HVK Archives: Not a smooth run for BJP; and a response
Not a smooth run for BJP; and a response - Indian Express
Amulya Ganguli
()
5 September 1996
Title : Not a smooth run for BJP
Author : Amulya Ganguli
Publication : Indian Express
Date : September 5, 1996
BY its own admission, the BJP's central leadership opted
for a compromise last year to defuse the factional
squabble in the party's Gujarat unit because it did not
want a split on the eve of the general election. As L.
K. Advani has explained, the Congress was contesting the
election on the plank of stability and it would not have
helped the BJP's prospects if its "model" government in
Gujarat had collapsed.
What is noteworthy about this episode is the element of
dissimulation involved in the settlements Clearly, the
BJP's central leadership was play-acting when it revoked
Shankarsinh Vaghela's suspension, removed Keshubhai Patel
from the chief minister's post and pretended that all was
well. It has also to be noted that the person sent to
Gujarat to carry out this act of deception was none other
than the celebrated poet and orator, Atal Behari
Vajpayee, who is said to represent the BJP's "human
face".
Evidently, the 13-day prime minister's moderate image is
used by the sangh parivar not only to deceive the Indian
public with promises to freeze all contentious topics on
the parivar's agenda like abrogation of Article 370,
construction of the Ayodhya temple, introduction of a
uniform civil code and so on, but also to charm the BJP's
own dissidents into submission. There is little doubt
that the man is worth his weight in gold, or bricks with
Ram inscribed on them. For not only have sections of the
Indian public been deeply impressed by his promise not to
make a distinction on the basis of caste, region or
religion, but even the Gujarat rebels, including Vaghela,
who have been in the party for many years and must be
accustomed to its less than straightforward ways, had
little hesitation in reposing their trust in him.
They are regretting it now, of course, and describing the
poet-orator as a blind Dhritarashtra who was helpless in
the matter of saving the honour of the minister who was
disrobed like Draupadi and subjected to other
indignities. There is a trick involved in this posture
as well, for the Vaghela group apparently does not want
completely to alienate Vajpayee and probably hopes to
drive a wedge between the moderate leader and the
hard liners in the party. But whether they succeed or
not, Vajpayee's utility to the parivar as a mediator has
suffered a serious setback. The game of deception can be
played only once. So the next time Vajpayee is wheeled
out to project a kinder, gentler face to the outside
world, few will believe him.
In a way, this is the inevitable fate of all moderates in
an extremist party. The latter may use them on certain
occasions and even project one of their representatives
as a frontline leader while the hardliners huddle in the
background, out of the public But the moderates have no
determining influence on the party. Only the politically
naive can believe, therefore, that the moderates in the
BJP should be encouraged so that they can help the party
to shed its angularities. The moderates cannot but play a
subsidiary and deceptive role in a hardline outfit, to be
pushed aside when the time comes for it to reveal its
true face.
The Gujarat rebels have now seen the BJP's true face and
are on the warpath. But the BJP may wonder whether it
chose the right moment to crack the whip against them.
The political embarrassment of a split before the general
election may have been avoided, but the rupture has taken
place just before another crucial election - that in UP.
A setback there, such as being unable to secure a
majority in the Legislative Assembly, can be no less
demoralising. The BJP presumed that it would have an
easy run in view of the expected division of the non-BJP
votes between the BSP-Congress alliance and the Samajwadi
Party. But two new developments have complicated the
situation.
One is the Vaghela factor. Like a betrayed wife, the
Gujarat leader is likely to play the backward caste card
with a vengeance, thereby widening the backward forward
divide that is very much in evidence in the BJP's UP
unit. The other is the Shiv Sena factor. As the
election day approaches, it will become increasingly
clear that the BJP has been unable to provide a stable
government not only in Gujarat, but also in Maharashtra,
the two States where the Hindu brigade's electoral
victories in 1995 had given advance warning about the
Congress's downfall.
What is significant is that in both the States, the BJP's
discomfiture is not the result of any dramatic
improvement in its opponents' position, but due to its
own internal problems. While the Gujarat factionalism
resembles the familiar Congress disease, the strains in
the relationship between the Shiv Sena and the BJP in
Maharashtra have lessons for all votaries of ultra-
rightist politics.
For a start, they show that a shared antipathy towards
the Muslims is not enough of a binding force. They also
show that even an increase in a coalition's popularity
does not ensure its cohesion. Although the Shiv Sena-BJP
alliance secured a higher percentage of votes in 1996
than in 1995, the two are drifting apart. The reason
goes beyond what usually undermines an opportunistic
alliance - individual greed and ambition, although these
are also present in full measure. But there is something
more which is disrupting the Maharashtra combination. It
is the fact that Bal Thackeray's outfit is not a normal
political party. Its rise to power has also been along
routes not usually followed by a political party.
It is customary for a party to establish itself slowly
through the acceptance of its ideology and its social
work. The rough and ready methods and protection rackets
come later, and are either discarded or disowned once
their baneful electoral effects become evident. In the
Shiv Sena's case, since the lumpen elements have always
been in the forefront, the process has been reversed,
apart from the fact that its ideology - if it can be
called that - has changed with the requirements of the
time from a purely local, sons of-the-soil bias to the
present one. The Shiv Sena has also been unable to
change its heavy-handed style of functioning, probably
the only one it knows.
The result is an embarrassment for the BJP which is
unable to accept the Shiv Sena's recent landing of a
Hindu underworld don and other such acts of indiscretion.
In the BJP's view, the tie-up with the Shiv Sena is a
morganatic affair which has to be generally kept under
wraps. But the latter resents such a superior attitude
and is determined to show that it is no less respectable
an organisation than the BJP. Hence, the proposal to
join the Federal Front. If the BJP can woo these
parties, why not the Shiv Sena?
The fallout of such wrangles on the UP contest cannot be
gainful for the Hindutva lobby. It is the avowed
objective of both Vaghela and Bal Thackeray that the BJP
does not become stronger than it is. In this, their aim
is no different from that of the secularists. It is a
development the latter will regard with satisfaction.
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Response
Vinod Pawar
131, Kaivalyadham,
Dr M B Raut Marg,
Mumbai 400 028.
September 5, 1996
Dear Sir,
This has reference to "Not a smooth run for BJP" by Shri Amulya
Ganguli. He says, "The moderates cannot but play a subsidiary and
deceptive role in a hardline outfit (read the BJP), to be pushed aside
when the time comes for it to reveal its true face." In the next
sentence he says, "The Gujarat rebels have now seen the BJP's true
face and are on the warpath."
It is clear that Shri Ganguli would like the readers to believe that the
Gujarat rebels have a moral position on the basis of which they are
conducting their campaign. If he thinks that he can get away with
such a brazen statement, then it is clear that he thinks very little of
the intelligence of the reader - in fact he is insulting them. Shri
Ganguli has his own agenda - that is to try and sully the image of the
Sangh parivar. He is free to do this, but let him remember that the
publication that he writes for claims that the truth involves us all.
Yours sincerely,
(Vinod Pawar)
The Editor,
The Indian Express
Express Towers,
Nariman Point,
Mumbai 400 021.
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