02-01-2006, 04:41 PM
Made in Jhandewalan
<b>
When Lal Krishna Advani doffed his hat to Mohammad Ali Jinnah's August 1947 vision, he was acknowledging the `thus-far-and-no-further' nature of Hindutva. For all its emotive value and vote-gathering potential, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar 's disruptive doctrine proved a barrier to power. It is certainly ironic that the Bharatiya Janata Party has returned to conventional Hindutva at a juncture when the ideology's lifelong champion has repeatedly recorded his serious caveats. </b>The strong imprint of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Rajnath Singh's new team has dispelled the lingering doubts about where the principal Opposition party is headed under Mr. Advani's successor. If the first thing Mr. Singh did on taking charge was to reconnect with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, he has since embraced such notables as Vinay Katiyar and Narendra Modi. The Bajrang Dal chief has made it to the squad as a general secretary while the Gujarat Chief Minister has been honoured with membership of the BJP's highest decision-making bodies â the Central Parliamentary Board and the Central Election Committee. That both men have a taste for communal disharmony is to understate their political beliefs and practice by several orders of magnitude. Mr. Singh owes his job to the wise men in Jhandewalan; and in politics, as elsewhere, there is such a thing as payback time. The interesting question is: how far will Mr. Singh travel on this route? Sudharshan & Co. are unlikely to give him anything like a long leash.
<b>
The BJP's helmsman is in an unenviable position. On the one hand, his party finds its clout with allies diminished in the aftermath of its May 2004 defeat. As long as the National Democratic Alliance ruled at the Centre, the BJP got away with upping the Hindutva ante. </b>Allies such as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party, perhaps sensing what was coming, baled out before the NDA regime's time was up. Today without the glue of power, Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar, and Mamata Banerjee are under no compulsion to support a saffron-tinted BJP. On the other hand, the advent of Uma Bharti as `the real BJP' obliges Mr. Singh to do more to prove his Hindutva credentials. Ms. Bharti has made plain her intention to start a new party centred on the `core values' that, in her view, the BJP lost under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mr. Advani. For the party, the Uma factor is an additional complication in the tough battle for Uttar Pradesh. At this point, the party's once-favourite hunting ground looks polarised between two interesting socio-political formations, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Mr. Rajnath Singh's answer to the challenge appears to be Kalyan Singh, who, like Ms. Bharti, embodies the twin appeal of Mandir and Mandal. Mr. Kalyan Singh, however, does not seem to reciprocate the warm feelings of the new BJP chief. Moreover, the last election showed him to be hardly a match-winner.
<b>
When Lal Krishna Advani doffed his hat to Mohammad Ali Jinnah's August 1947 vision, he was acknowledging the `thus-far-and-no-further' nature of Hindutva. For all its emotive value and vote-gathering potential, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar 's disruptive doctrine proved a barrier to power. It is certainly ironic that the Bharatiya Janata Party has returned to conventional Hindutva at a juncture when the ideology's lifelong champion has repeatedly recorded his serious caveats. </b>The strong imprint of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Rajnath Singh's new team has dispelled the lingering doubts about where the principal Opposition party is headed under Mr. Advani's successor. If the first thing Mr. Singh did on taking charge was to reconnect with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, he has since embraced such notables as Vinay Katiyar and Narendra Modi. The Bajrang Dal chief has made it to the squad as a general secretary while the Gujarat Chief Minister has been honoured with membership of the BJP's highest decision-making bodies â the Central Parliamentary Board and the Central Election Committee. That both men have a taste for communal disharmony is to understate their political beliefs and practice by several orders of magnitude. Mr. Singh owes his job to the wise men in Jhandewalan; and in politics, as elsewhere, there is such a thing as payback time. The interesting question is: how far will Mr. Singh travel on this route? Sudharshan & Co. are unlikely to give him anything like a long leash.
<b>
The BJP's helmsman is in an unenviable position. On the one hand, his party finds its clout with allies diminished in the aftermath of its May 2004 defeat. As long as the National Democratic Alliance ruled at the Centre, the BJP got away with upping the Hindutva ante. </b>Allies such as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party, perhaps sensing what was coming, baled out before the NDA regime's time was up. Today without the glue of power, Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar, and Mamata Banerjee are under no compulsion to support a saffron-tinted BJP. On the other hand, the advent of Uma Bharti as `the real BJP' obliges Mr. Singh to do more to prove his Hindutva credentials. Ms. Bharti has made plain her intention to start a new party centred on the `core values' that, in her view, the BJP lost under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mr. Advani. For the party, the Uma factor is an additional complication in the tough battle for Uttar Pradesh. At this point, the party's once-favourite hunting ground looks polarised between two interesting socio-political formations, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Mr. Rajnath Singh's answer to the challenge appears to be Kalyan Singh, who, like Ms. Bharti, embodies the twin appeal of Mandir and Mandal. Mr. Kalyan Singh, however, does not seem to reciprocate the warm feelings of the new BJP chief. Moreover, the last election showed him to be hardly a match-winner.