I Wish I Could Vote for the BJP But…

The last 4 years haven’t covered the UPA with glory. While they might not have really messed anything up, the government has performed poorly on issues that matter to me like civil rights. Section 66A of the IT Act is still in place causing havoc, the laws on sedition haven’t been changed, and the government is still fighting with the Supreme Court about decriminalizing homosexuality. And now of course it is opposing marital rape laws and it hasn’t implemented police reforms. Though that last one depends on the states, but the center can push for it much harder than it’s doing so now. Police reforms are absolutely crucial to make the force independent of the political class.

The Devil and the Deep
The Devil and the Deep

For all this I want to punish the UPA and Congress. I want it to realize that there’s competition out there and that if it wants my vote it has to aim to do better. The problem is that the BJP is the only other party with a chance of beating it…and based on what I’ve seen I can’t give my vote to it. I wish I could – I’m not a Congress fan. But from what I’ve seen, no matter how bad the Congress is, the BJP is worse. Here are a few reasons.

BJP’s Ideology

Unlike the Congress, many elements within the BJP along with organizations linked to it like the RSS and the VHP have an agenda. They have this whole “Hindu” thing going on. This leads all kinds of lunatics to gain a platform. The chief of the RSS Bhagwat said that marriage is a contract where the wife has to do the household chores.

And this is just one example. There are utterances from these elements saying that they want “Hindu raj” and they go prattling about how India had a great past and they want to restore it and all that bullshit. Instead of focusing on the future. The RSS is now opposing the lowering of the age of consent from 18 to 16 on the ground that it’s “against society“. These things worry me. The BJP’s fundamental ideology is backward and disturbs me.

I can attribute the screw ups of the Congress to:

  1. Incompetence
  2. Corruption / Greed
  3. Vote bank politics
  4. Not understanding what our Constitution is about

These are bad things but they’re motivations of rational people – they’re not insane. The BJP on the other hand is all of the above plus it has a very powerful ideology in addition to them. I don’t trust people with crazy ideologies. They can’t be reasoned with. Rational and sane people respond to incentives. People with ideologies like the RSS cannot be trusted.

Bottom line: I prefer incompetence to insanity.

Modi Repulses Me

I’m not willing to vote for Modi as a PM. Regarding the whole Godhra incident, he hasn’t even apologized for letting the situation get out of hand or expressed regret that it occurred in the first place. I’ll bow to the court’s wisdom and concede that he didn’t deliberately set the whole thing up. But it’s abundantly clear that it was allowed to get out of hand as several commissions and reports have shown. I’d like him to at least say he’s sorry for the fact that it happened.

Secondly I don’t like Modi’s attitude, and the way he speaks. Too full of abuses, and personal attacks. There’s no graciousness in him. I don’t want a person like that to represent me and my country. I’ve heard him speak and the way he panders to the worst in people, setting communities against each other makes me sick.

Continually Obstructing Parliament

I think all parties do this. Over the past 8 years or so, the BJP has consistently opposed the government on every single measure. Not once have they said “Awesome – we really need this”. Whether it’s the nuclear bill, FDI or petrol prices, the BJP has stalled parliament and created a nuisance. As it is so many of our lawmakers don’t attend parliament. These shenanigans make the situation even worse.

To vote for the BJP, here’s what I want it to do:

  • Forswear Hindutva, the RSS and every single Hindu organization. Become a non-religious party.
  • Choose someone other than Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate. There are actually quite a few reasonable sounding people in there (comparatively)
  • Promise to repeal section 66A of the IT Act, and show us that you affirm full Freedom of Expression for Indians

Only then will I see it as a reasonable alternative to the Congress.

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44 thoughts on “I Wish I Could Vote for the BJP But…”

  1. more than any thing i am pasting one link if any of you have time just read it. http://www.sacw.net/article2934.html its about haryana where inaction and incompetence and negligence of the governance to appease male dominant politics, state mostly ruled by congress and continuously from last 8 years has taken women into new era of exploitation and discrimination. may be modi was failed to save one community but their congress has been failed to protect one whole GENDER and then people will again say we can always choose incompetence and after this perhaps i do not see any point to comment further on this post

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