There is nothing to be surprised in all this. During the last 17 months, the BJP has amply exposed its real character, showing that all its talk of principles and political morality when it was in opposition, were nothing but devices to dupe the masses. Nay, even before coming to power at the centre, the BJP had already shown its real face in UP where it organised large-scale defections from the Congress and BSP, and accommodated all the defectors in a jumbo size ministry. On a lesser scale, precisely this, what was carried out by Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in Rajasthan in 1990 when he had engineered a split in the Janata Dal. And the same character of the BJP was seen in Haryana where it aligned with Bansilal, enjoyed power in his company, and then joined hands with Chautala against him.

THE HIDDEN REAL AGENDA REMAINS

As far as ideology is concerned, the BJP has opportunistically proved that even though it adopted a "National Agenda for Governance" last year and chose to issue a joint manifesto for the 1999 polls with other parties of the NDA, it has no intention of giving up its communal agenda and is simply waiting for a time when it will have a majority on its own. Thus the BJP goes on talking about the NDA manifesto, while constituents of the Sangh Parivar continue to propagate the real agenda of the RSS, including issues like temple construction, Article 370 and the common civil code. Only a few days ago, RSS chief Rajendra Singh "advised" the Muslims to give up their claims on the 'temples' at Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi. Outfits like the VHP and Bajrang Dal are still perpetrating heinous crimes in accordance with the real RSS agenda.

It is important to note that to date Vajpayee, in whose name the BJP is asking for votes, has not contradicted any of the statements emanating from the RSS headquarters; he cannot ever do that. On the contrary, only two days ago he said that the BJP had only put a five year moratorium on the "contentious" issues.

This should have been more than enough to open the eyes of the allies, many of whom are basically secular in character. But in their anxiety to get to the centre they fail to realise that they would be dumped by the BJP as soon as it is in a position to do so, just as it unceremoniously dumped Bansilal in Haryana. It is only the allies' lust for power that keeps them tied to the big boss. Last year also, during a meeting of their coordination committee, these allies tried to assert on the issue of RSS agenda, but could not do anything except the issuing of a faint voice of protest.

Sooner or later, these allies of the BJP will have to rethink their position and draw the proper lessons.

GRAVE THREATS IN PLACE OF GOVERNANCE

The 17 months of the BJP rule has also posed grave threats to national unity and, as the Kargil episode showed, to the nation's security as well. Together with this, during this period there were have been unprecedented barbaric attacks on the religious minorities, particularly the minuscule Christian community. The situation has worsened so much that even the BJP's patrons in the US State Department felt constrained to say that the regime is practising communal discrimination and has failed to protect the minorities.

In this period too, there were sustained attempts to infiltrate communal elements into the administrative machinery as well as the educational and research institutions. The BJP government tried its best to communalise the whole education system of the country by various means, posing dangers for the growth of a secular and scientific world outlook.

And then came the Kargil episode, which exposed the government's utter incompetence. Today ample material is there to prove that even while officers like Brigadier Surendra Singh and forces like the BSF were warning of a large-scale infiltration of Pakistan-trained mercenaries, the government chose to ignore all such warnings. It is our security forces who displayed a high degree of determination, courage and valour, and saved the situation for India, but the country had to pay a very heavy cost for it in terms of valuable lives and resources. No wonder all the BJP's attempts to take credit for the victory in Kargil have come to nought.

Along with secularism, the other pillar of Indian unity, i.e., federalism, has also been under attack. Not to talk of the central teams sent to opposition-ruled states in the name of taking stock of the law and order situation there, though law and order is a state subject, the centre tried to dismiss the elected government of Bihar twice, while the allies either acquiesced in the move or kept silent. In this period, the opposition-ruled states were greatly discriminated against in matters of funds, etc. The BJP government even withdrew a large contingent of central forces from Tripura at a time when the state was (and is) facing extremist depredations. This shows how the BJP is prone to playing with the nation's security and integrity for the sake of its narrow interests.

The BJP-led regime also dealt a grave blow to the living standards of the masses, and the period saw a big rise in the prices of all essentials -- cereals, vegetables, edible oil, and many other things. On the price front, onions became a symbol of the government's incompetence. Mustard oil adulterators were allowed to claim many lives in Delhi. At the same time, no effort was made to address the basic issues like poverty, starvation, unemployment, illiteracy, lack of health care, drinking water and house sites for the poor, and so on. The regime was seen more concerned about rushing benefits to the Indian and foreign monopolists, and in the process perpetrated many a scam, about which even its hand-picked advisors have spoken. It was because of such reasons that the BJP lost its governments in Delhi and Rajasthan, and its hopes of a comeback in Madhya Pradesh were belied.

Not to talk of land reforms and a comprehensive central legislation for agricultural workers, the BJP did not lift its little finger about enacting the women's quota bill and Lokpal bill, which it had promised in 1998. In fact, not a single point of the so-called National Agenda for Governance has been implemented in favour of the Indian masses. The fact that the it is making the same promises again, only underlines its duplicity. 

SITUATION IN KASHMIR

The current situation in Kashmir dangerously underlines what a grave threat the BJP regime poses to the country's territorial integrity. The situation in the state had started improving after the United Front came to power, and the Kashmiris looked to the central government with great hopes. Life had also become normal in the Valley. The state witnessed assembly elections in 1996, after a gap of nine years, with a more than 50 per cent people participation defying extremist threats. But as the spate of recent attacks suggests, thanks to the BJP government, the situation in J & K has sharply deteriorated.

This has become amply clear when a slumbering regime at the centre allowed some 800 Pakistan-backed mercenaries to infiltrate the Kargil sector, and 1,200 to enter the Valley. And this happened precisely at the time when the BJP was busy spreading illusions about the prime minister's Lahore bus trip. Now these very same elements are able to threaten to jeopardise the poll process in the state. The bitter price for the National Conference's unprincipled switch over to the BJP side has been the boost to the extremist elements. Now the poll in Anantnag has had to be deferred because of extremist depredations.

The BJP-led regime is completely and squarely responsible for this worsening of the Kashmir situation. And on top of this comes the government's anti-national act of internationalising the Kashmir issue after the Pokhran explosions.

POLICY OF CAPITULATION

In the wake of Pokhran II, the BJP government also reversed the consensual and time-tested foreign policy of India that had stood her in good stead and helped her emerge as and independent leader of the third world. Now after its reversal the country stands isolated from the developing world, though this does not over concern the BJP. This government has avoided taking the initiative to revive the non-aligned movement, which several countries have demanded. The BJP regime did not even condemn the US bombing of Sudan and Afghanistan, something which one could not have imagined earlier. In fact, the RSS penpushers welcomed this bombing and even talked of the need to form "an Indo-US axis to combat the "cross-border Islamic terrorism."

In fact, this very desire of collaborating with the global imperialist bully has been the main driving force of the BJP government's foreign policy stance, and the RSS organs never tire of propagating that India's relations with the US were never so good as they are today. This they seek to project as the Vajpayee government's 'achievement' (sic!) in the foreign policy sphere. It was to please the US that they declared China to be the main threat to India's security, and thus caused a grave setback to the process of normalisation of Sino-Indian relations, though we were saving about Rs 4,000 crore of our scarce resources every year on this count alone.

It is now known that the BJP government also gave a secret promise to the US that it would sign the CTBT after September 1999. This capitualtion to the US diktat is, to say the least, a sell-out of the country's vital interests in the international arena.