NEW DELHI, Feb 4: Consensus-building is the new byword of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Gone are the Trishul types, instead, there is a pragmatism which is reflected in its 55-page manifesto released here today.Party president L K Advani said the party would ask for votes for both the BJP and its allies, but ruled out a Common Minimum Programme before the elections. However, the manifesto contains the contours of a possible post-poll CMP on the controversial issues found objectionable by its allies. This is a clear signal to all the 11 regional parties which have joined hands with the BJP.
On Ayodhya, the party has talked about building a ``magnificent temple'' to replace the makeshift structure that exists there today but only after ``exploring all consensual, legal and constitutional means''. The emphasis here is on dialogue.
The BJP has continued to project the Uniform Civil Code as a gender issue but this time it has gone a step further. It has promised to set up a Law Commission to formulateit after examining all the personal laws. A Law Commission will naturally talk to people of all religions in order to cull out the progressive aspects of the different personal laws to evolve a uniform civil code. This too will take time and involve a dialogue with all communities.
The party has clearly stated its position on Article 370 which confers a special status on Jammu and Kashmir -- that it stands for its abrogation. But this has to be read in tandem with its promise to set up a commission ``to review the Constitution'' in the light of its functioning after fifty years. The abolition of Article 370 cannot be delinked from the exercise to review the whole Constitution. In any case, it calls for an amendment in the Constitution which requires a two-thirds majority, which the BJP is unlikely to get. The exercise will not only take time but be part of a process which entails a dialogue.
Further, unlike in 1996, the manifesto makes no mention of the deportation of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh,and refers only to identifying them. There is a greater realism in the party about the legal problems of defining who is an Indian and proving who is not in a court of law. The magnitude of the exercise is also mind-boggling, for by the BJP's reckoning, there are 1.6 crore Bangladeshis in the country.
The party undertook numerous brainstorming sessions to evolve a middle path on most issues. On the one hand, the BJP has signalled that it believes in a strong state by reiterating that it ``will exercise the option to induct nuclear weapons''. On the other hand, its silence on the question of deployment of the Prithvi and Agni missiles is a concession to the US. Unlike 1996, when the party's election document clearly promised this, Manifesto 1998 makes no mention of it. It only refers to the development of Agni. It has also tried to synthesize its position on the economy between the `swadeshiwallas' and those espousing a laissez faire approach in its ranks. While it has assured that all eight fasttrack power projects will start construction in 1998, it has also indicated a toughness of stance by stating that Foreign Direct Investment is welcome ``in a non-predatory role in joint ventures rather than in 100 percent subsidiaries''. Its earlier position on having MNCs only for computer chips and not potato chips has been reformulated. The manifesto is suitably vague about the non-priority areas in which the FDIs will be restricted, but Advani refused to elaborate on them. All he would say was that the Government ``will spell it out further when we come to power'' but that it will be ``in the direction of further growth''.
The party's ambivalence is a clear sign that it is well on its way to becoming a centrist mainstream force, trying to be all things to all people.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
