The Bharatiya Janata Party's confused attempts to recapture the political space it lost with the electoral debacle are weakened further by its ideological dilemma. The Sangh Parivar is pressuring the party to stick to Hindutva while its alliance partners oppose its return to communal politics.
in New DelhiDOUBLESPEAK, or `multispeak' to be exact, is a political stratagem that the Sangh Parivar and its political front, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have employed to telling effect in the past decade and a half. Whether in the Opposition or in government, this tactic has been a major instrument of the party in the pursuit of its political goals. It was used with devastating consequences during the Ayodhya campaign, particularly in the phase leading to the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Sections of the party and the Hindutva combine spoke in different voices, alternating between moderation and extremism. While one section expressed its commitment to follow legal directions to protect the Masjid, the other exhorted kar sevaks to demolish it, in open defiance of the law.
Similar manoeuvres were in evidence, time and again, during the six years when the BJP was in power, and the preceding decade during which it was preparing to capture power. But the story of the past two months is different altogether. Indeed, a perusal of the statements and actions emanating from the BJP leadership shows that the party is persisting with the same strategy, but without positive results. It is as though the past masters of this political stratagem have lost their tactical skills after the stunning defeat in the April-May Lok Sabha elections. Even a cursory look at the manoeuvres employed by the principal Opposition party highlights this loss of political dexterity.
The party and the Sangh Parivar have had a series of brainstorming exercises since the formation of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government - a national executive session in Mumbai, a Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) pratinidhi sabha in Nagpur and a `Chintan Baithak' in Goa.
The net result of all this introspection is a constant shifting of slogans and political positions. Nothing exemplifies the party's flip-flop more than its performance in Parliament between July 24 and August 3. Until July 24, its principal campaign was based on the "righteous struggle" to oust the "tainted Ministers" from the UPA government. This was the slogan the BJP had pursued ever since the UPA assumed power and on July 24 the party claimed to have achieved partial success in its struggle.
Addressing the media on that day, BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the resignation of Union Coal Minister Shibu Soren, one of the "tainted" Ministers targeted by the party, marked the partial success of its campaign. Naqvi, however, was quick to add that the resignation was an "eyewash and a political drama" of the UPA and a "hapless Prime Minister's helpless decision". He also made it clear that the BJP would not rest until all the "tainted" Ministers, including Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, were asked to resign. He also indicated that the BJP would continue with the "righteous struggle" and take it to its "logical conclusion" once the current session of Parliament resumed on August 16, after a recess of three weeks.
Although Naqvi did not elaborate, there was little doubt as to what he meant by pursuing "the righteous struggle to its logical conclusion". The "struggle" had unravelled itself as unparalleled and unprecedented ruckus on the floor of the Lok Sabha. Pandemonium had become such a regular feature until July 24 that Speaker Somnath Chatterjee regretted publicly that urgent issues before the nation could not be taken up for discussion owing to the impasse.
The BJP's response, however, was to accuse the Speaker of partisanship and thus make him another target of the "struggle". So much so that the BJP and its partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) decided to boycott the Parliamentary Standing Committees, a posture that no other Opposition had adopted in the history of Parliament. Parliamentary Committees are not under the control of any Ministry and are in many ways watchdogs of the functioning of various government departments. Even this fact was overlooked by the BJP when it went on the offensive.
But in a matter of 10 days the BJP come up with a conciliatory position. On August 3, the NDA withdrew its decision not to participate in parliamentary committees and sent the list of its nominees to the Speaker's office. BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu said the NDA would no longer boycott the entire Parliament but only individual, "tainted Ministers". The decisions the BJP claimed, were the result of a series of negotiations the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani had with the Speaker and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Less than a week later, the BJP sprang another surprise. It came up with the statement that it intends to focus on the issue of price rise when Parliament re-convenes on August 16. The leader designated to break the news was once again Naqvi and he even went to the extent of asserting that price rise was a "more burning issue" than the issue of "tainted Ministers".
