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Diction Matters

How to sound right and benefit from fear

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Diction Matters
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BJP leader Arun Jaitley told Outlook the morning after the attacks: "This could be India’s 9/11. It seems that an armed group has declared war on India. I have little doubt that it will change the mindspace of the Indian electorate." But there is still an internal debate within parties on how to nuance their postures so that their rhetoric does not prove counterproductive.

On the face of it, there was an apparent attempt to bridge political boundaries in the face of a national threat. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requested Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani to accompany him to Mumbai. Advani agreed and issued a statement saying that "maintenance of peace, tranquillity, communal harmony and patriotic unity must be our highest priority". All undoubtedly spoken with the best of intentions.

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But Advani’s statement also noted that "November 26, 2008, is a continuation of the 1993 blasts in Mumbai". A BJP strategist said that there had been an opinion in a meeting of party office-bearers that even if the attack turns out to be an Al-Qaeda operation, it cannot be delinked from the larger problem of terrorism "in which Muslims outside and within India are engaged". In other words, the BJP was only exercising restraint on the day after the attack. But the party could well take a contrarian stand the very next day and could be expected to launch a full-fledged political offensive in a matter of days.

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Right-wing ideologue Swapan Dasgupta says that the idea of the Congress and the BJP ever putting their differences aside on an issue like terrorism is ridiculous. "How can you have a common platform between two points of view with so little in common? The BJP wants to fight terror. The Congress is deeply embarrassed by terror and hopes it will just go away," he says. "I do not at all suggest that the Congress promotes terrorism. But it can be said that there is a view among Congress leaders that the electoral consequences of fighting terror are too great."

Congress leaders, meanwhile, are keeping their fingers crossed that the old Muslim-terror formulation does not work for the BJP and simply wearies the Indian electorate. Rahul Gandhi stated at an election rally in Rajasthan: "They think they can scare us. They think they can divide us, but this is not going to happen." Rhetoric on expected lines from the Nehru-Gandhi family. Rajasthan votes on December 4 and reports from the ground suggest that in that state, local factors will override the terror issues in rural areas, where BJP chief minister Vasundhara Raje faces a tough fight. But there is a belief that in urban centres like Delhi, which votes on November 29, exactly three days after the terrorist attack on Mumbai, there will be a small shift towards the BJP. The party hopes that the cadres will be motivated to go to the booth and exhort others to do so.

Political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan says there will certainly be a political impact after a terror strike of this magnitude. But he says it is too early to predict whether people will rally around the government in an hour of crisis or blame it for failing to keep the nation secure. Every political party is waiting to find out. The BJP certainly sees the event as a political opportunity. The Congress has some more bad news.

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