IT was a mere expression of his private view, perhaps the first time BJP President L.K. Advani has allowed himself the indiscretion of stating his opinion in public. This trifle apart, his declaration that A.B. Vajpayee and not he would be the prime minister if the BJP comes to power was still good enough to raise eyebrows.
Does the BJP, after the public display of indiscipline in Gujarat and the confusion in Uttar Pradesh, still stand a chance to form the government next year? If not, what was the need for Advanis statement?
Within the BJP, the debate has hijacked the spotlight from the issue of growing indisci-pline. And its timing ensures that the issue will dominate, at least informally, the November 7-9 national executive meeting in Pune and the three-day plenary beginning a day later in Bombay, where about 1.5 lakh delegates are expected.
"Vajpayee is the best man to run a government in the given situation," says an Advani confidant. To be sure, Advani has admitted as much several times in private circles. The reasons are clear: a hung Parliament is a strong likelihood and other parties are sure to stall the BJP from staking a claim to form the government even if it is the single largest party. Advani is pragmatic enough to realise that Vajpayee has relatively more acceptability outside the BJP. Implicitly, this reinforces the view of Vajpayee as a statesman in the Congress mould as against Advanis image as a puritan for whom the art of compromise is taboo.
"The two leaders have worked in perfect tandem since 1973 and have been equal partners in all major decisions," Bihar unit General Secretary Saryu Roy stresses. "Lust for power cant divide them." That may be so, but the issue at hand is the marked difference in how people perceive the two.
Advani begins his second and last two-year term as the party chief at the Bombay plenary. Some cite his belief in the one-man-one-post dictum and say his declaration just states the obvioushe had quit as the BJP parliamentary leader after he was elected party chief in 1993. But the statement serves another purpose: its a subtle signal to other leaders to stay out of the race. The idea seems to be to build a consensus in the face of growing indiscipline.
In a related development, the RSS has decided that no pracharak loaned to the BJP would accept tickets for Parliament so that they can be in a position to settle problems and indiscipline from a position of strength instead of cultivating lust for tickets themselves. The BJP too has decided not to give tickets to new entrants. Gujarat clearly has been a good lesson.
Advani, certainly, is not trying to project his magnanimity by sacrificing something he doesnt have: the BJP has taken care to come out with a foreign policy documenta must for any government in the making. While advocating continuity, it was also careful enough to separate "Islamic fundamentalism"which it feels is the greatest threat to world peaceand "Islam as a religion, which like all other major faiths, is a religion of love, peace and brotherhood". It also solicits the support of "like-minded" Islamic and non-Islamic countries.
Besides restoring internal equilibrium and broadbasing the exterior image, the plenarys other concern will be to fix a charter for agitation in the run-up to the elections. Here, the issues pick themselves: criminali-sation of politics; rupee devaluation; the Governments failure to stall the Brown Amendment; Pakistans role in Kashmir; the partys call to link Bangladeshi infiltra-tion with the prevailing "atmosphere of security unpreparedness". The days of mandir rhetoric are clearly behind the BJP.
By renegotiating with Enron on its own terms, the BJP-Shiv Sena is also trying to target the Congress as having made capital out of deals with multinationals in the name of liberalisation.
Vajpayees candidature may not yet mean much: the BJP has to first emerge the single largest partyif not as the party with absolute majority. If anything, Advani has hinted that the BJP hasnt called off the hunt.
Tags