There is something unnecessarily circuitous about LK Advani being made the ‘acting’ chairman of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). It has been clear for nearly four years now that former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s frail health does not allow him to work as chairman of the alliance. The simple and straight thing for him, or someone on his behalf, was to issue a statement that he is stepping down from the post. Vajpayee’s stature does not in any way depend on him being the leader of the alliance. Respect and ceremony have their place in the Indian cultural and social context but it does not make sense to carry it to absurd lengths.
The NDA is not what it had been in the years between 1998 and 2004 when it was in office. It seems more unsure of itself than even the BJP after the 2004 and 2009 parliamentary elections defeats. The alliance had about 20 parties as members when in office. It has now been reduced to a ramshackle formation of a few parties. The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in Maharashtra does not owe much to the NDA. The alliance essentially came into existence when the BJP and the anti-Congress socialist parties felt
the need to join forces to provide an alternative to the Congress as well as to the anti-Congress and anti-BJP parties of the United Front of 1996 and 1997.
The key to keeping the NDA alive is that the BJP will keep on the backburner its core issues like uniform civil code, Ayodhya temple and Article 370 pertaining to the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. The BJP nurses dreams of coming to power on its own but knows full well that it cannot and that it needs to go along with its NDA partners. It is the same dilemma as that of the Congress, which would want to be on its own but knows it has to stick to the UPA. The NDA then has a good chance of remaining relevant and it needs to be kept going.
Is Advani the man for the job? Vajpayee was a natural choice because he was seen as the ‘inclusive’ leader who made the necessary moves to bring the other parties on board. The new Advani, who seems to have left behind his hard Hindutva days behind for good, may be able to hold the NDA together. But he will have to be more articulate about his made-over image if he wants to infuse fresh life into a dormant NDA.
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