One of the greatest men of independent India breathed his last on the 16th of August, 2018. Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a giant among mere mortals, was a politician who led India through one of the most critical times in its history to usher in a new era of prosperity. As politicians across the spectrum gathered to mourn the memory of the Hindutva stalwart, it was inevitable that there would be some elements who would try their best to tarnish the solemn moment with their words worthy of much disgust.
There was a certain section of the media which was under the impression that it was a good idea to use the death of Vajpayee to shower more adulation on the Gandhis, the same Vajpayee whose contribution was enormous towards the undermining of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
Then there were those who were rejoicing at the prospect of Vajpayee’s imminent death and could not hide their hatred for the man even at such an inappropriate moment. Then there were outlets such as The Wire which immediately took it upon itself to pass moral judgments on Vajpayee and brand him a communal bigot.
There were much more repulsive posts on the death of Vajpayee which I chose not to quote here but it’s clear that the visceral hatred that those on the Left bear for him is quite out of order. Vajpayee is hated because he is one of the great success stories of Hindutva and is evidence of the fact that a Hindutva Sarkar could provide better governance and lead the country to greater heights than corrupt ‘secular’ parties which indulged in blatant minority appeasement.
Vajpayee was the great Hindutvawadi under whose leadership India became a nuclear power and sailed through a period of sanctions without suffering any misery as such. And more importantly, he was a visionary who added new chapters to the Indian growth story which began earlier under the leadership of PV Narasimha Rao. And these are hard pills for the Left to swallow who have demonstrated time and again that their only legacy when it comes to governance is running a state to the ground.
The people who are too busy spewing hate against Vajpayee are unsurprisingly the same who believe Aurangzeb was a benevolent ruler and that his persecution of Hindus must be seen from a certain context. The “Liberal” Left hates him for his involvement in the Ram Janambhoomi movement but conveniently chooses to ignore the context under which the vents that transpired developed. A thing that becomes clear after a while is that the Left hates Vajpayee for pretty much the same reasons for which the Right respects and adores him. The Ram Janambhoomi movement, Pokhran, his economic policies and his avowed commitment to Hindutva are what makes Vajpayee so loved among the Right and hated among the Left. And the death of Vajpayee is illuminating once again these irreconcilable differences that have come to the forefront of Indian politics in 2018.
The Left betrays its own words with its actions. They preach tolerance and coexistence and rational discussion and yet they do not hesitate to spit on the memory of a former Prime Minister who improved India’s fortunes greatly for the better. They accuse the Right of being filled with hatred and yet, it is they whose minds have been so corrupted with rage that they have forsaken all decency and chosen to spew hatred against a man who hadn’t even been cremated yet. If democratic politics is to succeed, it is essential that certain courtesies are observed by all sides on certain occasions. However, it has become clear that the Left is incapable of observing such common decencies and offer the most minimum of courtesies to a Hindu because they have been consumed by hatred.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a true son of the soil. His speech on Savarkar is still relevant to this day. We have to remember that Vajpayee isn’t hated for things he did or things he chose not to do. He is hated because of his identity and because he is a Hindutvawadi. The Left has made it abundantly clear that they will reserve nothing but only hatred and scorn for a Hindutvawadi, even in death, ignoring all the greatness that the Hindutvawadi was endowed with.
The legacy of Vajpayee is a refutation of the narrative that the Left had carefully crafted over the years that a Sanghi cannot provide effective governance to a 21st century India. The Left describes Hindus as being stuck up over past glories and incapable of charting a bright future ahead and yet it was Vajpayee, the Hindutvawadi, who established India as a nuclear power. The Left would have us believe that Hindu thought is incapable of producing visionary leaders and yet it was Vajpayee, the Hindutvawadi, who envisioned the Golden Quadrilateral and heralded an era of economic prosperity. The Hindutva of Vajpayee was a slap on the face of Nehruvian Socialism and its glories that the Left had come to glorify and that is why he is so reviled even in death.
Narendra Modi is only carrying forward the legacy of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He appears to have learnt from the mistakes the late stalwart of Hindutva committed and is working towards fulfilling the dreams and ambition of the now deceased former Prime Minister. Certain sections of the media may now be showering praise on him to further their own political objective of criticizing Narendra Modi but Atal Bihari Vajpayee was hated just as much during his Prime Ministerial tenure as Modi is hated now. At least the section of the political spectrum still showering hate on Vajpayee are consistent with their approach towards the man but worse are the hypocrites who are using his death to attack Narendra Modi, a man after Vajpayee’s own heart.
It should be clear to Hindus now that it hardly matters how they conduct themselves in public life. If they believe that the Mughals were tyrants whose symbols of oppression should eradicated from the face of Bharata, if they believe that Babri was a symbol of tyranny and a testament to Islamic intolerance, if they believe that a bhavya Ram Mandir is of utmost import to initiate the spiritual awakening of Bharata and most importantly, if they believe that they have the right to defend themselves from Islamic aggression should the state fail to do so, then they will be hated and reviled by the Left because there’s nothing on the face of the Earth the Left hates more than the unending resilience of the great Hindu Civilization.
