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An unintended consequence of the country's drift to a
market-friendly economic regime is that it has forced the political
class to acknowledge the obsolescence of existing terms of
discourse. With the state climbing down from the "commanding
heights" of the economy and yielding ground to private initiative
and entrepreneurship, it is increasingly making less and less sense
to address economic issues in the language of the Second Five Year
Plan. The transition is, of course, far from complete, but with
Manmohan Singh, P. Chidambaram and even Jaswant Singh, a beginning
has been made.
Unfortunately, this shift is yet to be echoed in the realm of pure
politics. In the debates over the 13-day Government of Atal Behari
Vajpayee and the subsequent election of H. D. Deve Gowda as Prime
Minister, secularism and Hindutva became central concerns. The BJP
was mercilessly attacked for its larger political philosophy, while
the United Front was ridiculed for its allegedly unprincipled
post-election arrangements.
With the formation of the BSP-BJP coalition Government in Uttar
Pradesh, the boot is on the other foot. Mulayam Singh Yadav,
Sitaram Kesri and the Left leaders have attacked this post-election
arrangement in exactly the same language that the BJP used to decry
the UF nine months earlier. Reporters who attended the joint press
conference of the BJP and BSP in Parliament House Annexe last
Wednesday are of the view that L. IC Advani looked visibly awkward
while countering accusations of opportunism, ideological
incompatibility, etc.
If true, Advani's discomfiture is understandable. In the pursuit of
power, political parties love climbing the high moral ground and
most so the BJP. Ever since the formation of the Jana Sangh in
1951, the sangh parivar has perceived itself as practising the
politics of principle and purity. "We have to show", said Pandit
Deendayal Upadhyaya in his address to the Vijaywada session of the
Jana Sangh in 1965, "that Jana Sangh is different from other
parties. There is no dearth of parties in our country which give
up principles for achieving power. We also, most certainly, aspire
for power ... but our aim is even beyond it".
In his book RSS: A Vision In Action, H. V. Seshadri narrates
Deendayal's response to demands by Jana Sangh supporters to engage
in extra-legal election management during the Jaunpur by-election
of 1963. "We in the Jana Sangh", Deendayal is reported to have
told party workers, "look upon politics as an instrument for social
transformation. I would prefer even losing my deposit to indulging
in the sin of such corrupt practices". Deendayal lost that
election, but his unflinching moral absolutism has been echoed over
the years by his disciples, so much so that it has become part of
the BJP's self-image. Which probably explains why there is
considerable soul-searching within the party over its
"Congressisation" and why Advani felt ill at ease explaining the
rationale behind the alliance of expediency in UP.
In a sense, this is not a problem confined to the BJP, although
being a middle class party it suffers more acutely than others.
Thanks to the Gandhian legacy of viewing public life as a
sacrifice, the Indian middle classes have shown a marked reluctance
to accept competitive politics for what it is: a quest for power.
Whereas mainstream political parties in most democracies tailor
their policies and objectives to a single-minded search for the
most effective route to power (mediated, of course, by the rules of
the game), India has shown a remarkable penchant for obfuscation
and woolliness. By positing politics as an extension of asceticism
and penance, and then violating these norms recklessly, the
political class has ended up undemanding democracy itself. It is no
accident that the middle class folk heroes of the decade are T. N.
Seshan, Anna Hazare and sundry metropolitan magistrates. They
signalled their moment of triumph by delivering well-aimed blows at
the political class.
Unfortunately, civic activism has demonstrated an inclination to
end up as blind, anti-political nihilism. There is concern over the
state of public life, particularly the criminalisation of politics,
but the response to the problem has been pedestrian. Well-meaning
individuals in Rotary clubs have preferred simple-minded solutions
by expressing their preference for upright, untainted candidates
over what one columnist has described as the "bent and the
beautiful". This is a small step in the right direction. But
experience suggests that good, noble souls are either clueless
about the complexities of modem politics - the BJP and the CPI(M)
have a surfeit of such individuals - or completely ineffective.
Charan Singh used to describe them as cows who graze on their own,
cause no bother and yield no milk.
The issue has been wrongly presented as a moral problem. Of
course, it is a moral problem when a person such as Sukh Ram is
found concealing crores of rupees in cash under his mattress. But
it is not a moral problem when the BJP teams up with the BSP to
form a Government in UP and it is not a moral problem when the
Communists vote grudgingly in favour of Chidambaram's
market-oriented Budget. In settled democracies, politics is not
about making revolution. That is best left to Albania and
Afghanistan. Politics is the art of the possible. Which means
complementing political power with the force of ideas and skills of
management. The political system has been found wanting in both
these departments.
Perhaps this is the reason why the BSP's unabashed opportunism
comes as a breath of fresh air. Kanshi Ram may champion sectarian
and divisive currents. But he is one of the few politicians who has
a definite agenda and is ruthless in using political power to
pursue it. It matters little to him whether the ally in Punjab is
the Akali Dal (Badal) for the Lok Sabha election and the Akali Dal
(Mann) for the Assembly election, or whether the friend in UP is
the Samajwadi Party yesterday, the BJP today and someone else
tomorrow. He may lack in idealism, but is never found wanting in
ideas. Apart from the BJP, his is the greatest political success
story of the past decade.
Conventional wisdom decrees that India has entered the era of
coalition politics. In this era what win count is not principled
intransigence, but nimble footwork backed up by a reservoir of
ideas. Advani should take heart from UP. The BJP has lost its
innocence; it may gain in maturity. It may even acquire the
flexibility to win power.
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