BJP aspires for sobriety and respectability, reaches out to audience who shunned saffron

Burning Ambition: Vajpayee at a havan before filing his nomination from LucknowAtal Bihari Vajpayee could be striving for the impossible. Trying to keep Bhagwan, Allah and Christ happy. Last Tuesday, when he filed his nomination from Lucknow, he had a traditional Hindu havan; visited the Christian College where he released a version of the New Testament in the Avadhi dialect; made a thundering speech declaring that "my religion may be different but mydharmais the same"; and ended his day at an Iftar attended by several of the city's Muslim notables. A typical day in the life of a politician whom the BJP would have described as a "pseudo-secularist".But that was in the old days.In the new-look BJP, smartened up for the polls, leaders are not just attending Iftars, they are even hosting them. And so what if the fare is vegetablepakorasinstead of the mandatory kebabs? Some, like Vajpayee, are even photographed wearing Muslim prayer caps. A complete turnaround for a party that stormed the national stage by bringing down a mosque that unleashed a wave of communal madness five years ago.That too was in the old days.Today's BJP aspires to be the epitome of sobriety and respectability. It is trying to reach out to an audience that has hitherto shunned saffron. It is telling disoriented floating voters that it is the only voice of sanity in the din of fractious coalitions. That the "ability" to bring "stability" is vested in Vajpayee, a man perceived as a moderate despite a life-long association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).It is intriguing that a section of the BJP sees Vajpayee as a mukhauta (mask), a Pope without divisions.The BJP has posited its most amiable face for Election '98. The only problem is that a section of the party itself has suggested that the face is merely a mask. This is perhaps the most intriguing contradiction that confronts the voter. On the one hand there is Vajpayee's undeniable cross-party appeal, his formidable parliamentary experience and his dizzying mass appeal. On the other is the niggling doubt: is Vajpayee and the new-look, moderate, responsible BJP for real? Or is it just an expedient cover for a communal agenda set by some high priests in Nagpur? A master strategy to wrest power under false pretences?Vajpayee himself rubbishes all suggestions of the RSS being the puppeteer: "It is ridiculous to say that the RSS will remote-control a BJP government. The RSS has views of its own. The BJP has views of its own. And the BJP is changing, adjusting to a more real situation." He echoes the assertion of RSS chief Rajendra Singh that "they have their programmes and priorities, we have ours". At the same time, the RSS chief insists on the importance of having "our friends in politics" in view of the bans and controversies that have dogged the brotherhood. No wonder the dreaded R-word continues to haunt Vajpayee.As he traverses India making meaningful speeches about swasthya, shiksha and suraksha (health, education and security), he is pestered by the familiar questions: what about the Ram temple in Ayodhya? Uniform Civil Code? Hindu Rashtra? Periodically, they even irritate him with queries about Kashi and Mathura.It is an awkward predicament. The BJP can never abandon the Ram mandir plank that contributed to its great electoral leap forward in 1991. Yet, it is a touchy issue to raise at a time when the party has tied up disparate alliances and may even be seeking more allies after the election results are announced. Vajpayee himself has effected a subtle change in tack and says it is no longer necessary for a BJP government to enact legislation to build a temple at Ayodhya. "We will resolve the issue through dialogue - the same way we resolved the Azadari dispute between the Shias and Sunnis of Lucknow. A law will not be needed." He is speaking the language of conciliation and compromise..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}L . K . ADVANI: Party ManMaster of agitational politics. Acute analytical mind. Shrewd strategist.Sees RSS as a moral authority and has full backing of the party.Formidable control over party organisation. Has groomed the second-rung leadership.Believes Hindutva is the ideological mascot.Sees Ayodhya movement as an important political intervention.Free marketeer by instinct but yields to swadeshi pressures.Interacts with every level of party functionary.One of the most energetic political campaigners.Wrings his hands in awkward situations.Vegetarian, with spartan culinary taste.Voracious reader and Hindi film buff.Pores over the fine print in the English language press. Sensitive to personal criticism.BJP General Secretary Kushabhau Thakre puts a different spin on the issue. "Can anyone think about India without Ram?" he asks, adding, "We can only implement our ideology if we have the strength to do so. Yeh sab hamara karyakram hai, lekin shakti nahin hai (All this is on our agenda but we lack the strength to pursue them)." This is a euphemism for saying that ideology will not be jettisoned. Just kept on hold.Another general secretary K.N. Govindacharya, loaned to the BJP by the RSS, has his own interpretation of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's suggestion that a national monument be built at Ayodhya. The only monument that Thackeray could be referring to, declared Govindacharya on national television, "is a glorious temple dedicated to Lord Ram". He