Poor BJP is getting poorer

The Bharatiya Janata Party is in a bad way. It had only a handful of well-read intellectual men. And it is losing them. The sidelining of Yashwant Sinha, the expulsion of Jaswant Singh, the 'resignation' of Sudheendra Kulkarni has weakened it. Not that there are no educated folks left in the BJP. But the problem is that these are men and women with a narrow Hindu vision for India. No leader with such jaundiced view of the country can ever hope of ruling it.


The BJP equates history with treason and historical enquiry as heresy. What it did to Jaswant Singh was disgraceful. It has only become intellectually poorer.

It is not that the Congress party is full of intellectual giants. It is fortunate that a pluralistic approach is ingrained in it. BJP's Hindutva excludes many Indian communities and thus will appeal only to the extreme looney fringe amongst the voters. It draws inspiration from the RSS, an organisation which hardly understands the real India. It think flag waving means to be the ideal Indian. India is much more complex, much more diverse.

That is why the country needs honest, dedicated historians, who can call a spade a spade. Instead we have dull and fawning people crammed in our universities and other bodies.

The BJP expelled Jaswant Singh within a day of release of his book, Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence. It must have got some geniuses who can read a complex book on Indian history in one night! The BJP ruled government in Gujarat banned the book on Jinnah within two days! This is like banning history. It is going back to the age of barbarians.

Arun Shourie has rightly likened BJP president to a chest-thumping Tarzan.