By Srinivasan K. Rangachary
Any political party devoid of an ideology always faces the threat of imminent isolation and turning irrelevant. The BJP is also facing with the same predicament. Twenty years back L.K. Advani had brought out the party, after the divorce with V.P. Singh’s Jana Morcha, from the grip of isolation. And ironically once again the party is in same situation.
If the BJP leadership somehow nurses the feeling that Hindutva as an ideology will help them out of the present crisis then they are completely mistaken. Hindutva is strategy not the ideology to resurrect the BJP. What is really interesting to watch is this time it is same Advani who is out to expose the ideological fragility of the BJP leadership.
If Advani through his resignation exposed the fragile BJP leadership, the Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar by pulling out of the NDA has put a question mark on the feasibility of the strategy of the party and also its claim of being the vanguard of anti-Congressism in the country. The message of the NDA split was loud and clear: the BJP has lost its political moorings and was no more the flag bearer of anti-Congress politics. The BJP would not subscribe to the fact that never in the past the party had to face such precarious situation as it has been facing in the wake of parting of ways with Nitish Kumar.
Certainly it is not aimed at emphasising the indispensability of Nitish Kumar and his JD-U. But the chain of recent events makes it abundantly clear that BJP has become vulnerable. The situation has been only complicated by the RSS. For it the slogan of Hindutva is manifestation of ideology, but the Sangha leadership must understand that it is not more than a part of strategy for the BJP. Little doubt the RSS isolated the BJP from the main political stream as is evident from the lukewarm response of the regional parties to ally with it. Interestingly the party president, Rajnath Singh deprived the party of the privilege of representing the anti-Congress forces by projecting Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate.
It is not clear what the compulsion of Rajnath in projecting Modi was. His “lecture” at the recent Panaji conclave of the party sent the message that Modi’s appointment as chairman of the election committee was the prelude to his projection as the prime ministerial candidate. It is beyond comp-rehension how Rajnath could do so unless he has some personal gains. His hurry was so intense that he did not even bother to take other senior leaders into confidence. The result was the resignation of Advani.
If he had not foisted Modi as the chairman, probably Nitish Kumar would not have parted ways. No doubt Rajnath is primarily responsible for the present crisis of survival the BJP was facing. As if this was not enough during his recent visit to Bihar, Rajnath preferred to attack Nitish. It was expected of him. But being the BJP president he should have realised that it would prove counter-productive. Nitish not only broke the NDA but he also neutralised other political parties, particularly the TMC and the BJD from joining NDA.
The BJP leadership nursed the impression that the old friends TMC and BJD would eventually come back to the NDA fold before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. But this is not the reality. By lapping up the proposal of Mamata Banerjee for the federal front, Nitish had made it abundantly clear to them that their future lies in independent assertion instead of becoming the appendage of the BJP. In fact Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa made her options known when she decided to support the CPI candidate in the Rajya Sabha election from the state. Kumar in fact made his intensions clear on June 19 when he launched a scathing attack on Modi, saying the nation is against divisive politics. While leaving no stone unturned in targeting Modi and the BJP, he said the country’s leader should be someone who can take everyone along.
Modi might have launched his campaign from Pathankot in a fashionable and impressive manner. But one ought to not forget that this is the bastion of Akali Dal, a committed ally of the BJP. But one thing needs to be intrinsically looked into and it is: Modi did not come out with any development model for the country. It reminds of query from Nitish, “What development model are they talking about? Do already developed cities need development or do under developed areas need a development plan? A leader should think about everyone. What development model? In Gujarat, a developed state, the minimum wages is Rs. 100 per day; in Bihar, which is a poor state, it is Rs. 162. They kept saying clear your stand, and when we did, they said we have betrayed them.”
Rajnath Singh and other BJP leaders have been trying to project Modi as the leader of the poor when they mention that he belongs to backward caste. But belonging to backward caste is not enough; he must spell out what he has done for the backward caste people.
Nitish was right when he said that just because someone is from an extremely backward caste doesn’t mean that he is a leader of people of backward classes.
Modi’s problems are enormous. Even his saffron front Vishwa Hindu Parishad is not in his favour. Taking a cue from Nitish the Gujarat chief minister refused to start his election campaign from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. But this has not gone down well with the VHP. It is a fact unless the BJP scores quite well in Uttar Pradesh Modi would not be able to achieve his dream of becoming the prime minister. But the challenge is quite tough.
The path is full of ordeals. Kumar has held at least three portfolios at the Centre, but Modi has not held an office outside his state. For context, five chief ministers have gone on to become prime ministers. Of them, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Vishwanath Pratap Singh and H.D. Deve Gowda led unstable governments that did not last a full term. If Nitish really intends to prove himself as an efficient challenger, he should have to bring all the former NDA allies, who have left the NDA for one reason or other, and galvanise them for a long-term battle. The space for anti-Congressism is open and wide. INAV