Laxman separates from Ram to woo new vote-bank

Laxman separates from Ram to woo new vote-bank
NEERJA CHOWDHURY

NEW DELHI, AUG 29: The BJP is now looking for a new support base everywhere, but particularly in Uttar Pradesh where elections are due next year, and where the party's popularity has declined significantly. (While polls in UP are slated to be held in a year's time, they could be advanced after the formation of Uttranachal on November 1.)

The attempt by new party president Bangaru Laxman at Nagpur to woo Muslims -- which was the most significant aspect of the just-concluded two-day meet -- is aimed not so much at getting the support of the minorities, at least not in the immediate future, as at winning over liberal Hindus nationwide. Traditionally, they have not been the hard-core supporters of the BJP but voted for the party in large numbers both in 1998 and then again in 1999 because of Vajpayee, who represented the liberal face of the BJP.

The party has had an appeal for many of them because of its nationalistic approach to several issues, but they have felt uneasy with the party's animus towards the minorities.

BJP managers are shrewd enough to know that the Muslims are not waiting to drop in the BJP's lap. Given its history, the BJP will have to prove its credentials with minorities long enough in the months and years to come before they begin to trust the party, particularly as there have been innumerable attacks on Christians and churches in the past couple of years.

The BJP had put its Hindutva agenda on the back burner when it formed a coalition Government in 1998. In Nagpur, the Laxman-headed party took one more step away from `Ram', in an attempt to become a mainstream organisation, and to take the place occupied once by the Congress, which shows no signs of rejuvenation.

This was a goal that Vajapyee had set himself but now, Messrs Advani, Laxman and others are also going along with it. Advani's words delinking governance from ideology is one more indication of which way the wind is blowing.

As it is, the BJP has hijacked the Congress' agenda on the econommic front. While the Congress is agonising over whether or not Manmohanomics led to the party's defeat -- with Manmohan Singh himself in the doghouse -- the BJP has shown more ruthlessness in brushing aside the reservations, and going headlong into the second generation of reforms. The opposition to them has come from within its own ranks in Nagpur and from within the extended family.

On the social front also, the party has undone the Supreme Court verdict on relaxing marks for Dalits in promotions with the help of a Constitutional amendment, while the Congress has not yet been able to set up a cell in the AICC on OBCs simply because it has not been able to take a position on whether or not to go in for reservations for them in educational institutions.

Politically, the party, unlike the Congress, has come to terms with the reality of coalitions being the norm in India in the foreseeable future. Bangaru Laxman's persuasive words about minorities also underscore the internationalisation of this reality. The BJP knows it will have to deal with regional parties as allies for sometime to come and take into account their sensibilities on minorities.

Soon after taking over as party chief, Bangaru Laxman distanced the party from the RSS agenda, asking party members not to be apologetic about putting core issues like Article 370, Uniform Civil Code and Ayodhya on the back burner. He even made it clear that the BJP would not brook criticism from within the Sangh Parivar beyond a point.

With polls in five states due next year, Nagpur has been an attempt to brew an electoral potion which is a mix of a liberal rhetoric about minorities and a nationalistic fervour created through Pakistan bashing. Only time will tell whether or not it will work.

The party's political resolution also held out a stern warning to Pakistan, for its cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, which is calculated to play on the anger felt by a large number of people after Kargil, Kandahar and more recently, the killings of Amarnath yatris, as to gloss over the Government's shortcomings.

Such is the logic of power, and of India's diversity and democratic form of government, that the BJP is coming to terms with the fact that any group which hopes to rule Delhi cannot do so by antagonising one community. In the process, the party's own character may be undergoing a change which may turn out to be more than tactical.