Home Is Not Elsewhere

THE GOVERNMENT OF RAJASTHAN HAS SOME TRULY untranslatable documents. Not that the document is untrans­latable but its designation cannot really be rendered in the Eng­lish language. Even if there is a literal definition—a word-to-word translation—its essence, the irreplaceable logic behind its given name, and the purpose of its being—the substance—remain unexplained. And that substance can only be understood once the context of its creation is fully grasped. Since English in India is largely an urban usage, and linguistically a municipal creation, it cannot render some of these documents fully.

One such document can be referred to in English as, roughly, ‘original resi­dence certificate’. Which comes to mean place of origin, where the recipient began life, where the family roots lie. From where the person’s identity springs forth—geographical, cultural, spiritual, and of course as in this day and age, political. In the Rajasthan government’s officialise, the document is called Mul Nivas Patra, and would be the original residence letter. But as with most other things, the vernacular suggests a lot more than the translation, and this example is no different.

On April 12, 2024, at the enormous election rally in Barmer addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, I used this document as an example in my speech on returning to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Homecoming, ghar wapsi, has been used ad nauseam for so many different matters, including change of religion, so I distanced myself from it while speaking to the audi­ence. How can I be returning home when I have never left India, which is really what constitutes home, I said. And then added that the context of my return to BJP is best explained by the original residence document.

The sense of belonging can only be in the place of original residence, where the roots lie, where the years of growth have been spent in vibrancy and with vigour. There is no substitute for that period, and the same cannot be replicated elsewhere. Just as the sense of belonging cannot be recreated in another locale. At a public event some years ago in Ramsar, Barmer, when Moti Lal Maalu, the former sarpanch, referred to me amongst others as Congressi, I interjected and said that I may be in Congress but can never be a Congressi, for my identity cannot change.

Identity, of course, comes from origins, and even in the ruthless world of politics there is a sense, and space, of belonging. And this kinship comes from shared memories, of struggles, hardships and pleasures of participation in closeness and camaraderie that emanate from commonness. And this com­monness does not spring from clan, caste, class, or even from being country cousins. It comes from overriding all of these real-life Indian divisions, and yet accepting that this community is real and alive and enjoys a bond of belonging because of a shared sense of ideological origins. Those are always unchangeable.

The ideological part is key to identity and ex­udes the sense of belonging from its certainties. For even in this era of cynical politics, and the skulduggery that it has generated, there is still a belief in certain principles that differentiate one political party from another. So then why leave, and why the entry into another that is clearly not connected ideologically? It is not too difficult to address this fundamental political contradiction, but a case of grasping the nature of power as it is understood in this era of new technologies and the resulting images.

I was first tested in 2009 when my father, the founder secretary of BJP, was expelled for writing a political biography of Muhammad Ali Jinnah by those who hadn’t read the book at the time. Even as he remained outside BJP, I continued to be a committed member, per­forming all allotted organisational tasks. There was much explaining to do among the public, as well as within the higher echelons of the party. I did not have any hesitation in explain­ing it, on account of my sense of belonging to a system of belief that I grew into consciously and intellectually.

Since the disintegration and demise of the Swatantra Party, there has been a need in India for a truly democratic domestic conservative movement that captured the essence of a na­tivistic identity which is respectful of values that define Indian nationhood. A truly Indian version of a European Christian Democratic rather than a classist British Conservative Party. BJP emerged as the best option over a period of many years, so it was easy and natural to gravi­tate towards it. Social, family-based conserva­tism and economic liberalism were practised with aplomb, even as some tried sectarian-tinted conservative politics.

The goalposts were shifted when BJP won a highly predictable landslide to the Rajasthan Assembly in 2013. As the party in-charge of two districts, and a contestant from two more, I was deeply involved in 20 seats and could see the overwhelming support coming BJP’s way. Hope was flooding the countryside from Gujarat, but the atomisation of power in Jaipur was such that interpreta­tions went unchallenged far and beyond. Varying political calculations be­came the norm at the power centre in Jaipur and post-parliamentary election scenarios came to be imagined. A conspiratorial mind is fertile soil for machinations.

So father once again fell victim to an imagined threat, this time from Jai­pur, and was denied a nomination to contest his last Lok Sabha election. Soon thereafter he fell, and to never regain mobility or communication. It was an extremely trying time to serve an Assembly constituency as a legislator and to also serve him in his hour of need. In the midst of all this, conspiracies from Jaipur never ceased and even culminated in a trespass case registered against me for clearing agricultural land registered in my father’s name. The police report used a different plot number.

Atomisation of power in Jaipur was such that no one was willing to help or even speak up. Sympathy was expressed, but in whispers. Personality had become bigger than ideological affiliation, or bonding, and the political space continued to shrink. Rahul Gandhi very kindly offered an outlet and, left with no option other than finding breathing space, I accepted his hand of support. Not being a natural Congressman I remained dependant on support from him and his mother who remained very kind. There were local sharks, however, clearly uneasy with this proximity and my dependence was exploited for their goals.

Communication with home always remains, under all circumstances. So when Bhajan Lal Sharma became chief minister of Rajasthan, the sense of joy and relief was, and remains, palpable in many homes across many districts. Karma, as they say, catches up with the culprit and consequences come in many shades, shapes, and clears accounts with a cold-bloodedness which is visible to all. So it happened in Jaipur last December, just as ruthlessly as vindictiveness had earlier befallen people like me. Change towards an original, and untainted at that, made it easy to re-enter the original place of residence.

2025 New Year IssueBhajan Lal SharmaJaswant SinghManvendra SinghNarendra ModipoliticsRajasthan