End Of The Liberal Line

IT was last September that Shankersinh Vaghela led the 'Khajuraho coup', showing up unsuspected fault lines in the BJP monolith. The inevitable happened after 11 dissensionriven months, when on August 9, the BJP's central parliamentary board (CPB) summarily expelled the Gujarat rebel from the party for six years for indulging in anti-party activities. At least eight more rebels—six of them ministers—have now been dismissed. Others in the Gujarat BJP are still on the watchlist, as Vaghela makes all-out efforts to rock the ship he once wanted to captain.

The parting was bitter, leaving no scope for reunion: Vaghela publicly tore off the show cause notice issued by the party high command before his expulsion. That was the picture to frame all others in the series of unsavoury episodes—one side would have it as a symptom of indiscipline, the other interprets it as the result of the suffocation spreading in a party hitherto known for its members' "sense of dedication and commitment".

The central leadership could not be more aware that its party government in Gujarat would be rendered more vulnerable by its act. The choice was made as it recognises that an image of unflinching discipline is more rewarding than that of a party making repeated compromises. It wielded the axe on the Gujarat rebels just when the party had revived the old Jana Sangh culture of workers being trained across the nation to inculcate these vanishing values—and to reduce the noticeably increasing gap between leaders and cadres.

 "Every time we told our cadres about discipline, the Gujarat rebellion and our helplessness to deal with it always exposed the hypocrisy on the leadership's part. We've taken a principled risk, though belatedly," explains a CPB member. What also spurred the high command was the assessment that the Gujarat indiscipline was having a snowballing effect elsewhere.

In Rajasthan, Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat faces a revolt that's been manageable till now. That his days are not going to be easier became obvious when Jaswant Singh was replaced with Madan Lal Khurana as the central observer in the state—Singh and Shekhawat's proximity and the duo's non-RSS background that bonded them were again a factor.

In Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP's prospects in the October assembly elections may have a direct bearing on the United Front Government's future, it remains divided on the question of projecting Kalyan Singh as chief ministerial candidate. The spell of confusion should end, now that L.K. Advani has clearly favoured Kalyan. The action against Vaghela comes in handy as a timely warning to ward off any defiance. The growing groupism also continues to afflict Delhi, where Khurana and K.L. Sharma recently had a faceoff on the MLAs' right to raise the Harshvardhan case involving the rape of a housemaid.

On hindsight, compromises on the BJP's fundamental stance on issues like Article 370 and the uniform civil code, which failed to elicit enough support in Parliament for the A.B. Vajpayee government, seem to have been a futile tactical move. The spell in power, despite its brevity, was a watershed event. It promoted a realisation that tactical flexibility is not going to gain any outside support for the BJP, given its overtly pro-Hindutva credentials.

What also rankles is that, despite its best-ever electoral showing, only five states had contributed substantially to the BJP's strength in Parliament. There is no immediate scope for improving its position even if the oft-predicted UF Government collapse actually happens in the near future. The Bhopal national executive meeting in June, taking cognisance of this, focussed on the need to search for allies in other states, mainly Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

To buttress such efforts, some MPs have been fielded to raise issues pertaining to states where the party is not represented so as to gain ground there. "These MPs volunteered to study and take up issues of different states in Parliament. They'll be guided by the party organisations in those states," says Yashwant Sinha, national executive member. Helping coordinate such moves would be a loose shadow Cabinet overseeing parliamentary functioning.

While this experiment begins, the party is also having second thoughts on the projection of a liberal image. The stance it took during the 14 days in power became redundant as soon as assembly polls were announced in Jammu and Kashmir. There, the polarisation is considered more or less complete and the BJP expects a near-sweep in the Hindu-dominated Jammu region. And the abrogation of Article 370, no doubt, will turn into a principal electoral demand. Linked to this will be the issue of Muslim infiltration and how the predominantly Muslim Valley provides both a target and base for Pakistan-inspired activities.

Thus, from Kashmir to Gujarat and UP, aggressive Hindutva seems to be back on the party agenda. Vaghela's expulsion is likely to have warmed cockles in the VHP, whose active and open - campaign was no mean factor in Vaghela's defeat in the recent Lok Sabha poll. VHP sadhus were irked with Vaghela, not so much for his newfound anti-RSS stance, but because he brought down the Keshubhai Patel regime, which worked in close coordination with the VHP through the Khajuraho days.

In UP, the surrender to the foolproof vote-catching abilities of Hindutva looks complete as the VHP has decided to rake up Kashi and Mathura in addition to Ayodhya as an electoral issue, though from its 'non-political' platform. For tactical reasons, the BJP's official line remains that Kashi and Mathura are not on the agenda. "Ayodhya, of course, is. And we are not going to make any compromise on that," says Kalraj Mishra, the UP unit chief. But Mishra, like former party chief M.M. Joshi, is opposed to a resurgent Kalyan Singh, a key figure in the Ayodhya agitation.

Differences like these are mainly personal. But they are also on matters of policy, its absence or dichotomy. This was no more evident than in the gap between the initial opposition to the Dabhol power project and the Vajpayee regime's controversial decision to rush through the power-purchase agreement hours before it lost Parliament's mandate to rule. The consternation over this came to the fore when the RSS hosted a 'vichar baithak' in Nagpur in the third week of August. It was acknowledged that the undiluted opposition of the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, an RSS outfit, to the BJP approach only highlighted the absence of a cohesive policy.

For the VHP, though, economic policy is secondary. Hindutva, revolving around temple construction, and seeing a BJP leadership pliable to its whims are its priority. Kalyan comes in handy here, as on other counts. He is acceptable to the Sangh, the VHP as well as political elements within the party, given his experience in administration. That he belongs to a backward class adds to his strength—for, in UP, the BJP attempt is to create a brand of politics that synthesises Ram and Mandal.

The VHP prefers him over forward caste leaders like Joshi because he, as chief minister, had fully cooperated in the VHP operat .ion leading up to the masjid demolition in December 1992. He serves another purpose—he is a pawn at Advani's hand to counter Joshi who hopes to garner the support of anti-Advani sections and succeed him as party chief when his second consecutive term ends some 15 months later.

The changed scenario, marked by the emergence of non-Brahmin leaders in most parties, puts Kalyan in an advantageous position. Within a section of the Sangh too, Kalyan is seen as a better choice as a successor to Advani—he will be an ideal foil to counter the Brahmin-centric stance the RSS was earlier accused of propagating. What comes as a handicap for the BJP is its failure to formulate a guiding policy except its vague espousal of Hindutva. The VHP plans to cash in on this to propagate a more hawkish line. "If the BJP keeps compromising on issues like the uniform civil code and Kashmir, we will have our own way," declares a VHP joint general secretary. Following in its footsteps in taking an autonomous stance is the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch. It's even informally assisting a private petitioner who has approached the Bombay High Court against the Sena-BJP regime's decision to renew the Dabhol project.

 From going back to the cadres to seeking allies in the South, the BJP is trying to project itself as capable of coming to power with absolute majority the next time. But developments within don't look encouraging. At the moment, UP might provide some succour—the trend of non-BJP votes getting divided seems to indicate that. A win there, it hopes, will discredit non-BJP parties, helping the saffron family. But this may not bring order automatically. Nor will it dispel the confusion over policy matters.