Touted as the party with a difference, the BJP was seen as manna from the heaven when it first rose to power during the nineties. Unsuspecting citizens naively believe that they would at last see a genuine party capable of undoing the sins of misgovernance and corruption the Congress had committed during the decades it ruled the country after the Independence. Now that expectation turns out to be just a pipe dream and the initial euphoria has turned into a living tragedy. The BJP also has serious implications for the North-East. It is a bad omen of more unmitigated political disaster and serious social balkanization waiting to happen. The question is: should we let the BJP and its goon allies to implement their diabolic designs in the North-East?

With all respect to Col. Haobam Bhubon, anybody who supports BJP is a traitor. One needs not remind the fact that it is the party that tried to tear apart Manipur's territory in cahoots with the pseudo-nationalists from Nagaland. Though we have no means of knowing whether the BJP state Unit was aware of the closed door conspiracy to betray the Manipuris in advance, but by default-as an adjunct to the parent party-, it deserves to be hounded out from the soil of Manipur. By being a party to that historical betrayal, it has lost its moral right to remain within the borders of Manipur. But try talking morality and principles to politicians, you will feel like you are talking to lifeless wood logs. Politicians have a knack for turning deaf ears to all our pleas of maintaining virtue, public probity and accountability. That's what is happening with the BJP's state brass, it is shamelessly refusing to close its shop and die a silent dead.

It is not only the role of the BJP in the monumental mistake of trying to disturb the territorial integrity of Manipur that is causing concern, but it is its core ideology that is sending chills up the spine of every right thinking people. Examine its notorious Hindutva philosophy. No matter how much the BJP's eloquent PR people try to defend it as an innocuous way of life that was followed by the Indians for thousands of years, it is clear that this philosophy presupposes that every Indian is a Hindu. The Sangh Parivar of which the BJP is just a political arm justifies Hindutva as cultural nationalism underlying the concept of one people, one culture, one nation. It draws a distinction between Hindutva and Hinduism.

This philosophy draws heavily from Veer Savarkar's thesis that claims that "a Hindu... is he who looks upon the land that extends... from the Indus to the seas, as the land of his forefathers - his pitribhu (fatherland)... and who above all addresses this land... as his punyabhu (holy land)... these are the essentials of Hindutva- a common rashtra, a common jati and a common sanskriti... the first two essentials of Hindutva -rashtra and jati - are clearly denoted and connoted by the word pitribhu, while the third essential of sanskriti is pre-eminently implied by the world punyabhu."

Note the words pitribhu and punyabhu. These two words not only enjoin that a true Indian must trace its ancestry to forefathers who lived in India only but also that they should follow faiths that originated in this country only, which means Hinduism and its sects. So millions of Christians and Muslims whose holy places of pilgrimage reside outside India, say Rome and Mecca are automatically unworthy of being Indians, i.e., if the proponents of Hindutva are to be believed.

No wonder than, BJP's sister organizations like the VHP and the Bajrang Dal have been in the news for such dastardly crimes as burning alive of the Australian priest Graham Staines, vandalising of movie theatres, digging up of cricket pitches, harassment of Valentine day's revelers, and so on--all in the name of upholding the concept of one people, one culture and one nation. And what a way to do so.

If one needs any definite proof of the BJP's politics of hate and confrontation, look no further beyond the Godhra massacre that left thousands from the minority community killed and displaced from their homes, and many more of their women raped and dishonoured. The BJP government not only sat back and watched the heinous sectarian cleansing, but it even instigated the riots. That the brutal attacks on the minority community had the hand of the Modi government and the BJP led central government was all too clear: Amnesty International, NHRC, NCW, Chief Election Commissioner, JM Lyngdoh and the media will all swear by this fact.

That is why I dread the prospect of a BJP led or majority dispensation ever coming to power in Manipur. Going by the track record of BJP where it has a majority, it won't be a surprise if it adopts the same formula of hate and minority bashing in Manipur. In the event of this happening, it can be assumed without any doubt that our social fabric will come apart at the seams forever. From such turmoil, only a climate of suspicion and spiteful revenge will emerge. Balkanization of Manipur along ethnic and religious lines will not be far behind.

