BJP ‘hijacks’ Sandeep Unnikrishnan
….and there goes the BJP again…. This time it has ‘hijacked’ Sandeep Unnikrishnan to promote itself and forward its divisive agenda.
Recently the BJP had organised a sort of, youth rally, in Bangalore, with ‘anti-terrorism’ as its agenda. Nothing really wrong with that. L.K. Advani addressed a crowd packed with college students, making the usual (for BJP) noises about how the centre was soft on terror, etc etc. Nothing really new in that. But the main draw in the BJP rally was the speech given by the very articulate K. Unnikrishnan, the father of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan. He exhorted the youth to be willing to fight terrorism. Now there lies the rub. Not in K. Unnikrishnan’s views or his address to the youth. But in his overt support for the BJP.
Sandeep Unnikrishnan epitomizes an India which is secular and above parochial issues like caste and community. Sandeep belonged to the Indian Army, one of the last bastions of true secularism in India, where it doesn’t matter what creed or community you belong to, as long as you do your job well and with a nationalistic fervour. He was a South Indian, a Malayali, who had joined a North Indian regiment, the 7 Bihar regiment, and had given up his life defending Mumbai, or more rightly, India.
The BJP, on the other hand has only sought to play vote bank politics by dividing Indian society on communal lines. The razing of the Babri Masjid and the subsequent riots and the memory of the genocide in Gujarat still rankle afresh in one’s mind. In Karnataka, where the BJP rules, it has failed to curb violence against women which has now taken on communal overtones as reports come in of Hindu women speaking to Muslim men being threatened with dire results should they get ‘caught’ in the company of their male Muslim friends again (One of the women went on to commit suicide after being roughed up by the Hindutva goons). L.K. Advani’s belated criticism of attacks on women in pubs was too little and came too late; and one suspects it came only after realizing that the youth and a majority of the urban middle class (read a fat votebank) were upset over these outrageous incidents.
Now why would the father of someone as inspirational as Sandeep Unnikrishnan start to side with a party with a dirty agenda? Of course, he is free to decide his ideology and who he sides politically with. Or could it be that he felt ‘obliged’ to speak for the BJP because the BJP government in Karnataka awarded him a compensation of thirty lakh rupees after Sandeep’s demise? But then, one could argue that even the Central government (the Congress led UPA) conferred upon Sandeep the Ashoka Chakra, which came with an award of twenty five lakh rupees.
I am certainly not saying that K. Unnikrishnan should therefore side with the Congress. In my opinion he shouldn’t side with any political outfit at all. Sandeep Unnikrishnan’s death shouldn’t be politicized at all. Political parties are aware that post his tragic death, Sandeep has been catapulted into becoming an inspirational icon, a cult figure of sorts among the youth. One need only check the number of fan sites and communities dedicated to him on social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook to affirm that.
The BJP, by projecting Sandeep Unnikrishan as belonging to ‘their’ side through his parents’ presence, has sought to cynically cash in on his death, which leaves someone like me, an avowed believer in secularism, very hurt. Sandeep, whose social networking profiles reveal friendships with Muslims and Christians, would be turning in his grave right now.
P. S. An ironic twist to the tale of BJP’s ‘support’ to Sandeep: Led by a youth group, a park in Bangalore was to be named after Sandeep Unnikrishnan. However, some BJP activists decided to come in the way of the naming by getting physically violent with the members of the youth group. The reason for the BJP activists’ violence was the fact that Sandeep Unnikrishnan was not a Kannadiga, though his family had been residing in Bangalore for twenty eight years. The naming of the park has now been cancelled.
Dear Author,Congrats for a well written article, though I am quite opposed to your view. We are no one to comment what Major’s father should or should not do. It is his personal preference and should not be dictated by our thoughts.
I rather would support the underlying view you have put forth. Politics and political parties must not expend sacrifices of brave Indians to gain political mileage. But I think in India cheap advertising is deeply engrained within political camps. Secularism is seldom an agenda of preference. Great Article.