Politically divine

BJP, after 25 years of its formation and under a new president, still has a long way to go before it can become a real and committed Hindutva formation
John Philip Delhi

Over a year ago, in the last week of November 2004 to be precise, Lal Krishna Advani, the then president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had described his own political organisation with a statement that had apparent irrational dimensions. The statement made while addressing the party's national executive meet held in Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, was that 'the BJP is really the Chosen Instrument of the Divine to take our country out of its present problems and to lofty heights of all-round achievements.' Being part of the Hindutva ideological conglomeration, the leadership of the BJP as well as its associates in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) led Sangh Parivar would have had more believers in the 'divine' than in other political outfits, but even then Advani's invocation of celestial elements was seen as rather far-fetched.

 In such a context, the statement was explained away by BJP insiders in a more practical manner. They perceived the extraordinary formulation to be the result of certain organisational challenges that Advani was facing within the BJP and the larger Sangh Parivar. His problems with the RSS, which accused the former deputy prime minister of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) of having presided over the ideological and organisational deviation and deterioration of the political arm of the Sangh Parivar, were growing in proportion at that time and the divine invocation was considered to be an offering of truce to the 'spiritually inclined' RSS top brass.

As later events proved, the truce offering with 'divine elements' was not particularly helpful to Advani. In a span of one year, his problems with Sangh Parivar's principal commandants intensified and they virtually threw him out of the leadership of the BJP. But after Advani's demission of office and Rajnath Singh's ascent as BJP president, both acts orchestrated by the RSS top brass, and after BJP's silver jubilee conference in Mumbai during the last week of 2005, the depiction of the party as the 'chosen instrument of the divine' seems to be acquiring an altogether new meaning. In the words of some ardent supporters of the new party president, the statement is steadily gaining in relevance.

Almost all political events of national import that have unfolded in the first four weeks of Rajnath Singh's tenure as BJP president have had one common streak; they have all helped the BJP and its political platform as the principal opposition party. In fact, it has been a seemingly unending series of favourable developments since Rajnath Singh's takeover, starting with the unexpected revival of the Bofors corruption scam, followed by the crisis in the Congress-led coalition government in Karnataka and leading to the supreme court verdict against Bihar's governor, Buta Singh.

Notably, every one of these issues was a gift from the ruling dispensation, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Not one of these issues had come to light on account of proactive political-ideological manoeuvres of the BJP. The political acumen or organisational skills of Rajnath Singh or his (yet to be rustled up) team was not actually tested on any of these issues. It was as though political advantage and space for campaign were being offered on a platter to the BJP under the new president.

Qualitatively, the impact of the campaign was such that, for the first time since the UPA government came to power, the BJP and its associates in the NDA were able to raise doubts about the credentials of prime minister 'Mr Clean' Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson 'Ms Sacrifice' Sonia Gandhi. The queries on character against the big two of the UPA were most prominently raised in connection with the revival of the Bofors scandal.

The revival, which happened with the revelations on the country's additional solicitor general B Dutta’s visit to the United Kingdom and the office of the crown prosecution service (CPS) of Britain to de-freeze two bank accounts of Ottavio Quattrocchi, Italian businessman and close family associate of Sonia Gandhi, was also characterised by a number of transparently imperfect political and administrative responses from the leadership of the government as well as the Congress. In totality, the responses exposed the hollowness of the protestations of innocence by Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi and, in the process, compromised the credibility of the country's premier investigating agency, the central bureau of investigation (CBI).

If the gift of revival of the Bofors scandal was made possible through the UPA's administrative misdemeanours, the story of advantage BJP in Karnataka was created through political indiscretions of the Congress. The traditional big brother attitude of the Congress had been on display in the south Indian state for the last few months and this attitude was becoming increasingly detested by coalition partner Janata Dal (Socialist) (JD (S)). Large sections of the JD (S) including its supreme leader HD Deve Gowda and son Kumaraswamy had the limited perspective of occupying positions of power with comfort and that finally drove them to the BJP.

This was indeed a big gain for the BJP because it was getting close to power for the first time in a south Indian state and was virtually shedding the tag of being north Indian political phenomenon. The BJP was quick to offer JD (S) the chief minister's position though the BJP had the bigger share of MLAs, essentially on account of the geographical dimension to the political gain. The 'junior first' policy also fit in with its time-tested strategy of piggyback riding on secular parties for first strike in not-so-favourable political circumstances. The BJP had adopted and successfully advanced similar strategies in states like Gujarat and Rajasthan ultimately making long-term gains in both states.

The verdict against Governor Buta Singh castigating him for the manner in which president's rule was imposed in Bihar after the February 2005 elections has added to the advantages gained through the Quattrocchi affair and the Karnataka crisis. Obviously, Rajnath Singh's ascent has brought good omen, if not good times to the BJP. The most important question, however, is whether these gains are good enough to bring the ideological clarity and organisational discipline that RSS has found wanting in the BJP for sometime now.

There are no positive signs for or from Rajnath Singh during the early days of tenure. On the contrary, the games of one-up-man-ship that characterised the second generation of the BJP leadership: Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu et al., caught up with Rajnath Singh during these early days. Arun Jaitley 'took the liberty' of announcing a nationwide agitation on the Quattrocchi affair without consulting the new president and Rajnath Singh promptly refused to partake in the inauguration of the agitation.

In his home state of Uttar Pradesh, senior leaders including former chief minister, Kalyan Singh, and Lalji Tandon are cocking a snook at their former colleague in the state. Kalyan Singh flatly refused to continue the 'Nyay Yatra', an agit-prop of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar against the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government in the state, which was originally started by Rajnath Singh before being elevated as national president. Tandon took part in a reception accorded to expelled BJP leader Uma Bharati and wished her well in life. The relatively long time that Rajnath Singh has taken to finalise his team is also a consequence of these inner-party games.

Of course, these games have not descended to the levels that one saw in the run-up to the silver jubilee conference and during its conduct. The individualistic games and power play between various sections of the party were of such dimensions then that all tricks in the trade, including openly castigating one another and surreptitious circulation of sex CDs allegedly involving Sanjay Joshi , the RSS organising secretary in the Advani-led BJP, were resorted to. But then one cannot be sure that the dejection felt by Kalyan Singh or Lalji Tandon or even Arun Jaitley would not descend to the same sordid levels again.

The long and short of all this is obvious. The BJP under Rajnath Singh may be making gains in the realm of realpolitik, but that has not automatically resulted in doing away with or even controlling devious realpolitik games within the party. The basic motive of the RSS in bringing up Rajnath Singh is to address the latter issues, so that the BJP becomes a 'committed and real Hindutva party'. No doubt, there is a long way to go.