Retributions  

Let’s not confuse a power grab with ideological battles

Reading prominent political commentators it would appear that the current factional fights in BJP are about ideology: On one side are the ”moderates” led by the likes of Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha opposed by the Hinduvata lobby led by the party president, Rajnath Singh. The more liberal commentators despair that the party is losing the ideological battle and is unable to transform into a genuine Right-of-center party. (As if there is a version of the party they would find agreeable.)

The argument of the commentariat are certainly strengthened by the bellicose statements issued by Rajnath Singh who promises that the party would never deviate from the path of Hinduvata (And adds in the next line that the party must win the support of the poor, agriculturists, and the middle class; what may be the connection, if one may ask?)

So in a typical Rajnath Singh interview during general elections, Singh would be asked if Ram Temple was still on the BJP agenda;  he would reply, yes, of course and the media would run headlines of how BJP was still interested in old issues like the Ram Temple. There were never a follow up question—for example, what steps did the NDA government take for constructing the Ram Temple, and if BJP’s hands were tied together by coalition dharma, how did the party, which was again fighting the elections in an alliance, propose to achieve its agenda this time? This suited both sides equally: the media could happily paint BJP as a rabid Hindu-Right party while Rajnath Singh was saved from answering uncomfortable questions on his party’s cynical exploitation of the Mandir issue. (In Sushma Swaraj’s unforgettable words: A check which cannot be encashed again.) It had become a party which became a caricature of it self!

That BJP was a far more rabid Hinduvata party in the 1990s was a minor detail which seems to have escaped every one’s attention. And that though it continued to cling to Hinduvata, it had left all its core components—Ram Temple, Article 370, and Uniform Civil Code—far behind. Indeed, its Hinduvata had been reduced to defending thugs like Varun Gandhi for narrow political gains–a situation which could hardly be distinguished from the Left’s embrace of Madani in Kerala. At least, Varun Gandhi has not been accused of setting off bomb blasts. In fact, a barely three line mention of the Ram Temple issue in a 47 page election manifesto resulted in excited headlines and shrieking television anchors.

Continuing from the same template, the current war within the party has been characterized as an ideological struggle between the moderates and the religious warriors.  It is nothing of that sort. It is simply a power struggle between two factions within the party with the clique which had led the party to a spectacular electoral defeat refusing to accept responsibility or relinquish control. Advani who had been initially ”reluctant” to even assume the post of the leader of the opposition wants to continue till 2014. Rajnath Singh who would have struggled to win his own Lok Sabha seat without Ajit Singh’s support sees a bleak political future if he is not re-elected to the post of the party president. And Arun Jaitley visualizes  himself as a future leader of BJP. Ranged against them are the leaders of the Generation-ex who believe it is now or never.

It is doubtful if Rajnath Singh and company have studied the methods of the likes of Stalin in any detail. Nevertheless, claiming exclusive rights on ”core ideology” and purging all deviants—counter-revolutionaries— is a classical Stalinist technique. All that is missing is accusations of being on payroll of the opposition—Congress party in this case—and a quick trip to the Gulags for the re-education. As in the case of Stalinist Purges,  ideology is merely a fig leaf for claiming absolute power and control over the party.

Now, it is certainly true that BJP needs ideological clarity, or, in simpler terms, give up its token endorsement of issues like Ram Temple which neither the party nor the electorate are particularly interested in. Similarly, it needs to decide if it believes in markets or in swadeshi. And to explicitly acknowledge what it has implicitly conceded on Hinudvata. But every significant political party harbors these contradictions: Before the Mamata tornado hit them, the CPI(M) was ranting against neo-liberal policies in New Delhi while actively encouraging private capital in Bengal.

BJP can resolve these contradictions if it remains a broad church of personalities and power centers.  But as Swapan Dasgupta puts it, is increasingly turning into a narrow sect but this sect is constructed not around issue but personalities of the ruling clique: A BJP 10 Janpath. Any opposition to the ruling Gods would automatically result in expulsion from the party on charge of ideological deviation. Because the ruling Gods have defined their own narrow interest as ideological core. Rest is all talk.

And that is why the internecine warfare. And that is why it is unlikely to resolve it self anytime soon till the 10 Janpath triumphs because like the address in New Delhi, it demands absolute power and obedience.

And if in the process Rome burns, who cares? Power knows no  piety; no vision. It knows only it self.