Party in Disarray


Written by S.G. Jilanee • Region • August 2010

Is it a virus transported from the United States that has struck India? The question is relevant because the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is as much in disarray as the Republican Party. Both are conflict-ridden, rudderless, groping for an identity. The National Republican Committee chief, Michael Steele critiques Obama for the Afghanistan war and Republican wolves including Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney ask him to resign. At the same time, firebrand Republican Ann Coulter supports Steele and demands Kristol's resignation from the editorship of the Weekly Standard.

In India, when a BJP old guard, Jaswant Singh praised Mohammad Ali Jinnah in his book, the party summarily expelled him, because Jinnah is anathema to the sangh parivar. It denied him even the common courtesy of a hearing. Yet, Singh stood his ground and, instead of betraying any contrition, he used every possible forum to vent his outrage at the mortification he had been subjected to.

He began dropping occasional hints that a party that could not summon the nerve to explore unorthodox ideas was well and truly on the road to disaster. With fight in his blood as a Rajput he gave clear signals that he would expose the BJP leaders as shallow men "plumbing the depths of intrigue, buffeted hither and thither by one crisis after another."

Soon the party leadership realized its blunder, swallowed its pride, and welcomed Singh back into its arms. Even L K Advani, who was party to the expulsion, expressed his sense of relief and BJP president, Nitin Gadkari, sought Singh's guidance in strategic and foreign affairs. Thus a tragedy ended in a farce.

Founded in 1980, BJP emerged as a counterpoint to the Congress ineptitude and corruption that had infected it after the demise of Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru. In fact, it rose from the ashes of the Jan Sangh of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, which, itself, was a reincarnation of Hindu Mahasabha. Though Hindu nationalism and conservative social policies were its core values, yet, BJP also advocated self-reliance, free market economy, a foreign policy driven by a nationalistic agenda and strong national self defense.

Meanwhile, leaders like Lal Krishna Advani with his rath yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya fired religious passion among the Hindu masses. And soon BJP became the political voice of the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir Movement which was led by fanatical Hindu organizations such as RSS and Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

The demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992 triggered a tsunami of religious zeal among Hindus and the BJP rode its crest to election victory in 1998 and formed the government at the head of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with other like-minded parties.

But, from the start BJP has been under the shadow of the Rashtriya Sevak Sangh (RSS), which appoints its presidents and dictates its policies. Thus, when Atal Behari Vajpayee was the prime minister, RSS leaders proudly boasted that he was the Sangh's mukhosh (mask). It stripped L.K. Advani of his office as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. And its new leader, Mohan Bhagwat, recently told the BJP in open and clear terms that his word, and his word alone, was a command that the party could defy at its peril.

BJP often tried to live up to its forward looking agenda of social democracy but it could not free itself from the vice-like grip of the RSS. The failure of the BJP to take any action against Chief Minister Narendra Modi for the Muslim massacre in Gujrat, the burning of Christian churches and killing of their missionaries by Hindutva fanatics were among the factors that sealed its fate.

It lost the 2004 elections to the Congress as its seats shrunk from 270 in 1989 to 181 in 2004. In 2009 it went further down. The NDA won just 159 seats. But the NDA, too, has steadily shrunk. This is due to the fact that BJP has become rankly communal. Other components of the NDA therefore do not wish to associate with a party that supports people like Narendra Modi, who is now called Narendra Milosevic Modi for his Muslim pogrom. BJP has also lost two major allies recently: Mamata Banerjee, who is a rising star in West Bengal, and Naveen Patnaik, whose party won Orissa Assembly elections without the BJP.

The disarray is evident on many fronts. BJP president Nitin Gadkari is quite callow in national politics. The Rashtriya Sevak Sangh, which appointed him to the office, treats him as a puppet. He has no political base of his own. He lacks mature political judgment and is incapable even of resisting Advani's interference in organisational-political decisions such as nominating Ram Jethmalani for the Rajya Sabha elections though it antagonised many cadres.

But it is not the leadership crisis only that plagues the BJP. The party today lacks programs or policies that offer a credible alternative to the UPA. Even when it critiques the UPA's nuclear liability Bill, public sector divestment, its militarist anti-Naxalite and anti-Maoist strategy, or its handling of the Bhopal disaster, the BJP fails to carry conviction due to its tongue-in-cheek attitude.

BJP also sounds hypocritical on the Union Carbide gas-leak disaster in Bhopal. It was in power in Madhya Pradesh (MP) for much of the time after the 1989 settlement but treated the victims with the utmost callousness. MP rehabilitation minister Babulal Gaur is on record as saying there is no contamination of the plant site and water supply, even though many surveys - Indian and international - have found chemical poisons, including carcinogens. And, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley has certified that Dow, which bought Carbide, is not liable for cleaning up the site. The BJP is thus perceived as siding with corporate criminals.

Equally importantly, BJP is gripped by an ideological identity crisis. It has failed to distance itself from the RSS and define itself as a "normal" party. It, thus, remains shackled to the antiquated, anti-modernist and sectarian notion of Hindu Rashtra. It has no strategy for political mobilization that could shore up its sinking base.

The reckless scramble by leaders, young and old, to retain plum jobs and position themselves for a higher calling, has wracked the party from within. Its allies, notably in Jharkhand and Bihar, proved to be feisty. Some walked out of the Alliance; others raised tantrums and were duly rewarded. More ominously, the BJP's boast that it adhered to the highest norms of probity was punctured once it became known that it was in cahoots with those who looted the nation's mineral wealth.

To compound the disarray further, while other political parties are encouraging younger people to assume greater responsibilities, the BJP appears to be recruiting those who should have retired from politics long ago.

The plain fact is that the BJP cannot stage another action replay of the past stunts, such as a rath yatra, or Ramjanmabhoomi movement. Nor is Pakistan going to attack India. These are the two possibilities that could rally mass Hindu support behind BJP. Therefore, if it aspires for a return to power, it must shed the RSS-Hindutva albatross and come forth as a progressive political party.