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Five hours that could change India by Kaveree Bamzai

Pramod Muthalik's induction in BJP was an attempt by the 160 club to derail Narendra Modi's development juggernaut and 180-plus dreams.

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Five hours that could change India by Kaveree Bamzai
Five hours that could change India
Kaveree Bamzai
Kaveree Bamzai

There are many explanations for the five hours it took the BJP to induct and dismiss Pramod Muthalik from the party. All are equally disturbing for a party that hopes to run the government by May and flaunts its distinctiveness from others. The least worrying is that there are two clubs in the BJP that are at war with each other-the 160 Club that wants the BJP to get 160 seats in the elections so they can take a shot at being prime minister by attracting allies and the 180 Club that has thrown its lot with Narendra Modi and is already carving out positions in the Union Cabinet-ranging from potential deputy PM to deputy chairman of the Planning Commission. It is natural that a war over potential spoils should break out in a party on the verge of becoming the single largest party in the next Lok Sabha. After all, this is a party that has been hungering for power for ten years and now sees it is within reach-it would rather be servile than irrelevant like L.K. Advani or worse, ejected like Jaswant Singh. Muthalik's induction was an attempt by the 160 Club to derail Modi's development juggernaut and 180-plus dreams.

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The second explanation is that Modi was looking for an opportunity to do a Rahul Gandhi: Overturn a decision by party leaders and underline his own supremacy as Rahul did while rubbishing the ordinance on criminals in politics. That is borderline ridiculous. The party is clearly being refashioned in Modi's image-ask Advani and Jaswant, and, if there are any doubts, Harin Pathak, who managed to get a ticket from Ahmedabad East in 2009 despite Modi's stiff opposition only because of Advani's clout. Those who believe it makes BJP no different from Congress should concentrate their energies on all the other ways in which BJP is turning into a version of Congress-from importing winnable candidates like Colonel Sona Ram and Satpal Maharaj to fielding second-generation politicians such as Pankaj Singh and Jayant Sinha.

It is the third explanation that is fundamental to the way we envision modernity. Does the BJP, after running nationwide ads on women's safety, believe that it can be best served by goons such as Muthalik who have not been shamed by the 'Pink Chaddi' campaign and still think Indian culture allows them to drag women by their hair? Does it believe, like Muthalik, that Indian women have no right to frequent pubs? Already the Congress has shown what it thinks of women voters by allowing a Congress MLA to get away with manhandling a Lok Sabha candidate, Nagma, while she was on campaign trail. The Aam Aadmi Party has also shown what it thinks of women's emancipation by forcing foreign women to undergo mandatory drug testing for partying late at night in a residential colony. 'Abki Baar Modi Sarkar' promises a new economic agenda where entrepreneurial energies will be unleashed and jobs will be created. Surely it doesn't believe that this will not be accompanied by an expansion of social freedoms.

In her masterful new book The Past as Present, Romila Thapar says in order to portray the present accurately, we have to explain the past. And its many versions. For every Sita, there are not only the autonomous women of the Mahabharata but also the many folk versions of Ramayana, which have everything from a chhaya Sita who takes the fire ordeal to one where she offers to fight Ravana. And if Muthalik and Co still insist on the role of women in traditional Hindu culture, then perhaps it would be wise to read out to them some of the choicest punishments meted out to rapists in Kautilya's Arthashastra-rape of a kinswoman was dealt with castration followed by the death penalty. Clearly, when Muthalik and friends speak of Hindu culture, they should specify which version.

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The BJP will have to work hard to convince the women of India that the five hours on Sunday were a temporary lapse of judgement brought on by the immediate possibility of power and not a permanent belief that the women of India have no right to live and love the way they want. And that the united shades of saffron can also accommodate the colour pink.

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