HVK Archives: Man With The Towel
Man With The Towel - India Today
Saba Naqvi Bhaumik
()
April 27, 1998
Title: Man With The Towel
Author: Saba Naqvi Bhaumik
Publication: India Today
Date: April 27, 1998
As the results of the general election poured in, the BJP central
office on Delhi's Ashoka Road wore a carnival atmosphere. Buoyant
cadres jostled with victorious candidates to distribute mithai
and garland the leaders. It was the moment of saffron fulfilment,
the moment the 18 -year-old BJP had been waiting for. But sitting
in one of the outhouses that double as home to the party's
dedicated full-timers, one man kept himself somewhat aloof from
the boisterousness outside. The 76 year-old Kushabhau Thakre had
always been the quintessential backroom man and a father figure.
Now, at a time of celebration, he had to assume a different role.
During the long drawn out phase of government formation, Thakre
often referred to himself as the "man with the towel". "I am
someone who sits at the back with a great big towel, wiping the
tears of party workers, the defeated candidates, those who've got
nothing..."
Today, the quiet patriarch finds himself in a more public role:
as the newly-elected BJP president and the successor of L.K.
Advani. While half the political class is learning to distinguish
the spelling of his name from that of the Shiv Sena chief, the
other half is asking, "Kushabhau who?" Meanwhile, the self-
effacing RSS pracharak is getting used to the perks of office: he
now has the luxury of an extra room-with a hand shower in the
bath-in the party chummery. Despite this extra comfort, Thakre
still prefers to sleep out in the open on his charpai (cot).
ll my life I have lived in one room. I don't know what to do
with the second, " he laughs, He is positively embarrassed when
asked whether the ruling party president will have the security
paraphernalia commensurate with his status, "Why? I am not a
dangerous man. Why should I have security?"
Getting accustomed to an enhanced lifestyle is one thing,
confronting the challenge of leading a party in power for the
first time quite a different matter altogether. The fact that
both Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Home Minister Advani
are too preoccupied negotiating the minefields of a coalition
government, hasn't helped either. Apart from the National
Executive meeting last week. Thakre has not really interacted
with the prime minister, leave alone visit him at South Block. To
Thakre, this is of no great consequence. talji and Advaniji are
great party builders and leaders. But their priority now will be
the Government. As for me, I'm just a simple party worker. If
the party asks me to go to Andamans, I'll go. If they ask me to
do this work, I'll do this." Thakre concedes that he has certain
"limitations"-"everybody knows what they are"-but draws solace
>from the BJP's collective style of functioning. In simple
language, this implies that the role of the organisation in a
Vajpayee Government will be circumscribed. Thakre will not speak
for the Government, only ensure that the party plays a supportive
role without its distinctiveness coming into conflict with the
imperatives of a coalition. After all, he is the man most suited
to making the party an elaborate counselling service.
This, however, is easier said than done. There is a strong
feeling among BJP old-timers that an ideological party should
never be subordinate to the Government. But the leadership has
deemed otherwise.
Thakre, though, seems happy enough to take the ideological cue
>from Advani. The outgoing president laid down the line during his
opening speech to the National Executive: "The interests of the
coalition at the Centre must be paramount. The party's strategies
in the states must be subordinate to its national strategies."
Since then, Thakre has been repeating ad nauseam: "The National
Agenda is the BJP's agenda. There is no party agenda different
>from that of the coalition Government."
Yet, Thakre has been in the Sangh Parivar long enough to know
that for all its supportive role, the party must never become
dependent on the Government. "Otherwise we will end up just like
the Congress. Fifty years ago the Congress was an ideal, even for
an RSS man like me. Today, look at the mess it is in." Dependence
on government, the new BJP president believes, saps the lifeline
of a political party "We have never depended on government for
our growth and will not begin to do so now," he says. Part of
Thakre's brief as BJP president, in fact, is to ensure that party
workers do not make too many demands on the Government.
For all his conviction that there are "certain core beliefs that
never change", Thakre displays a remarkable willingness to talk
the language of a "New BJP". His Hindutva, he insists, is
"inclusive". "The country's problems would have been solved quite
easily if the Hindu-Muslim divide was the only point of friction.
The problem is that the divisions are on caste, region, and so
on." And his strategy for growth: "We now know that the BJP
cannot move ahead if we don't include everyone. The growth of
the party must not be merely geographical. There must also be
social growth." What this means is that Thakre will be presiding
over the BJP as it tries to spread out among new social groups,
particularly in the south and east. "We will have to juggle with
caste more effectively. Even while keeping our upper-caste,
middle-class base intact," says a senior party strategist.
If Thakre is president of the BJP today it is not because of some
extraordinary career in public life but because of his long,
dedicated innings in the Sangh Parivar. Little wonder then that
he goes to great lengths to counter charges of a hidden agenda.
"Our critics who raise the RSS bogey don't understand us
properly. They talk of remote control by the RSS. But the RSS
thinking is that everything can't be run by centralised control.
The RSS gives small instructions. just one or two instructions.
Otherwise the BJP handles its own affairs."
But doesn't his elevation symbolise the decisive hold of the RSS
over the BJP? "Even Atalji and Advani are swayamsevaks. They
were even pracharaks, " says Thakre in defence. As for the hidden
agenda and remote control, the new BJP president believes it just
isn't there. "Centralised control is un-Hindu," he says.
Ultimately, that's the last word.
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