Steep incline ahead

The rejuvenation of the Bharatiya Janata Party according to the script elaborated by the chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Mohan Bhagwat, has gone according to plan.

The 52-year-old Maharashtra BJP chief, Nitin Gadkari, has taken over as the party president and LK Advani has passed on the baton of opposition leader in the Lok Sabha to his deputy Sushma Swaraj although the position of chairman of the parliamentary party the 82-year old has now assumed has still to evolve.

And Gadkari, true to his image as Maharashtra’s public works minister in the Sena-BJP government, has struck a positive can-do stance on assuming charge in Delhi, the only discordant note being his gum-chewing daughter at the take-over ceremony. Thus far, Bhagwat has reason to be pleased with his handiwork.

The problems for the BJP take on a new dimension because the central contradiction that has dogged the party all along is the umbilical cord that connects it to the RSS. True, the RSS is the BJP’s recognised mentor but the former has tried to maintain some distance from the party so as not to be corrupted by power and to maintain the fiction of its cultural and civilisational vocation.

Traditionally, the RSS has cracked the whip when it has felt that the party has strayed too far. It had no compunction in stripping Advani of the party presidency after his controversial remarks on Jinnah in Pakistan. Advani, for his part, has publicly complained of RSS interference in the party’s work. As the organisation that gives the BJP its ideological flavour and provides it key functionaries and all-important volunteers for elections, the RSS feels that it has the right to lay down the law on broader issues.

There is a built-in tension between the BJP and the Sangh and even the venerable AB Vajpayee had chafed at the RSS on one occasion. On balance, the two have tried to coexist because they need each other. The problem that will now arise is the need for Gadkari to prove that he is not a mere creature of the Sangh, having been catapulted from relative obscurity to the party presidency. Besides, the second rung party leaders in Delhi having been ostentatiously overlooked for the highest party office will be tempted to gang up against the newcomer.

Bhagwat’s fault has been to broadcast his views on the age limit and provenance of the new party leader as widely as he did. He was right in suggesting that it was time for a generational change and that it would be wise to go outside the circle of politicians nurtured in the incestuous world of Delhi politics to find a new broom to sweep the party clean. But the quiet influence his predecessors exercised over party affairs was more effective precisely because it was not in the public domain.

A trait that could save Gadkari is his reputation of being a doer rather than a talker. If he were to involve himself in the minefield of “cultural nationalism”, the credo of the Sangh, he would lose his political bearing. Indeed, his most difficult task will be to keep a distance from the RSS, particularly with an activist such as Bhagwat now at its helm.

Parties, like countries, live with contradictions and the demands of a national party seeking to return to power in Delhi are quite different from an organisation that calls itself cultural, harbouring the ambition of reordering the country’s affairs and outlook. Building a temple at Ayodhya, the BJP’s stepping stone to power in Delhi, is no longer an electoral vote-winner. The concept of cultural nationalism has waxed and waned with the compulsions of the party finding acceptance in a plural multi-religious society.

Gadkari will be judged by two benchmarks. Can he pay formal obeisance to the RSS while galvanising the party to pursue attainable pragmatic goals to enhance people’s confidence in it? It is no secret that its second successive defeat in general elections and rather poor showing in assembly elections have scarred the BJP. Second, placing Hindutva on the front burner in accordance with RSS predilections would prove counter-productive simply because it evokes divisive concepts in the public mind.

In short, Bhagwat has achieved only part of his objective in securing the heads of Advani and party president Rajnath Singh. The more difficult task of letting his pick play a
credible role as the party leader guided by the compulsions of returning to power and a larger vision for the country remains to be
accomplished.