HVK Archives: BJP gets all too touchable
BJP gets all too touchable - The Hindustan Times
S. Rajagopalan
()
December 21, 1997
Title: BJP gets all too touchable
Author: S. Rajagopalan
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: December 21, 1997
=93Dilli chalo". At any cost. It's a no-holds-barred pursuit of
power that the Bharatiya Janata Party has embarked upon in the
run-up to the 12th Lok Sabha polls. Much to the chagrin of its
detractors, who are a dime a dozen, the party today is willing to
go to any length, striking deals and making compromises.
There can be no denying that in this heady campaign the party has
cast aside without much ado the SP that it used to flaunt day in
and day out: "A party with a difference", a champion of "value-
based politics", an uncompromising "ideological pole" et al.
Predictably, the leading lights of the saffron fold have sought
to explain away the party's incredible switch as "pragmatic
politics". To them, breaching the untouchability barrier erected
around the party by the "secular forces" will be the singular
noteworthy accomplishment of the current efforts to win allies
and influence the elections.
However, to those outside the 'Sangh parivar', the BJP's newfound
ways are, to put it mildly, "cynical to the core". Ever since the
party's 'Operation Uttar Pradesh', some have labelled the BJP as
a Congress 'clone' which will stop at nothing to make it to power
and stay on.
For now, the BJP itself is unfazed by comparisons of this kind.
Party managers are busy shopping for more allies from an
assortment of regional parties. "Judging from the nonce we are
getting, who can call us a untouchable? Perhaps we are the most
touchable of parties today," a senior functionary remarked
gleefully.
If the BJP has shed its customary inhibitions in its courting
spree, it is also a tacit acknowledgement that the party's own
peal has reached a point of saturation. Essentially a party of
the Hindi heartland, the BJP did exceedingly well in this region
in the 1996 polls. As a result, there is little ho e of adding to
the existing gains. At best, the party can consolidate its
holdings. The one other region in which it has acquitted itself
well is the West.
In sharp contrast to the 900 showing in the North and the West,
the BJP has been troubled by its negligible presence, almost non-
existence, in the East and the South. In the last polls for
instance, the party could bag just seven Lok Sabha seats in these
two regions. Obviously, no party with such a poor showing in two
regions of the country can entertain visions of taking up the
reins in New Delhi.
It is in this context that the BJP seems elated with the
breakthroughs it has lately had in Tamil Nadu and Orissa. Some of
the new alliances have already fructified, while some others are
in the pipeline. The tie-ups with Jayalalitha's AIADMK and Naveen
Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal in Orissa are over and above she
existing alliances with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, Samata
Party in Bihar, Akali Dal in Punjab and the Haryana Vikas Party
in Haryana.
Of all the new arrangements that it can crow about, the tie-up
with the AIADMK is undoubtedly the one to write home about.
Regardless of the number of seats that it finally squeezes out
>from the Iron Lady of Tamil Nadu, the BJP's singular gain will be
the foothold it is set to get in a State which has been out of
bounds for it all these years. The only consolation has been the
solitary Assembly seat that it bagged in the country's southern
tip last year.
In neighbouring Karnataka, the party is keen to ally with
Ramakrishna Hegde's Lok Shakti. Karnataka is the only southern
State where the BJP has a presence. In the 1996 polls, the party
had gone on to bag six of the Lok Sabha seats. A tie-up with the
charismatic Hegde will greatly enhance the BJP's prospects.
However, Hegde himself despite some friendly remarks on the
quality of BJP leadership, is still to make up his mind on whom
to ally with: the Congress? Or with the BJP?
In the East, the BJP's success in Orissa may somewhat be tempered
by the likely setback in West Bengal. For some months now, the
party has been waiting with bated breath to conclude a tie-up
with rebel Congress leader Mamata Banerjee. However, Sonia
Gandhi's intervention in the matter may have poured cold water
over the BJP's plans. At the time of writing, with a patch-up
formula in the works, it was not clear which way the mercurial
Banerjee would finally go.
Undoubtedly, the BJP will have to pay a price for tacking
together a motley formation, which may only be a shade better
than the 14-party United Front. Not that the party is unaware of
this. As a matter of fact, the BJP bosses have already signalled
their intention to put on hold some of their pet projects:
Ayodhya, Repeal of Article of 370 (to end the special statue to
Jammu & Kashmir), Uniform Civil Code.
Interestingly enough, all this has been with the express approval
of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the party's parent body and
final arbiter. The RSS bosses, it would seem, are even more
pragmatic than the BJP in that they see little prospect of the
party coming to power all by itself in the coming polls.
The talk among the Sangh fraternity these days is that the BJP
should for the present be concentrating on "long-term gains",
courtesy the new alliances and tie-ups. Pursuit of the BJP's own
"distinctive agenda" can wait for a more propitious time, when
the party gets a clear majority on its own.
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