Musings of a new liberal

Musings of a new liberal
Neerja Chowdhury

Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s "musings" are clearly an exercise to refurbish his liberal image, which had been dented of late and to reassure allies whose confidence in him was shaken by the recent developments on Ayodhya. But the Kumarakom statement may also turn out to be a milestone in the BJP's evolution as a party.

First of all, there has been a qualitative change in the situation since Vajpayee's first statement that the Ram Mandir was an expression of "national sentiment." In the last few weeks, the Government's feedback has been that the temple has ceased to be an emotive issue with people, even in Uttar Pradesh where elections are due in a a year's time. It is the bread and butter issues and those related to their safety and well-being which are agitating people. The mood in the country is changing rapidly. Onion prices, after all, had brought the Congress to power with a vengeance in Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in the past.

It is not for nothing that UP Chief Minister Rajnath Singh has concentrated his energies on wooing the farmers, who have been on the warpath with a slump in the price of their products, instead of using the Ayodhya controversy to get mileage for his party. His government observed Kisan Day in every district in the state on December 23. Vajpayee devoted 80 per cent of his speech at the party's national executive meet to the farmers' concerns. The BJP's apex decision-making body consciously shifted the focus from Ayodhya to agriculture.

Three considerations must have faced Vajpayee as he released his musings from the backwaters of Kerala. One, to increase the stability of his coalition government which has been facing jolts on the temple issue. The BJP's partners had no option but to support the Government in the Lok Sabha. But without the unambiguously worded Kumarakom statement, the allied parties, particularly those who face polls in their states in April, would have been under tremendous pressure to delink from the BJP, especially if the Dharam Sansad of `sadhus'gave the VHP the go-ahead to start building the temple in Ayodhya. The VHP is parading a model of the temple and has made it clear that it would heed the sadhus and not the PM or the courts.

Two, the PM has shown his willingness to get off the "beaten track" to find a solution to the Kashmir problem. The international community has been urging both India and Pakistan to move away from their orthodox mindsets.

Three, the PM tried to undo the damage done to his own image which had taken a beating. It is this image, built over fifty years, which had catapulted him from 11, Ashoka Road to 7, Race Course Road. If Advani's politics took the BJP from 2 to 182 in the Lok Sabha, it was Atal Bihari Vajpayee's image that installed him as the head of a 300 plus member NDA government. The "musings" project him once again to be bigger than the BJP, the umbrella holding the NDA together, and a grand reconciler of conflicts, of Kashmir and of Ayodhya.

That's not all. The PM has taken a calculated gamble. He has issued a warning to the VHP and the RSS not to push him beyond a point or else the government would have no option but to intervene.

Politics these days is all about flip- flops as politicians try and manage the contradictions which beset them. But the Kerala musings is no off the cuff remark which can be torn out of context. It is in cold print to which Vajpayee has committed himself and his party.

Realising the implications of Vajpayee's words, the RSS can be expected to try and rein in its hotheads, even as they continue to make suitable noises about the construction of the temple. They have nothing to gain from the demise of a BJP led government. At least it is possible to implement a part, if not the whole, of their agenda under a friendly government, be it the rewriting of the text books or calling a halt to conversions, which would not be possible if a Sonia Gandhi or a Mulayam Singh or a Jyoti Basu comes to power.

Furthermore, if the hot heads force a situation in which Vajpayee has to evict `kar sevaks' from the disputed site, it could lead to a major realignment, with Vajpayee coming to occupy the centrist space which the Congress had occupied traditionally. In such a scenario, both the BJP and the Congress could break. However, if the BJP stays together under his leadership in such a situation, it would be tantamount to cutting the umbilical chord with the RSS. Either way, the party would be distancing itself from the RSS agenda.

The unstated message of the "musings" is clear -- -- that the BJP has evolved as an entity separate from the RSS, and that this process cannot be reversed so easily. And that it is Vajpayee who will set the party's agenda in the months to come.

The message from Kumarakom: the BJP has evolved separate from the RSS