The other cardinal element of BJP's agenda which stems from its Hindutva policy is its resolve to enforce a Uniform Civil Code. In its enthusiasm to introduce the Code, the BJP seems to have lost touch with the reality that India is a multi religious, multi ethnic, multi tradition, multi racial country. Reams of newsprint have been expended to expose its infeasibility and the possible backlash from minority community in the heartland India should it be implemented. But no one has bothered to ponder on the likely implications for the North-East. If it ever sees the light of the day, then God forbid, for instance, the matrilineal tradition of the khasis of Meghalaya well may be on its way to extinction. Likewise, many of our practices sanctioned by customs and traditions may no longer stand in the courtrooms. Customary laws that we have held for centuries may have to give way to Uniform Civil Code. And it is anybody's guess that the BJP government with its penchant for rewriting history textbooks to suit its taste will also fashion the Uniform Civil Code in the image of (its brand of) Hindutva/Hinduism. It is just a euphemism for trapping the non-Hindus in a legal framework doctored by the dominant Hindus, a stick to flog the minorities to comply with the diktats of trishul wielding fundamentalists.

Not content with just destroying mosques and inciting communal flare-ups, the BJP is trying to restrict people's dieting tradition in the name of cow protection. Of course, cow is the sacred symbol of the Hindus (it is another matter though famished cows are left to scavenge on rotten garbage and left to die in the streets). But to enact a law that bans butchering of cows and thereby eating beef is a height of authoritarianism. It implies blatant lack of awareness for the sensibilities of the people of North-East, the Christians and the Muslims. It is this arrogant attitude to impose its will on the people of this country in utter disregard of their sensibilities that is unacceptable. Shall we--for that matter the BJP too- acquiesce if tomorrow the Muslims demand prohibition of eating pork because it is against their religious dogma? The issue here is about respecting others' customs and of tolerance. The BJP's ideology seems to tell us: tolerate us but we won't tolerate you no matter what. Tolerance is a word which is not in the dictionary of BJP.

The BJP is not only a nuisance in the mainland India, it is also beginning to impinge on our body polity and social fabric. It is a party that believes in dividing the society into fragments along religious and racial lines. The more I visualize about its likely role in the North-East should it come to power in these states, the more dreadful it becomes. Every tenet of its policy--conversion, Ram Rashtra, cow protection, temple building, etc., is a reminder it is a party that is hell bent on the destroying the pluralistic feature of our society. Slowly, but steadily it is nudging towards becoming an avatar of Hitler's Nazi party. Co-incidentally or otherwise, like Hitler, BJP too believes in purity of race and ancestry and in the supremacy of high caste. You and I may be the Jews.

The best way out of this spiral of hate based politics unleashed by the communal BJP is to stop it from setting up its shop in the North-East. This can be done only if the representatives of the region come under a common platform to carry forward a common agenda of co-existence and common good. By corollary, this also means shunning other national parties commandeered from Delhi. If the 18 MPs from the North-East pooled their resources together and exercise their collective political might, I sincerely believe they can play a major role in the national politics and decision making. Whatever pressure tactics that Chandra Babu Naidu with his MPs employs for the benefit of his state we can even better him a notch up by leveraging our lobby power. What counts in democracy is the numbers. 18 MPs is a significant number that can't be simply laughed away. More so, in the present era of coalition politics.

To begin with, there should be a concerted regional party movement in the North-East to ward off fascist party like BJP and family party like Congress in the initial stage and other National parties in the second phase. If we assume that all the elected MPs are from regional parties, they can hammer out a minimum common agenda for the North-East and form an alliance (not necessarily an electoral one) before they set foot on the Parliament. This alliance could be a great force to reckon with and may have the potential to change the political landscape at Delhi. This could well be the beginning of a new chapter not only for the North-East but also for North centric Indian political establishment. This is not a chimerical vision, but a reality that is within our grasp if our politicians have the will.

But first things first. Uproot BJP from the soil of North-East. While we are at it, other national parties should wait for their turn and count their remaining days.