Who was fooled by the ‘secular’ leaders of the NDA? | Faraz Ahmad

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has asked Muslim members of “secular” allies of the BJP in the ruling NDA to resign from the TDP of Andhra Chief Minister N. Chander Babu Naidu or the Janata JD-U of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, the Lok Jan Shakti (LJP) of Union Minister Chirag Paswan, the worthy son of late Dalit leader of Bihar Ram Vilas Paswan and Jayant Chaudhry’s RLD.

All four of these parties are in the ruling alliance enjoying status of cabinet ministers either themselves like Chirag or Jayant Chaudhry or their trusted nominees like Rajiv Ranjan Singh ‘Lalan’, an alter ego of Nitish Kumar. In Bihar which is scheduled to go to polls end of this year, the process of prominent Muslim leaders quitting the JD-U, one after the other has already begun and analysts say this trickle could very well be seen as a stream on the ground, what with the entire Muslim community agitating against this attempt to usurp Waqf properties.

But why Muslims alone? All those who consider themselves secular and swear by the Indian Constitution, whichever party they be in, have to rise and register their dissent by dissociation, specially from those “secular” parties to expose their duplicitous character.

The Congress led by P.V. Narasimha Rao lost in the 1996 general elections to the 11th Lok Sabha winning only 140 seats while the BJP, led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee emerged as the single largest party with 161 seats. But apart from Shiv Sena, Akali Dal and Samata Party no other party came forward to support Vajpayee who was initially sworn in as the Prime Minister but had to quit within 13 days, failing to muster enough numbers to prove his majority. The Samata Party of George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar which won eight seats re the first to offer support to this 13 day government.

Then a coalition of 13 secular parties was formed calling itself United Front electing the then Karnataka chief minister and a Janata Dal leader H.D. Deve Gowda as the prospective Prime Minister. Nara Chandrababu Naidu who had betrayed his father-in-law and the founder of Telugu Desam, N.T. Rama Rao to usurp the entire TDP, was perceived as a young dynamic leader in the UF lot and immediately appointed its convenor.

In less than a year, Deve Gowda had to quit because the then Congress president Sitaram Kesri as also the then Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad lost trust in Gowda. And a new leader had to be elected by the UF to save its government. At that moment two names emerged, none of whom eventually donned the mantle, Tamil Manila Congress (TMC) leader G.K. Moopanar and Chandrababu Naidu. Both declined for their own reasons. But that’s another story. Such was the trust and appreciation of Babu among all the UF constituents that they were ready to make him the Prime Minister of India at that young age.

In 1998 when the mid-term elections were held for the 12th Lok Sabha, Babu led the campaign from the front, hand in hand with the great CPM leader and then West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. There was general agreement among the UF supporters that if the UF were to form the next government at the Centre, only the young, energetic Babu deserved to be their PM candidate. But in the final tally BJP won 182 seats and the TDP numbers went down from 16 to 12, not a big, but a loss nevertheless. Suddenly Babu jumped to the rival camp offering the support of his 12 MPs to the proposed Vajpayee camp which then named itself the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) a name which they have carried to date. After offering his support to Vajpayee, Naidu held a Press conference in Andhra Bhawan and when newsmen questioned him on supporting a communal party like the BJP after campaigning vigorously against BJP’s politics, his one sentence reply was “I am secular.” If he were to be confronted today on supporting this patently communal, anti-Muslim unconstitutional Waqf Bill, I can bet Naidu would repeat, “I am secular.”

Nitish Kumar

The other pall bearer of secularism is the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Nitish Kumar who occupies the Bihar chief minister’s throne in the lap of the BJP. This Nitish Kumar has attacked Narendra Modi as a communal leader and then rushed into Modi’s arms countless times now. Remember he was the Railway Minister in Vajpayee’s government when Gujarat pogrom of Muslims happened under Narendra Modi’s chief ministership. Soon after the burning of the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express, I made an attempt to get the list of passengers who were travelling in that coach. Could never secure it, even though Nitish Kumar pretended to be a big friend of mine. Another friend in Rail Bhawan a senior Railway service officer finally told me, no use trying, that has been pushed under the carpet. And yet in 2009 when the BJP held its executive in Patna Nitish did what Biharis snidely call ‘theatre’ by calling off the dinner he had thrown to protest the presence of Narendra Modi, full seven years after Godhra. It useless to state here how many times this Paltu Kumar has gone back and forth between Modi and the steadfast secular leader Lalu Prasad.

Chirag Paswan

Like a true son of a worthy or shall we say unworthy father Chirag is faithfully following in the footsteps of father late Ram Vilas Paswan. Ram Vilas was this great Dalit socialist, who we all hoped would one day fulfil our dreams of a Dalit Prime Minister of India, ushering in an era of socialism and secularism and what a disappointment he was! When there were widespread protests by upper caste youth over the then Prime Minister V.P. Singh accepting and Mandal Commission report granting 27 per cent reservation in central government services, Ram Vilas Paswan and Sharad Yadav became the face of counter campaign for Mandalism. He once mocked the saffron brigade in Parliament over their sloganeering “Jai Shri Ram” saying, “Where is Ram? Here is Ram, pointing at himself, There is Ram, mentioning Dalit icon Kanshi Ram, causing an uproar in the BJP benches.

But come 1999, the second NDA government of Vajpayee, Paswan joined the NDA as leader of his newly formed Lok Jan Shakti Party and became the Union Communications Minister till September 1, 2001 when his portfolio was changed and given Coal and Mines ministry. He didn’t like. In 2002 February-March the anti-Muslim Gujarat pogrom took place and on 29 April, 2002 he quit the NDA government and alliance as well. Immediately he held a press conference at his 12 Janpath bungalow, he coveted and occupied since the Janata Dal government days till as long as he lived. In the press conference which was significantly also attended by another political turncoat Arif Mohammad Khan, then in political wilderness, who had broken from V.P. Singh along with his political mentor and Guru Arun Nehru over Mandal issue.

But one of Paswan close friend later told me that Paswan was unhappy over being shifted from Communications to Coal and was looking for an opportunity to quit. Gujarat came in handy. He then wasted no time to build bridges with Congress president Sonia Gandhi living next door at 10, Janpath and was again a cabinet minister in the UPA government. However, he did not like that Lalu Prasad whom he always bad mouthed, became the Railway minister and a competent and efficient minister at that. All through he despised Nitish Kumar for purely personal reasons.

Like father like son Chirag Paswan, took his dislike and disdain of Nitish Kumar too far. But the BJP needed Nitish more than Paswan for the government in Bihar and so Modi not just ignored Chirag, wailing and whining but also evicted him from the coveted 12 Janpath. Chirag learnt his lesson the hard way and so now as a minister in Modi government he is also reconciled to Nitish leading the NDA in Bihar. Again, like father he made some noise initially against BJP’s communal agenda, but when it came to the crunch, he voted for the Waqf Bill. No second thoughts.

As for Jayant Chaudhry and his two-member party in the Lok Sabha, the less said the better. Again, a true son of father Ajit Singh who slowly but surely ruined the legacy of Jayant’s grandfather Chaudhry Charan Singh and great grandfather Sir Chhotu Ram. He spoke against UP government prohibiting Eid namaz on the roads, But, said nothing when the chief minister in saffron enforced his communal diktat.

The crux of the matter is that it is futile to expect any stand from these worthies. From the day the results of the 18th Lok Sabha came and the BJP actually lost the elections winning only 240 of the 544 seats, way below the halfway mark of 272, and these leaders rushed to offer their shoulders as crutches to Modi, it became evident they are only for power and pelf at whatever cost.