I don't think BJP stands for India's unity. Just look at its state allies
The politics of branding is the key to long-term success of any political party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has identified well with the idea of Hindutva nationalism. The party's concept of nationalism was an extension of the old Jana Sangh formula of Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan. But the concepts of nationalism and Hinduism have become merely political footballs under the rule of NDA-II.
Any perceived inconsistency in the core vision, political or economic, can erode a party's brand and its voter base, apart from resulting in a cynical and disengaged electorate.
Interestingly, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been trying to identify BJP with nationalism, the alliances forged by the party in various states prove otherwise.
Serious threats to national unity accompanied by the growth of separatist forces and fundamentalist ideas among the minority communities in Punjab, Kashmir and in the Northeast have emerged as the most serious challenges to national unity since independence.
The BJP and the Hindutva forces have responded to these threats and uprisings with an iron fist. The BJP had harped on nationalism against the backdrop of the ongoing unrest in Kashmir. Its 2014 election campaign in Kashmir was known as Mission 44, since, for the first time BJP was projecting itself as an alternative to the regional parties in the Valley.
The Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party, popularly known as PDP, a party favouring self rule, on the other hand, projected itself as the only viable alternative in Kashmir. The election results threw a hung Assembly with PDP as the single-largest party. The newly elected Kashmir government in 2014 was a coalition of BJP, a party that favours India's possession of Kashmir, and PDP, a party seeking independence for the state.
Separatism and fundamentalism have proved to be the evils around which the BJP could mobilise its forces.
In 2016 West Bengal elections, the BJP contested on 291 seats along with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM). According to its political manifesto, GJM's sole agenda is to establish a separate state for the Gorkhas in India.
Though the BJP-GJM alliance could bag only six seats, this alliance again stood as a contradiction to BJP's nationalism. In the same year, despite enjoying a majority in Assam, the BJP continued to keep Bodoland People's Front, another organisation demanding that Bodoland be carved out of Assam, in its fold.
The Akali Dal, another religious Sikhs-dominated political party active in Punjab, demanded creation of a Punjabi Suba (Punjabi province) are also a part of the NDA alliance. What needs to be acknowledged is that any step taken by the BJP in gaining support or influencing masses in favour of development is a step towards Hindutva, disunity and disintegration of India. The more the BJP rants in favour of Hindu communal forces, the more the sectarian elements among the minority communities get active. Both these communal forces feed and nurture each other. The result is nothing but damage to Indian unity and a fertile ground for all kinds of divisive forces.
The BJP has contradicted its nationalism project once again after contesting with the separatist parties such as the Naga Peoples Front in Nagaland and Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) in Tripura.
The IPFT allegedly has links with the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), which is a militant organisation with an estimated 550 to 850 members and operates from Bangladesh. The NLFT seeks secession from India and has been an active participant in the insurgency in Northeast. The NLFT manifesto says the outfit wants to expand what they describe as the Kingdom of God and Jesus Christ in Tripura. The government of India has declared NLFT a militant organisation.
The Left Front was also offered support by Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT), another tribal separatist party, but it didn't compromise on its ideology. By befriending "separatist" outfits and "extremist organisations" to defeat the Left Front in Tripura, the BJP has contradicted its own objective and propaganda of nationalism.
On one hand, while BJP leaders are rallying support for nationalism, branding people who refuse to say "Bharat Mata ki Jai" as anti-nationals, on the other hand, in states such as Tripura, the party is forging alliances with extremist organisations that were formed around the demand for separation from Indian.
The BJP's standpoint on the vital question of national unity lies exposed. It actually practises pseudo-nationalism under the garb of Indian unity. The BJP has to be questioned for its communal ideology and politics.