too was reaffirming ideology. Four years ago, Advani laid down the line. Hindutva, he said, is the BJP's "ideological mascot". If Vajpayee often comes across as different, it is because he perceives politics as an art of the possible. Despite his own quiet corporate loyalty to the Sangh Parivar - he enjoys a fantastic rapport with the RSS chief - many of the RSS pracharaks in the BJP are not among his favourite people. As one of the most skilled practitioners of parliamentary politics, he has little time for those who are in public life without the ability to win elections. He is more comfortable with the likes of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Jaswant Singh and, increasingly, Kalyan Singh and Pramod Mahajan. The cumulative effect of his prolonged back-seat role in the party between 1984 and 1994 shows.Predictably, Vajpayee dismisses suggestions of being somewhat of an outsider - the BJP's mukhauta (mask), a Pope without divisions: "I must be enjoying the full confidence of the party or else I would never have been bestowed the highest honour of being the prime ministerial candidate." Yet, there is no doubt that in the saffron index of political correctness, Vajpayee does not come out tops. Sadhvi Rithambara, the venom-spewing relic from the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, described him as "half a Congressman" and Vishwa Hindu Parishad chief Ashok Singhal is barely on talking terms with him. Not that Vajpayee is bereft of humour when it comes to imagined or real slights: members of his inner circle recall him privately referring to Govindacharya as "Rajneeshacharya" in one humorous aside, and in another instance genuinely forgetting his name and calling him "Dronacharya". HOME TURF: In his constituency Lucknow, Vajpayee has Kalyan at hand for the rallyThe Advani-Vajpayee relationship is more complex. On the one hand, there is the mutual respect based on long-standing friendship and association. Advani masterfully handles organisational matters - something Vajpayee is impatient with. Yet, the question of who is more powerful remains unanswered.Advani because he has the full party and RSS backing? Or Vajpayee because he has greater mass support? At the national executive meeting in Bhubaneswar last December, Vajpayee, in his traditional closing address, indicated that if Advani wanted to coordinate the election campaign purposefully, he could consider entering Parliament through the Rajya Sabha. However, he changed his mind when it became apparent that Advani, contesting from Gandhinagar, would boost the BJP's prospects in Gujarat. But it is still not clear whether Advani will be relevant in any future Vajpayee government - despite his stated willingness to serve in it-or will position himself on the outside as the BJP's conscience-keeper.In the event of a Vajpayee administration running into problems, will Ad-vani show his true colours and lead another devastating and diversionary rath yatra? Or look for easy scapegoats? Paradoxically, it is Advani who best identifies the current state of the BJP: "the transformation of an ideological movement to a mass-based party". That is why there are hiccups at every stage. Take the recent agonising over the party's manifesto. While a manifesto may be so much waste paper for most political parties, every small nuance is pored over in the BJP.The party's attempt to be more pragmatic on the economic front is revealing. Former party president and swadeshi hardliner Murli Manohar Joshi was the person most involved in drafting the sections on the economy in the 1996 manifesto. This time, though a formal member of the manifesto committee, Joshi distanced himself from the exercise and merely attended the final meeting last week. A valiant attempt was made to appear more pragmatic, particularly on the question of foreign direct investment and the membership of the World Trade Organisation, but the swadeshi inheritance still shows in the final draft. There is an unstated tussle in the BJP between those like Jaswant Singh and Pramod Mahajan who prefer a greater market-friendly tilt - but with a bias towards domestic entrepreneurs - and those like Joshi and Govindacharya who are swayed by ideological considerations. Advani plays a delicate balancing act while Vajpayee's heart is not really in economics.ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE: Mass LeaderMost at home in parliamentary politics. Accomplished orator. Uses instinct to guide decisions.Uncomfortable with RSS' political diktats. But enjoys the confidence of Rajju Bhaiyya.Has little inclination for party nitty-gritty. At times forgets the names of BJP functionaries.Prefers Bharatiyata (Indianness) to Hindutva.Believes a political party should stay away from overtly religious issues. Once said "BJP is not a dharam sansad".Has little interest in economics. Prefers foreign affairs and defence-related matters.Prefers the company of a small circle of very close friends.In difficult moments shuts eyes and hopes problem will go away.Loves a good Chinese meal.Writes poetry, loves children.Is concerned with his projection in the Hindi press. Also sensitive to personal criticism.One of the more interesting sidelights of the present manifesto is the usage of the UNDP's human-development index, increasingly being accepted the world over as a more accurate measure of poverty than the traditional methods. The idea reportedly came from Advani who recently read a study by Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze. An