Nehru, BJP and the need for tolerant dialogue

I felt honoured when the editor of the newly revived National Herald asked me to pen this article. At a time when many haughty followers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Narendra Modi government have made the newspaper’s venerable founder Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru a target of venomous attack, I thought I should revisit the time when more mature leaders of the party, from a different era, viewed him differently.

The year was 1997. To celebrate the golden jubilee of India’s independence, Lal Krishna Advani, then president of the BJP, embarked on an uncharacteristic mass-contact programme. Having led the party’s Rath Yatra for the reconstruction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya in 1990, he now set out on a much longer 59-day Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra. Travelling all over India by road (and Indian roads were in a far worse condition then), he visited all the major places associated with the freedom movement and paid homage to all its martyrs and leaders, irrespective of their political, ideological or religious background.

I was working as an aide to Advaniji and accompanied him throughout this exhilarating odyssey, and later described it in my book A Patriotic Pilgrimage. When our rath, an imaginatively re-designed Tata truck, reached Chennai on May 27, I suggested to Advaniji that it would be appropriate for him to pay tribute to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on his death anniversary.

In his press statement, Advaniji praised India’s first prime minister for “his idealism as well as contribution to the freedom movement and subsequent development of parliamentary democracy in India”. In spite of BJP’s differences with many of his policies, Advaniji added, “We hold Nehru to be one of the towering personalities of the Freedom Era. At a time when the ideas and ideals of that glorious era have been completely abandoned by the leaders of his own party, the BJP believes that recalling the positive aspects of Nehru’s life and work will help in arresting the degradation of India’s political culture.”

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the BJP’s founder and its tallest leader also held Nehru in great regard. Speaking in Parliament a few days after Nehru’s death in 1964, he vented his grief in his inimitable poetic words (in Hindi). “…A dream has remained half-fulfilled, a song has become silent, and a flame has banished into the unknown. The dream was a world free of fear and hunger; the song a great epic resonant with the spirit of the Gita, and as fragrant as a rose; the flame a candle which burnt all night long, showing us the way.”

Furthermore, Atalji, perhaps addressing the hardliners in his own party (then called the Bharatiya Jana Sangh), said that the loss was not that of a family or community or party. Mother India was in mourning as “her beloved Prince has gone to sleep”. Humanity was aggrieved because its “servant” and “worshipper has left it forever”. The “chief actor of the world stage has departed after performing his last act”.

What Atalji said next would surely infuriate many Modi supporters. He compared Nehru to none other than Ram! “In Panditji’s life, we get a glimpse of the noble sentiments found in the saga of Valmiki”. Like Ram, Nehru was “the orchestrator of the impossible and inconceivable”. Describing him as one “no one can replace”, Atalji said, “That strength of personality, that vibrancy and independence of mind, that quality of being able to befriend the opponent and enemy, that gentlemanliness, that greatness—this will not perhaps be found in the future.” Modi himself, not just his supporters, should pay heed to the italicised words.

Nehru’s departure had pushed India into a vortex of uncertainty. Recognising this, Atalji urged Indians to rededicate themselves to his—and the Republic’s—ideals. “With unity, discipline and self-confidence, we must make this Republic of ours flourish. The leader has gone, but the followers remain. The sun has set, yet by the shadow of stars we must find our way. These are testing times, but we must dedicate ourselves to his great aim, so that India can become strong, capable and prosperous.” Finally, endorsing an ideal dearest to Nehru’s heart—when will Modi endorse this with the same passion?—Ataji reminded his countrymen: Were India to “establish lasting peace in the world, we shall succeed in paying proper homage to him.”

Has the passage of time—over five decades—completely erased the meaning of these words uttered by one who went on to become India’s prime minister? Is it the contention of Modi followers that words of condolence are meant only for the occasion, and not for posterity? True, no leader, Nehru included, can be above the critical scrutiny of history. All leaders make mistakes, and Nehru’s too must be openly acknowledged, analysed and learnt from—above all, by the leaders and followers of the Congress party.

They should also learn from the consequences of sustained intolerance they showed, when the Congress was in power, towards everything associated with the BJP and RSS, turning a blind eye to the positive aspects of a party and an ideological family whom the people of India, exercising their democratic right, have now made the ruling establishment. This does not mean the Congress and other non-BJP parties should keep mum over the toxic traits of the Sangh Parivar, which many of its recently emboldened followers are displaying with unprecedented arrogance, indecency and a contempt for history.

Nehru’s own appreciation of the patriotism of the Jana Sangh and the RSS, notwithstanding his well-known disapproval of their ideology, is something I shall write about later. The point I wish to make in this debut column, as I give my best wishes to National Herald on the joyous occasion of its much-needed rebirth, is that India needs new kinds of dialogues among people professing different, even opposing, beliefs. These conversations should be based on mutual respect, fidelity to facts, acceptance of dissent, and the need to expand cooperation for the larger good of the people and the nation.

In doing this, the followers of both the BJP and Congress should never forget the wise words of Voltaire, which Nehru often quoted: “I wholly disapprove of what you say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it.”

Sudheendra Kulkarni is currently chairman of the Observer Research Foundation and was an aide to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He tweets at @SudheenKulkarni