Shakeel Ahmed targets Modi: a blessing in disguise for BJP

In politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies but only permanent interests

When Indians go to the elections next year, they will cast a vote not just for an member of Parliament (MP) but for one of two diametrically opposite visions for the future: Narendra Modi vs the others. Elections 2014 are no longer being perceived as a contest between the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).  

 

The Congress never lets go the slightest opportunity to isolate the Gujarat Chief Minister and polarise the polity. Congress spin doctors are happy that Modi’s projection as Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) PM-in waiting would make their task easy by deflecting public attention from the series of scams that has rattled the Manmohan Singh-led government and could also mitigate anti-incumbency sentiments. Party insiders say Modi’s elevation will fetch them minority votes without any effort.

Nearly six decades have passed, but the communal vs secular debate still hangs in the balance. Delivering his most vitriolic attack on the saffron party, Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmed said the birth of home-grown terror group Indian Mujahideen (IM) was a reaction to the 2002 Gujarat riots. “Indian Mujahideen was formed after the Gujarat riots, says NIA in its charge sheet. Even now the RSS/BJP will not desist from their communal politics?” the Congress leader tweeted. If a Congress general secretary’s tweet amounts to defending terrorism, can the Congress let him off? How can the Congress say that Ahmed’s statement on the IM is his personal opinion? Has he made terror a political joke?

After Bodhgaya blasts, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh had wondered on Twitter that if there was a “connect” between the explosions and statements by Modi and his aide Amit Shah. "Amit Shah (BJP general secretary) promises a grand temple at Ayodhya. Modi addresses Bihar BJP workers and asks them to teach Nitish (Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar) a lesson," Digvijaya had said on Twitter, adding: "Next day bomb blasts at Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya. Is there a connect? I don't know." The moot question: Has the Congress taken a calculated gamble in the run-up to 2014? Arguably, Modi’s drastic failure in containing the communal riots remains one of the most controversial episodes in the history of secular India. There is one school of thought that argues that if the Congress party plays the minority card well, Muslim votes might consolidate behind the grand old party in the coming political battle in 2014. 

However, there are different versions of how the IM came into being. One of them is that Student's Islamic Movement of India (Simi) had formed it. Security officials are of the view that the IM is a shadow outfit of the banned Simi and the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba, and is directly controlled by Pakistan’s ISI.  It was formed after LeT started finding it difficult to send people from across the border to carry out terrorist attacks in India.

Shirshir Gupta of the Indian Express, in his book Indian Mujahideen, the enemy within, records that it was a meeting on April 25, 2007, in Hubli, Karnataka which was originally meant to iron out differences within Simi, that became the grounds for the formation of a new outfit which much later came to be known as the IM.

 

During Karnataka polls Ahmed’s another tweet went viral and drew fire. On April 16, 2013 a bomb planted on a motorbike went off near the Karnataka BJP headquarters injuring 16 persons. Ahead of the Karnataka polls, the explosion gave politicians an opportunity to engage in a political spat. Ahmed posted a tweet suggesting that the terror attack might help the BJP on the eve of the elections.  

 

Last week, Modi's remarks that the Congress covered itself with the ‘burqa (veil) of secularism’ each time it’s confronted with a crisis drew a stinging response from the ruling party which said that it’s much better than ‘naked communalism’. The Gujarat CM’s scathing attack on the Congress can also be read as an echo of the longstanding BJP’s idea of secularism with the Congress's strategy of minority ‘appeasement’. Modi truly played on his image as a hardline Hindutva ideologue and the support that the Congress seeks to gain from Muslims. 

 

The Rashtriya Swamsewak Sangh (RSS) has said the Sangh's aim is to build a strong India with the “right” leader with Hindutva at its core. “Hindutva is the core of Hindustan, it is it's identity,” RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said, adding that it is wrong to look at Hindutva as an ideology of a particular religion or community.
 

Also, the remark might not have touched a raw nerve if, in an interview with Reuters,  Modi had not compared the impact of the Gujarat pogrom on him with the pain caused by the running over of a puppy by a car. To make matters worse, the BJP’s election campaign panel chief had boasted during the interview that he was a Hindu nationalist.

 

The saffron party think tank wants the BJP shouldn’t respond to the charges of communal politics as it needs a dose of Hindutva to get voters to rise above caste identities. The Congress will be pleased, however, if Modi and the BJP continue in the same vein. The more the BJP raises the communal heat, the more it will be obligatory on all secular forces to drop their differences and come together to face the challenge.