Vajpayee government was defeated in 2004 and secular India was relieved with the return of Congress that the West and the international media and non-BJP India considered the great protector and saviour of secular India. The emergence of the BJP again in 2014 under Narendra Modi, this time with Hindu fundamentalism at its worst that banned cow killing and on that issue targeted the Muslims, at times savagely, was also not enough to wake the West and its media sufficiently to take a serious look at Hindu fundamentalism in India and how it was destroying India's claim to secularism.
The recent election in Gujarat, the home state of the Indian Prime Minister, has exposed another decline in India's once-proud claim as a secular state that is so serious that even if the West and its media failed to acknowledge, could finally push India over the line in its claim as a genuinely secular state. The BJP won the election in Gujarat but with a reduced majority although it did not lessen in any way its total commitment and use of Hindu fundamentalism. In the 182-seat Assembly, the BJP won 99 seats, losing 16 seats compared to the last election. The Congress knew Gujarat was a major challenge because it is the Prime Minister's home state. Nevertheless, it was able to reduce the BJP's majority in the Prime Minister's home state in a way from which it could take some heart looking at the other state elections and the national elections not far away.
The Congress won 77 seats that were 16 seats more than in the last election.
The Gujarat election, however, was not significant for seats won or lost by the two major national parties. It was significant, first, because it was the first election after the mantle of the Congress was passed from Sonia Gandhi to her son Rahul Gandhi, the son of Rajiv Gandhi, the grandson of Indira Gandhi and the great-grandson of Pandit Nehru. It was also an election that saw the decline of secularism in India in quite a different and dangerous manner and context. The Congress, the great champion and protector of secular India, under its new President Rahul Gandhi shed its secular face on the sideline to take advantage of the Hindu factor in Indian politics.
Rahul Gandhi targeted rural Gujarat with the Hindu card. He visited 21 temples in Gujarat in what was called in the media as the "temple run", kicking off his campaign in Drarwadhish Temple, that took him to the Somnath temple, and a visit to Navaratri pandal in Jamnagar district. The temple run was a watershed in the history of the Congress; a parting of ways from secular politics to joining the ranks of the BJP and religion-based political parties.
The Gujarat election was also a watershed for the Congress as the champion of the rights of minorities such as the Muslims. The new Congress President did not mention even once the Gujarat riots of 2002 when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister. In those riots, nearly 2000 Muslims were killed in communal riots in which the Gujarat Government sided with the rioters. In fact, Narendra Modi was declared pariah in the West because under his watch so many Muslims were killed. The United States went to take the extreme measure to deny Narendra Modi visa to visit the United States for his role in the Gujarat riots during the entire period he was the Chief Minister till he became the Prime Minister of India without any regrets for what happened in Gujarat in 2002 and proudly riding the wave of Hindutva.
The United States and the western media forgot all of Narendra Modi's past and welcomed him with open arms as soon as he became the Prime Minister of India. And in welcoming him and cleaning his slate of his alleged past misdeeds, they also refused to seriously see the type of blatant religious fundamentalism he was injecting into the Indian body politic. Thus although the criminality surrounding the fanatics of Hindu fundamentalism over cow killing after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister was acknowledged in the West and reported in its media, the western powers and the western media have not seriously expressed any concern about the way secularism was being sidelined and Hindu fundamentalism gaining the political turf in India. They rather considered that these blatant and criminal face of Hindu fundamentalism notwithstanding, India was still, at the core, secular.
The decision of the Congress to play the Hindu card in Gujarat is a paradigm shift in Indian politics. Notwithstanding the West and western media's love affair with India for its secularism, that is set to damage India's secular credentials from within. Having played the Hindu card in Gujarat, and getting the benefit with the additional seats, the Congress is likely to be tempted to use the Hindu card in other state elections and eventually, the national elections that are around the corner. If that happens as it looks most likely, and with both the BJP and the Congress playing the Hindu card whose appeal to the Indian voters is now a well acknowledged fact, India's secular credentials are on road to oblivion. Then India would look as much a country based on religion as Pakistan, a country that the Indians across the political divide criticise because of its religious fundamentalism.
Shashi Tharoor, the Congress leader and a member of the Rajya Sabha, was interviewed on this paradigm shift in the politics of the Congress through its use of the Hindu card in Gujarat. He had an interesting explanation to fend off the accusation that the Congress had used the Hindu card in Gujarat the way the BJP has in Gujarat and in national politics. He said that "by using it (Hinduism) as a badge of political identity, the BJP has dragged Hinduism into the public arena…Rahul Gandhi took Hinduism out of the political debate." He also said that unlike his great-grandfather Pandit Nehru who was an agnostic, Rahul is not and his faith in his religion is deep and strong.
Shashi Tharoor stressed that the BJP has dragged Hinduism into politics and people were being motivated because religion, after all, has a place in every individual's life. In doing so, the BJP has been taking away the entire space for itself. He stressed further that what Rahul Gandhi and Congress have done is go to the people with the "soft Hindu card" to make a claim that it too loved and respected the Hindu religion and its place in an individual's life and decided to play the card so as not to give the entire space to the BJP and leave the people thinking that the Congress is an anti-Hindu party.
That was a poor argument indeed. In fact, it is the same argument made in the politics of Pakistan and by the religion-based parties in Bangladesh that are minor political parties - that religion is important in a citizen's life and therefore must not be left out of the political equation. Thus the Gujarat election has brought Indian politics closer to the type of politics prevalent in Pakistan leaving Bangladesh to claim that its secular credentials are better than both.
The writer is a former Ambassador.
