BJP hopes to ride to power on chariot of Lokpal chaos

Many middle and senior level Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders will tell you in informal conversations that the present political situation resembles that of the period from 1972 to 1975, when Jayaprakash Narayan led the anti-corruption movement in Bihar, Morarji Desai was on fast against a corrupt Gujarat government, there were strikes, prices were going through the roof and there were no jobs.

It all culminated in the quashing of Indira Gandhi’s election by the Allahabad High Court, and JP’s call to the army and police not to obey the government, and then the declaration of Emergency in June 1975. The BJP leaders hope that with the recurrence of a similar situation — corruption cases, rising prices, economic anxieties and public turmoil unleashed by civil society activists like Anna Hazare and yoga instructor Ramdev — the party can ride to power on the chariot of chaos.

It is both sad and unfortunate that the main opposition party in the country revels in the unrest and confusion unleashed by Anna Hazare, Ramdev and others and sees it as an opportunity for the BJP to win the next election. There is of course the ambiguity with regard to the attitude of BJP leaders towards Hazare and Ramdev.

They do not sound as enthusiastic about Hazare as they do with Ramdev. They somehow feel uneasy with Hazare, a cantankerous Gandhian who cannot be easily used. In the case of Ramdev, they feel a certain ideological camaraderie of unstated Hindutva, the unmistakable rightwing tilt. Many of the party’s leaders are also incredulous in their faith in yoga guru’s standing in society and his large following which can be turned into crucial votes.

There was enough brutality for all political parties to condemn the police crackdown at Ramlila Maidan on the night June 4 when Ramdev was surrounded and held, and scores of unarmed people were seriously injured in the lathicharge and by tear-gas.

The BJP leaders not only condemned the police action, but also held a 24-hour sit-in protest at Mahatma Gandhi’s cremation place — Rajghat. The song and dance was a minor distraction, but it is curious that the BJP had for the first time shown such explicit deference to the symbolic significance of the Father of the Nation.

Of course, the Congress’ taunt that the BJP and the Sangh were the assassins — direct and indirect — of Gandhi is so much baloney. Hindu rightwingers opposed Gandhi in the same way the Leftists did. Hindu fundamentalists could not understand and forgive Gandhi’s respect for other religions, especially Muslims.

And some of the extremists among them plotted and succeeded in killing him. The BJP cannot be forced to bear the cross for the ideological sins of its ideological predecessors.

There is also the irony that BJP leaders, LK Advani is not alone in this, are more at home with the secularism of Mohammed Ali Jinnah than the eclectic religiosity of Gandhi. But that is a different story. The BJP began its political existence on the note of ‘Gandhian socialism’ which it threw out in a short time. So, the Congress attempt to prove BJP to be responsible for Gandhis’s death is an extreme stance.

The problem with the BJP arises from reasons other than its so-called anti-Gandhianism. Despite Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi and Advani declaring their undying faith in democratic processes and parliamentary practices, the party is unable to resist the temptation of taking the political battle to the streets whenever it can.

It sees a great opportunity of doing so on the back of street protests unleashed by Hazare and Ramdev. The party’s own attempts to create public awareness with protests and rallies against price rise and corruption has been less then successful.

The BJP is placing its bet on Ramdev, the unruly and irrational political agitator. This is the dangerous sign of a national political party backing an unreliable man because he belongs to the Hindu rightwing and not paying attention to the negative political implications of such a move.

BJP has to learn to be a normal rightwing party. It has a space in the political spectrum. Many BJP leaders are eager to play the responsible opposition, but the street politics of the Ramdev-kind seems to be a fatal attraction. The road to power in a democracy lies the institutional framework of elections and not through anarchy on the streets.