Politics of patriotism

From the time I was a small child, I remember climbing onto the terrace of my grandfather’s house every morning and saluting as some member of the staff unfurled and hoisted the national flag. In the evening it was our solemn duty to see that the flag was lowered at 6 pm or sunset, only to be hoisted again the next day. In later years, we always had functions at school on Republic Day and all children stood in attention while the national flag was hoisted. Political life in the Congress has always begun with the hoisting of the national flag at the party headquarters in the national capital and all state capitals, and for all of us who are MPs, office-bearers or senior members usually spend the whole day driving to hundreds of villages hoisting the national flag at roadside junctions, schools, party offices and marketplaces. We sing the national anthem and talk about the glory of our nation to the assembled crowd.
This is a way of life in the Indian National Congress. We are the party that fought for the Independence of this great country, when other parties who are so vocal today either did not exist or even supported our colonial masters, the British. Our nationalism runs in our genes and in our blood and is a part of our lives. We don’t need to wear it on our sleeve, or far worse, politicise nationalism and use it as a divisive tool to try and gain some cheap electoral gain by polarising people of different religions.
So far as I am aware the Indian National Congress is perhaps the only party where all workers gather at the party office on Republic Day and hoist the national flag. I am not aware if any other parties actually follow this practice. However, this is not ground for doubt or criticism. The fact of the matter is that nationalism and patriotism are or ought to be deeply felt and held values, which may easily be manifested in a variety of ways and hoisting the flag is our way. Others may well have different ways to express their patriotism.
In the last few days, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has suddenly discovered unique patriotism and heroically set off to hoist the national flag at the Lal Chowk in Srinagar. The roadshow was allegedly by the yuva morcha, but it was constantly “inspired” by rousing speeches from senior BJP leader L.K. Advani and in the last lap led by Leaders of the Opposition in Parliament Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj. As the crowd of BJP workers set off from Kolkata the impression a lay person would have received was that they were setting off to conquer enemy territory, not that they were going to what is indisputably a part of India, a state ruled by a democratically elected government, with a chief minister with whose party the BJP had been in coalition just a few short years ago.
The BJP and its leaders did not care that by singling out the Kashmir Valley for flag-hoisting, they were actually giving credence to the claim of separatists who assert until today that Kashmir never acceded to the Indian Union. They did not care that when a huge crowd of emotionally-charged young men converge upon a critical and sensitive area like Lal Chowk, the law and order situation is bound to be affected badly and the crowd is likely to over-react and get out of control. They did not care that the stone-pelters who had created so much trouble in the Valley have now finally brought under control and the hard-won peace in the Valley would be brutally shattered by their confrontational display of nationalism.
Every right-thinking Indian would like to ask the BJP some simple questions. If they wanted to exhibit their new-found enthusiasm to hoist the national flag, why could they not do it in Lucknow, Patna, Bhopal or Bengaluru ? Or in their own homes? Did the national flag fly on Republic Day in the homes of BJP leaders and workers? The answer is a resounding no. It is equally true that they only chose Srinagar in order to stir up a political controversy and try and polarise citizens on religious lines.
Next, why did the BJP not feel this patriotism in those six years when it was running the Union government in Delhi ? Was it not necessary, in their view, to hoist the flag at Lal Chowk during those six years? Except for one time in 1992 when Murli Manohar Joshi tried to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk, the BJP has never attempted to go to Srinagar to unfurl the national flag. Obviously this newly-discovered enthusiasm has to be attributed to ulterior and extraneous reasons and certainly not to any genuine nationalism.
Assuming that every yuva morcha worker of the BJP was seized by a fierce desire to see the national flag fly in Lal Chowk, as opposed to their own homes or party offices or cities, what prevented them from attending the official function at Srinagar where the democratically-elected chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir unfurled the national flag? They could have participated whole-heartedly in the official function, loudly sung the national anthem and showed their patriotism. There was absolutely no need for them to engage in a competitive display of nationalism with the government of the state, thereby allowing the separatists to have the last laugh.
It is commendable that the government acted firmly to stop this misadventure, despite meaningless provocative remarks from BJP leaders. It is important for us to remember at this time that Mr Advani, who was present at the demolition of the Babri Masjid, later declared that he was agonised over the incident, which had actually occurred because the karsevaks had gone out of control. This came after he had led the most disruptive, violent and communal rathyatra, which destroyed communal harmony in our country. Had the BJP been allowed to have its way at Lal Chowk the consequences would have been equally disastrous. In the face of the depressing downward spiral of the BJP’s political activity, the nation can only appeal to BJP leaders to function with a modicum of responsibility, the very least that is expected of a constructive Opposition.

Jayanthi Natarajan is a Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha and AICC spokesperson.
The views expressed in this column are her own.