REGARDLESS of who holds the reins of power at the Centre, the Sangh parivar has charted out its next move. Projecting Congress president Sonia Gandhi as the political symbol of Christianity in India, the parivar is preparing to launch a carefully orchestrated anti-Congress, anti-Christian campaign. Barely a day after the Vajpayee government lost the vote of confidence on April 17, the first drumbeats began to sound.
Provocative hoardings against Christians sprang up overnight down south in Mysore—a BJP MLC took responsibility for that. The same night, Uma Bharati was heard thundering in a television interview: "If Sonia becomes prime minister, I will go to each and every house across the country campaigning against her. I'll remind even the Congressmen of their leaders like Tilak, Gokhale, Gandhi and Jawaharlal." And two days later, BJP MPS held a dharna on the stairs of Parliament protesting against Sonia's rise to power. In a recent meeting held in Delhi, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) decided that it would rope in the sadhu sants to campaign against Sonia Gandhi.
Aware of the possibility that they might generate a sympathy wave for Rajiv Gandhi's widow if they push it too far, the parivar has finessed its stand. Thus Rahul and Priyanka can still be tolerated, but no "foreigner" can be allowed to rule India. The logic of bloodlines will safeguard the RSS\BJP\VHP combine against the accusation of being biased against the Gandhi family.
The coup at the Centre was a bit of a surprise for the parivar—it had been confi-dent that the BJP and its allies would pass the test. But the RSS leadership has now come to the conclusion that the fall of the Vajpayee government was the outcome of a conspiracy hatched by the US and Christian missionaries.
RSS joint general secretary K.S. Sudershan, in an interview to RSS-backed news agency Vishwa Samwad Kendra, said that the US and the Christian missionaries conspired to pull down the government because the US has never tolerated a nationalist government anywhere in the world. He cites the examples of Iraq, Nigeria and Yugoslavia to bolster his case. The provocation in India, according to Sudershan, was the nuclear explosions carried out under the aegis of the BJP government. His rationale is that every time India tried to go nuclear after 1983, the US successfully put pressure on India to abandon the plan, and couldn't tolerate the BJP's accomplishments. Clearly, the RSS is attempting to cash in on anti-American sentiments among the masses.
The second partner in this conspiracy, following Sudershan's logic, is the Vatican—which decided to target India since not enough people had been entering priesthood. Sudershan says that in 1993 the Vatican chalked out a plan to plant a church in every PIN code area and a Bible in every house by the year 2000. "The Vajpayee government was proving to be a stumbling block, hence it was removed," he says, indirectly blaming the entire Opposition.
Interestingly, the direct political threat from Sonia has mellowed the voices of Vajpayee-baiters in the RSS. Sheer compulsion forces the RSS to rally around Vajpayee at this juncture. Insiders feel that the age-old Advani versus Vajpayee debate must be suspended for the moment—even a whispered word against the 'moderate' leader could boomerang in the generally pro-Vajpayee atmosphere. The perceived distortions in the functioning of the Vajpayee government are no longer the subject of conversation. On the contrary, the RSS leadership has gone out of the way to pat Vajpayee on the back. Says Sangh ideologue Devendra Swaroop: "The Sangh is fully satisfied that within the constraints of the coalition and given the socio-economic reality, the BJP leadership tried to do their best." Even Vajpayee's greatest critics have performed a U-turn. "He was stabbed in the back by Mayawati," commiserates Acharya Giriraj Kishor. It was just a few months ago that the pro-Advani hawks in the parivar dubbed Vajpayee as nothing less than "the worst prime minister in the last 50 years". The all-out offensive against the leadership of Vajpayee led to the VHP leadership indirectly accusing him of diluting the Hindutva agenda. Acharya Dharmendra openly ridiculed Vajpayee at the eighth dharma sansad in Ahmedabad.
But the Sangh parivar knows that Vajpayee is still the best option as far as electoral politics is concerned. With the revival of the Congress being touted as a strong possibility, the Sangh think-tank feels that most places will see a direct clash between the BJP and the Congress. Therefore, a section of the parivar argues, the BJP will still need its allies. And it is Vajpayee, not Advani, who can keep the allies together by softpeddling Hindutva. Reasons Swaroop: "The polity is so fragmented. What is the guarantee that stability will come even after the mid-term poll?"
IT'S not the handling of the allies, but the infighting within the BJP that is far more worrying for the Sangh. The RSS leadership had received a nasty taste of this just before the assembly elections last November, as internal squabbles in the Delhi BJP proved suicidal. Many in Sangh circles wonder whether the BJP is mature enough to handle power. "If they get an absolute majority, there'll be more infight-ing and they will not be able to handle it—as happened in Delhi," confides a senior Sangh parivar functionary. Agrees Deve-ndra Swaroop: "Most of the BJP cadre is drawn from the RSS. When one of these new entrants sees the leaders fighting among themselves, he becomes inactive."
Addressing party workers after losing the government, Vajpayee called upon them to pull up their socks in preparation for the mid-term elections. But the leadership is fully aware that it needs the support of the VHP to galvanise and polarise the masses in its favour, as has been the practice in the past. Sonia Gandhi's entry into the political lists may actually have made life easier for the BJP this time round. And as the Sangh revs up its campaign against Christians, this shot in the arm, courtesy Sonia, couldn't have come at a better time for it.
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