The party of the gods likes to think of itself as smart, on the ball. It particularly does not like to be caught napping, especially in the public arena. In fact, BJP managers always paint the Congress as the easily tripped up, unwieldy force. Imagine then the deep dismay when the party not only found itself on the mat in the critical vote of confidence moved by the Manmohan Singh government, but also saw that the sting operation it had orchestrated with a TV news channel was not going to be aired.
There had, after all, been a brief rush of adrenaline when its MPs so dramatically produced two bags of cash in Parliament (the first time this has ever happened in the Lok Sabha). The clinching evidence, though, was meant to be the sting footage of Congress and Samajwadi Party leaders offering bribes to BJP MPs to vote in favour of the government. When the so-called "sting" wasn’t aired, it was the BJP that deflated like a punctured tyre.
Two days later, a senior BJP leader was telling journalists, "If the whistle-blower turns the tables on us, there’s little we can do." Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani too said the same at a press conference: "I have not understood how this channel did not broadcast the tape." Notwithstanding the go-getter attitude, the BJP’s winning quotient has always been somewhat exaggerated by its spin. This time round, the party had not just lost the numbers game, it had lost control of the plot.
Still, all is not lost. There are still certain responses that the BJP can tap into. One is the genuine disgust with the moral low touched during the confidence vote. But that is somewhat papered over by this great national cynicism: the public is no longer shocked, it’s just another example of large-scale political corruption. The Manmohan government is also helped by the fact that large sections of the media are so enamoured of the N-deal, they have come to believe that the ends justifies the means. Besides there is no reason to believe the BJP would have acted differently if the boot were on the other foot.
Sting-a-ling (From left) BJP MPs Mahavir Bhagora, Ashok Argal and Faggan Singh Kulaste who were ‘approached’ with bribes
Indeed, it’s not the moral issues that are troubling the BJP. What has become a cause of fundamental concern is the fact that in an era of coalition deal-making, the party has been outdone by the Congress. The saffron party hassuddenly realised that it does not have effective "managers", a euphemism for those adept at persuading MPs and MLAs to switch sides for a political or cash consideration. Advani said quite honestly that "it is a matter of great sadness for me that so many of our MPs switched sides by cross-voting or abstaining during the vote. I can neither explain nor defend it."
What was more embarrassing for the second-rung leadership was the fact that a day before the vote they had told the party and parivar bosses that the situation in the BJP was under control "but allies like the Shiv Sena and Akali Dal could not be trusted". Although one Akali Dal and one Sena MP did desert the ranks, it was the BJP boat that really leaked with four MPs voting in favour of the UPA and four abstaining. The next day all eight were expelled by party president Rajnath Singh. Meanwhile, in what has become typical in the BJP, leaders were busy passing the blame on to colleagues. As one party worker commented: "If the government had been defeated, then everyone would have taken credit and posed for pictures". But then success always has many parents.
A veteran party leader summed up the situation in one four-word line: "We need a Pramod Mahajan". Suddenly, party strategists were lamenting the late leader who had no dearth of in-house critics during his lifetime. A party insider explained the ‘lack of a Mahajan’ cogently: "Somewhere down the line, Pramod had the courage to realise that he would have to sacrifice his personal reputation for the larger interests of a party that was in the process of growth. Today, no prominent leader is willing to risk their personal reputation in any risky enterprise. Most of them still believe they have a shot at the top job in the party (something that a Mahajan knew he would never get). Moreover, with the exception of Narendra Modi, no BJP CM is an effective "manager or deal-maker". In Jharkhand, for instance, where a critical deal had to be struck with Shibu Soren’s five MPs, it was a political novice who negotiated the terms. Naturally, the Congress—which seems to have a real edge in striking controversial arrangements with Soren—landed the five MPs.
At the Ashoka Road national HQ, BJP workers summed up the prevailing mood in the party. "We feel like idiots," said one. "Our president Bangaru Laxman gets caught with a paltry Rs 1 lakh and when our MPs are offered bribes of Rs 9 crore we don’t even have it on tape!" Indeed there is a growing argument that for all the apparent lack of focus, the Congress knows how to exercise power and make people yield to it. The fact that three MPs from Karnataka switched sides is also a cause of concern since the BJP government there—a first for them in a southern state—was sworn in just two months ago.
If the events of last week are tallied, it really adds up to a loss of face for the BJP and NDA. Certainly, the bigger political concern is the rise of the Third Front and Mayawati’s growing importance on the national stage. But the BJP still has many issues it will play to the hilt. Price rise is of course the key one now. The BJP will also highlight the issue of political morality; the party does expect the shameful scenes enacted during the trust vote to impact its core middle- class constituency. The government’s decision to demolish the Ram Setu bridge (presumably a "thank you gesture" to the DMK government in Tamil Nadu) should also act as a booster tonic for the larger parivar cadres.