No doubt, the BJP rank and file across the country were left wondering as to what had happened to the "righteous struggle". This at a time when one more Union Minister (without portfolio) had got into trouble with the court in August. A non-bailable warrant was issued against Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, in a case of cheating. The warrant was issued on the basis of a private complaint lodged by an advocate, N. Prahalad, who alleged that Chandrasekhar Rao had collected a large amount of money from party activists for allotting the party ticket for the Lok Sabha elections. But such issues ceased to be on the BJP's priority list.
THE BJP's change of heart after July 24 was influenced by a number of developments, some of them in places far away from Delhi, such as Jharkhand and Goa. The BJP's all-out effort to get Shibu Soren, the tribal leader from Jharkhand, out of the Ministry soon boomeranged as Soren, accused of involvement in a case of rioting three decades ago, emerged out of hiding on August 2 and surrendered to judicial custody. In the process, Soren acquired the halo of a "living martyr" and his support seemed to grow in leaps and bounds in Jharkhand. This prompted the State BJP to send alarm signals to the central leadership. That was good enough reason to review the campaign against "tainted Ministers" campaign.
The "Chintan Baithak" held in Goa from July 29 to August 1 formalised this process of rethinking. The conclave decided that the NDA would cooperate with the parliamentary committees. But this was not the only decision to come out of the Baithak. The RSS also intervened in the Goa deliberations and came up with its own prescriptions to put the BJP back on course. Apart from suggesting that the BJP take up Hindutva as its main political plank, the RSS leadership offered the services of senior RSS leader Madan Das Devi to the party to set the organisation right. Indications are that this suggestion created a lot of resentment among the party leaders, especially party president Venkaiah Naidu, whose leadership qualities were being questioned by the RSS top brass. Venkaiah Naidu, on his part, is reported to have orchestrated a resolution praising his "vibrant, energetic and dynamic leadership".
According to sources in the BJP, at the end of the Baithak the Hindutva-oriented RSS and the government-oriented moderates arrived at an uneasy truce. Signs of this were visible in other moves in the party. Although the BJP leadership is still resisting the pressure to bring in Madan Das Devi into the party hierarchy, the Baithak's decision to appoint RSS pracharaks in key party positions has been carried out. As many as 21 pracharaks have taken crucial positions in the BJP. There is a tremendous concern in various segments of the party and the Sangh Parivar about the impact all these moves will ultimately have on the party. Sources in the party and the Parivar say that the only consensus that has developed through the party's deliberations in Mumbai, Nagpur and Goa is on the causes of the poll defeat.
Elaborating on the consensus, a senior leader told Frontline that there was broad agreement that the party erred in neglecting both its ideology and the interests of its social base. It was also pointed out that aberrations in lifestyle of several senior BJP leaders had to be corrected. But the leader himself wondered whether all this self-criticism was of any real use in developing a concrete action plan. According to him, there is no point in merely repeating that the BJP should play the role of the classic Opposition effectively, that it should expose, agitate against and ultimately displace the government without specifying how. As is evident from the statement of this leader and the reactions of several others, the BJP is still groping for an issue or issues that will help it play the role of an effective Opposition. What is clear is that the constant shifting of slogans and political stances has created a sense of despondency and confusion at all levels of the party hierarchy.
Interestingly, sources in the BJP say that the party had evolved definitive plans for the next five years in government in the hope that it would win the general elections. The process of formulating these plans had apparently started at the Chintan Baithak held at Uttan in Thane district near Mumbai in 2003. At that conclave, party leaders had expressed satisfaction at the "progress" made by the BJP-led NDA government in areas such as human resource (particularly the education sector) and some departments in the Home Ministry and drawn up plans to consolidate the gains. It is clear that the BJP was not prepared for a defeat. And that perhaps explains why the party is fumbling for a strategy.
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