indicator of the BJP leadership's ability to have an open mind? Likewise, scientist M.G.K. Menon, a new convert to the cause, was entrusted with the responsibility of drafting the sections on science and infrastructure in the manifesto.But most of the change is being forced by circumstances - living with allies, many of whom have completely different backgrounds, orientations and ideologies. The BJP has deferred the vexed question of a Common Minimum Programme (CMP) with its allies till after the elections. This is obviously an attempt to preserve its ideological core and simultaneously soft pedal on those issues it does not have the numerical strength to push through its agenda. Vajpayee sums up the complexities of the exercise: "There is no question of diluting ideology. But in the case of a CMP being necessary, all the parties will have to give up something.It is the controversial issues that are always left out." In the case of the BJP, these remain Ram mandir, Uniform Civil Code and Article 370. The President's address in May 1996 during Vajpayee's 13-day term raised none of these issues. Only cow protection found a feeble mention. Some allies are looking to this address as an indicator of what Vajpayee's CMP could consist of. But most BJP leaders admit in private, "Our position will be determined by our strength."The BJP can afford to be assertive at this point as there is a feeling that ultimately the party has to bank on its traditional strongholds, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Maharashtra and Gujarat, to give it the six per cent swing needed for outright victory. That is why Vajpayee recently told a Lucknow audience to "give us 65 to 70 seats from Uttar Pradesh and we will give you stability in Delhi". Indeed, some of the hype over new alliances could be exaggerated, a reason why the BJP is itself contesting 378 seats.The changes are being forced by expediency-living with partners who have very little in common with the party.Advani has all along stressed that alliances are largely of "psychological" importance, showing the party is no longer untouchable. But the tie-ups with the Samata Party in Bihar, the Akali Dal in Punjab and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra remain central to all calculations at a time when the incumbency factor could go against the party in Rajasthan.However, the BJP has already shown a far greater flexibility than it was ever credited with having. The more things change in the BJP, the more they remain the same. The umbilical cord to the RSS refuses to be cut. The "communal" tag refuses to come off. Vajpayee denies any deviousness in the party projecting a moderate face and tries to brush off the past by saying that "sometimes circumstances may have forced us to take a hard line. But the BJPhas always been a moderate party".The sceptics remain. Says historian Bipan Chandra: "Anyone who asks if the BJP is changing should phrase it differently. Since it is the political wing of the RSS, is the mother organisation changing? Why don't you attend an RSS shakha (camp) and hear what they preach there?" This is echoed by the left-wing cultural organisation SAHMAT in Delhi which has roped in intellectuals to alert people to the BJP's "true agenda". The only problem is that this alarmist view doesn't take into account the RSS' diminishing appeal in a rapidly-changing society. There are one million active RSS members, but the BJP's clout is far greater. If Vajpayee has his way, the story could even end in the tail wagging the dog.Given the RSS' diminishing appeal, the BJP under Vajpayee could end up as the tail wagging the dog.When the BJP was formed in Mumbai in 1980 in the wake of the "dual membership" controversy that brought down the Morarji Desai government, Vajpayee's presidential address played down the RSS and Jan Sangh connection and instead focused on the legacy of Jayaprakash Narayan.After the 1984 debacle, when the party was reduced to two seats in the Lok Sabha and Vajpayee himself suffered a humiliating defeat, the party returned to basics and rebuilt its core support by playing the Hindu card. That phase ended in 1993 after the defeat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election when the party realised that stridency could fetch no further electoral returns. The calculated search for incremental votes and allies began and is likely to reach its climax next month. In 1980, Vajpayee's vision of the BJP was way ahead of the times. Now, 18 years later, that experiment is at its most decisive stage. If the battle of the ballot box goes in Vajpayee's favour, the change and transformation of the BJP is certain to be accelerated. It could even replace a dynasty-obsessed Congress as the new broad church, the RSS willing. In the event of failure, however, a regression cannot be ruled out. This election will not merely determine the government of India, it will determine the future face of the BJP.- with Farzand AhmedPublished By: AtMigration Published On: Feb 9, 1998--- ENDS ---

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BJP aspires for sobriety and respectability, reaches out to audience who shunned saffron

Today's BJP aspires to be the epitome of sobriety and respectability. It is trying to reach out to an audience that has hitherto shunned saffron. It is telling disoriented floating voters that it is the only voice of sanity in the din of fractious coalitions.

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