Secularism and BJP

Few days back BJP's strongman L.K. Advani stressed that BJP is committed to secularism,  and that it brooks no discriminative attitude towards the minorities. Considering that it can no longer come to power unless it sheds its old and harmful ideology, it is now reaching out to people of all religious communities. States where BJP ruled or shared power have seen persecution of religious minorities. Be it in Orissa or Madhya Pradesh or Gujarat or Karnataka, Christians and Muslims have been butchered and persecuted. Thus not only the religious minorities, but many other Indian citizens distrust BJP. So at this moment when Congress' and its allies are burdened with scams after scams, looting the nations treasury, BJP needs to capitalise on Congress' failure to provide a clean and transparent government. 

BJP has the worst record for any national party when it comes to dealing with the religious minorities. And unless it takes drastic action it would not sufficiently assure the minorities that it has mended its ways. Before the election it is natural for any political party to promise all sorts of things. And therefore if BJP is seriously committed to secularism, it must first severe all ties with RSS. It is a well know fact that Manmohan Singh takes "orders" from Sonia Gandhi; likewise, BJP takes "orders" from RSS. And RSS, Bajrang Dal and VHP are birds of the same feather. How can BJP-RSS govern the nation into peace and prosperity when a huge section of the population feel threatened by their coming to power? 

This is apart from the fact that BJP has to settle its internal struggle for power. The tussle for power  has BJP unit split in Gujarat with Keshubhai Patel forming his own party; even Karnataka Yedyurappa seems prepared to part ways with BJP; though Vasundhara Raje is quiet for a while now. 

While Rahul Gandhi is busy at the grass root level, Congress' ministers and its friends have proved themselves to be corrupt. But unless BJP sheds its communal ideology and part ways with RSS, Congress would be the lesser evil. Whether Narendra Modi was responsible for the Gujarat riot and therefore requires persecution or not  is for the Court to decide. My position is that BJP's verbal commitment to secularism is not enough. It needs to be translated into action to be heard and seen.