EVEN before the BJP top-brass could begin the post-mortem into their poorer-than-expected showing, a host of voices from within the Sangh parivar have been attributing the downplaying of the Hindutva line for this "setback". The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leadership and a section of the BJP lay the blame at the door of the BJP’s "desertion of Ram".
Says a senior VHP functionary: "Our pressure on the BJP to play up the Hindutva line was ignored and the result is there for all to see." VHP Secretary General Acharya Giriraj Kishore told Outlook that the "cadre in were very disappointed. Unless there is an agitation no party can be successful; the BJP came to power riding on the Ayodhya agitation. The Hindutva agenda is powerful and anybody who wants to come to power will have to adopt it."
The gameplan of this powerful pressure group—with its allies in the BJP—was clear. The electorate needs to be polarised along pro-Hindutva and anti-Hindutva lines to fight, according to a senior BJP leader, the "growing tendency within all political parties to represent caste or community interests." On the ground, this meant an alliance with the BSP even with Mayawati as chief minister and despite strong opposition from the BJP’s own chief ministerial candidate Kalyan Singh.
The way the VHP looks at the situation, it was a "golden opportunity" to appropriate the Dalits within the ambit of Hindutva. "We can’t afford to lose the Dalits or push them towards conversion. And once we had supported a Dalit’s bid to be chief minister, the community’s support could never have gone to the anti-Hindutva forces as represented by the UF and Congress. Also, the BSP would have lost even the portion of the Muslim vote it received this time if it allied with the BJP. The battle-lines for the future would have been clear and we would have won in the long run," says a top VHP functionary.
In fact, senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi was said to be toeing this line when he advocated a tie-up with the BSP.
Says a BJP general secretary: "The point is that the BJP is a political party and has its own compulsions, though I will admit that the mood to align with the BSP was strong and that it fell through because of problems from their end—they are no fools and will look after their own interest. But then the marriage of a socio-religious agenda with a political one is never an easy task."
