• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

New BJP chief: Beginning on the right note

Rasheeda Bhagat

THE first Dalit to assume leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mr. Bangaru Laxman has begun on the right note, sending several important signals to party hardliners.

Asking the Sangh Parivar to lay off and not expect the BJP to toe its line all the time, he has said in no uncertain terms that the party's earlier three-point charter -- building of Ram temple in Ayodhya; enforcing a Uniform Civic Code; and doing away w ith Article 370 of the Constitution -- would have to be put on hold. At least as long as the BJP heads a coalition government and until it comes to power on its own.

Urging both the party leaders and the cadre to make a determined effort to woo the minorities, he said they should, in particular, make an effort to get Muslims, Dalits, backward classes and tribals into the party fold. Doing some plain speaking in his address to the party's executive committee meet in Nagpur, Mr. Laxman made it clear that by following its earlier hardline Hindutva agenda, the BJP has only managed to alienate some sections.

In no uncertain terms did Mr. Laxman warn that if the BJP has not succeeded in becoming the `preferred party of governance,' it needs to look inward for the reasons. Referring to the party's failure in getting re-elected in certain States -- Rajasthan, f or instance -- he said this could not be explained away simply by the anti-incumbency factor. There were other parties which had fought this factor, he said, obviously referring to the Congress(I) in Madhya Pradesh and the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pr adesh.

His biggest worry, of course, will be Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP put up a dismal performance in the last Lok Sabha elections, indicating its fast-dwindling support base in the State which boasts of Ayodhya.

By putting Mr. Laxman at the helm of the party, the BJP is obviously trying to combat the allegation that it has place only for upper-caste Hindus in its top positions. And Mr. Laxman has lost no time in telling the cadre where his energies and prioritie s will be focussed -- in expanding the party's support base.

Get rid of the mindset that Muslims will not support the BJP, he thundered in his speech. But, obviously, Indian Muslims are going to need stronger evidence of the BJP's change of heart than a few speeches from its high command, before they can think of endorsing the party.

But wooing Muslims, Dalits and the underprivileged belongs to the future. There is enough in its past, and even the present, for the party to take serious note of. For some time now, the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee's worst enemies have been from within the Sangh Parivar; be it in his attempts to find a peaceful solution to Kashmir or his Government's endeavour to take the economic reforms forward.

On the one hand, the swadeshi lobby in the RSS and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) have criticised the Vajpayee Government for wooing foreign investment and opening up the Indian market. On the other, hardliners within the BJP are unhappy with the Prime Minister's initiative to hold talks with the Kashmiri militants. They would prefer the gun, it appears, to do the talking.

Small wonder, then, that both Mr. Laxman and Mr. Vajpayee lost little time in blasting these hardliners, making it clear that criticism of the NDA Government would be tolerated only to a point, and cautioning the government's worst critics from within th e BJP against crossing the Lakshman Rekha.

Inner-party bickering and breach of discipline are the other two areas that received the attention of both the Prime Minister and the new BJP president. In the recent past, one has hardly seen the party in the way it describes itself -- a party with a di fference. Mr. Laxman, then, has done well to sound the alarm, both on discipline and the inherent dangers of continuing to alienate the minorities.

The BJP has cause enough for worry. From a two-MP party to leading a coalition government -- not once, but twice -- its rise has been spectacular. But from there, it has not made much headway. And heading a coalition such as the NDA has been no cake-walk , either for the BJP or Mr. Vajpayee.

If in its last avatar the BJP-led coalition faced unending problems from the headstrong and whimsical AIADMK supremo, Ms. Jayalalitha, the NDA has in its fold, equally strong and opinionated, if not whimsical, leaders, such as the Trinamool Congress chie f, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, the Defence Minister and Samata Party leader, Mr. George Fernandes, and the TDP chief, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, who, if they desired, could pull the rug from under Mr. Vajpayee's feet any time.

What is important is that these three key allies have some credibility and, hence, minority vote banks, as far as their secular credentials go. So, they cannot afford to be helpless bystanders when cantankerous and destructive elements like the Bajrang D al or the Vishwa Hindu Parishad try to take advantage of a BJP-led coalition in New Delhi, to wreak vengeance on the minorities.

Social justice is another plank on which Mr. Laxman, as a Dalit leader, is better placed to take on the likes of the Samajwadi Party chief, Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo, Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav. But the social justice mant ra is one that is easier recited than implemented, as the masses in the backward States of Bihar and UP have found to their chagrin.

Another plus factor for Mr. Laxman is that he hails from the South. So far, excepting Karnataka, the South has remained indifferent to the saffron party. Even in Karnataka, where the party had hoped to come to power in the 1999 elections, it was rudely s haken by the Congress(I)'s emphatic victory. While neither Kerala nor Tamil Nadu has so far been impressed by the BJP, which has labels that are distasteful to South Indians -- such as Hindi, upper-caste Hindus and communalism -- in Andhra Pradesh, the p arty's growing clout has been kept firmly in check by the TDP's CEO. But Mr. Laxman's task will really begin after his speeches are over. Like Mr. Vajpayee, who is trying his best to find a solution to the thorny Kashmir issue, the BJP president's worst enemies are within the Sangh Parivar. For every attempt he makes to convince the minorities that the BJP has shed its saffron agenda, there will be 10 acts from one constituent or the other of the Sangh Parivar to prove him wrong. For every endorsement h e makes for the NDA Government's liberalisation agenda, there will be ten attempts by the RSS and the SJM to cripple the reforms process.

The position vacated by the Congress(I) on India's political horizon is begging to be taken. Under the insipid and lacklustre leadership of its president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, the Congress(I) has little hope of reclaiming this slot. With there being no othe r national player on the scene of the magnitude of the BJP, what prevents the party from occupying this slot is its own friends within the Sangh Parivar.

An Advani with his language of confrontation took the BJP thus far; a Kushabhau Thakre could not really make much of an impact. It remains to be seen if Mr. Laxman's language of reconciliation with the minorities makes a difference. Unlikely, unless his words are matched by sincerity, conviction and the grit to see them through the biggest hurdle of all -- the Sangh Parivar.

(Feedback can be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in)