Party time for Vajpayee

Party time for Vajpayee
Coomi Kapoor

For most of his long political life Atal Bihari Vajpayee was compelled to follow the dictates of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS); to defy the organisation which nurtured him would have spelt political suicide. But at the fag end of his career there is an extraordinary role reversal. As prime minister, Vajpayee can afford to formulate policies in the government and the party which are anathema to the RSS. The Sangh can oppose, beyond a point, only at its own peril.

The BJP's national council meeting at Nagpur, ironically the seat of the RSS, witnessed a dramatic shift in the power equations, with Vajpayee in ascendance over his long-time adversary. The new president of the BJP, Bangaru Laxman, virtually announced the cutting of the umbilical cord with the RSS. It was the Prime Minister's agenda which the party would follow in future and not that of the RSS, Laxman asserted, while announcing a major dilution of the BJP's saffron agenda. The abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, the building of a Ram Janmabhoomi temple and the implementation of a uniform civil code were no longer the core issues of the party and were irrelevant at the present time, Laxman declared. Undermining the aggressive Hindutva policy of the past, he went out of his way to extend a welcoming hand to Muslims. On the economic front, the party made an equally radical departure. The BJP's earlier definition of `swadeshi' was stood on its head.

Laxman's presidential address was no individual aberration. It bore the stamp of Vajpayee. In fact, the prime minister's principal speech writer Sudheendra Kulkarni is believed to have contributed substantially to the BJP president's 47-page text. Laxman's appointment as party president was in any case a coup masterminded by Vajpayee, who in the past generally allowed L.K. Advani and the RSS to decide such matters.

Advani's preference was reportedly for the ailing Jana Krishnamurthy or for the continuation of the even frailer Kushabhau Thakre into a second term. Laxman, a minister of state in the Vajpayee government, was a dark horse. The BJP's first Dalit and South Indian head showed his gratitude to Vajpayee by touching his feet when the prime minister visited the RSS headquarters while in Nagpur. It was significant that none of the RSS top brass was there to greet Vajpayee when he came calling.

Laxman's appointment is all the more remarkable given that his nomination had to be approved by the RSS. Considering the cool relations between Vajpayee and RSS òf40ósarsangh chalak K.S. Sudarshan and with Sudarshan not hiding, at his òf40ódarshans, his dislike of the government's policies for which he holds Vajpayee personally responsible, it is surprising that he did not nix Vajpayee's nominee.

The prime minister's new found assertiveness has emerged largely after his second (third if you count the 13-day dress rehearsal) term. One recalls the pathetic scene at the swearing in of Vajpayee's first Cabinet in 1998. Vajpayee's face was ashen, while Sudarshan sitting in the front row exuded confidence. After a midnight intervention by the RSS, Vajpayee was obliged to exclude the two men whom he most wanted in the new Cabinet: Pramod Mahajan and Jaswant Singh. During his first eight months in office, senior party members such as Govindacharya, Uma Bharati and Virendra Singh publicly criticised the government with the RSS's tacit support. Party president Kushabhau Thakre did nothing to tick off the dissidents for undermining the government. Instead he insisted that the prime minister drop Madanlal Khurana from the Cabinet as he had committed the unpardonable offence of attacking the RSS while defending the government.

The tables have now been turned. Sushma Swaraj, who was merely echoing the views of the RSS on the government's handling of the Kashmir problem, finds herself isolated and without a ministerial portfolio despite her vocal talents. The Machiavellian Govindacharya, once the most powerful office bearers in the BJP thanks to Advani, actually contemplates quitting full-time politics and returning to his alma mater, the RSS. The temperamental Uma Bharati, despite her powerful backers, cannot persuade Vajpayee to reinstate her as a minister. Jagdish Shettigar, until recently a strident critic of the government's anti-swadeshi policies, meekly endorses the party's new economic line.

The metamorphosis of Vajpayee from a passive, rather reclusive outsider to activist calling the shots in party and government can be attributed to several factors. Vajpayee's anguished remarks such as ``Who asks me?'' and ``Where can I go from this party'' after the Babri Masjid demolition were reflective of his near irrelevance in the BJP in the decade when Advani was in full control. During this period Advani even appropriated Vajpayee's natural position as Leader of the Opposition as also his New Delhi parliamentary constituency. The decline in Advani's political fortunes following the hawala case brought Vajpayee's back to the premier public position in the party. This was a role for which the RSS, at the behest of the late Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, had in fact been grooming him for since long back. Nevertheless, Advani still retained control of the party.

Today Advani, being a senior member of the government, is caught in a dilemma which puts him at a distinct disadvantage. He has to reinvent himself as a moderate leader in order to win the confidence of the NDA allies just in case the top slot ever falls vacant. There is disenchantment in the RSS with his new avatar and the Sangh looks to leaders like Murli Manohar Joshi to articulate its agenda. In the bargain Vajpayee and his advisers have effectively used the levers of power and patronage in the government to convert many of Advani's former camp followers like Yashwant Sinha, Pramod Mahajan and Narendra Modi into the prime minister's loyalists.

Probably the biggest trump card Vajpayee has today in dealing with the RSS is simply the realisation in the Sangh Parivar that at this juncture it has more to lose than Vajpayee if the uneasy relationship is formally severed. A parting of ways would not merely lead to a split in the BJP, it could possibly strengthen the NDA's position. Many Congress dissidents deprived of power and patronage for long would be eager to join a Vajpayee-led BJP minus the RSS factor. It seems the man who was seen by RSS as the BJP's òf40ómukhauta could eventually turn out to be its real face.

Vajpayee and his advisers have used the levers of power and patronage to turn several Advani camp followers into the prime minister's loyalists