Indian History & Sangh Parivar (Was: Medieval India)

[vidya]

> If the BJP has, as seems clear, developed its success through an
> strident exaserbation of communal differences that leads to the
> murderous and culturally disasterous results that we have seen, and if

The sad truth is that it is not just the BJP that is guilty of using
communal differences for its electoral gains. *Every* political party
in India, including the Congress has been doing it for a long time. 
It was Indira Gandhi who supported Bhindranwale in Punjab, to try to 
break up the Akali Dal. We all know how murderous and culturally 
disastrous the results were. 

> I donUt know enough of their economic politics to say whether or not
> they qualify as fascist.  IUd like to hear from those who do.

As far as one can see, there is no static economic policy that the BJP
espouses. For a long time, when the Congress was taking India in the 
socialist route, the BJP was for economic liberalization. They advocated
a free market with investment of foreign capital. Now that PVN Rao
has started the liberalization process, the BJP is using the word
Swadeshi as a slogan. "We want computer chips, not potato chips" is a
popular slogan nowadays. In other words, Sun Microsystems is welcome
but KFC is not. Things may change again if the BJP comes into power.
As pointed out earlier, most likely, political expediency will rule. 

S. Vidyasankar