Anti-Congressism had emerged since 1967 as an ideological position of sorts. Its theory and practice were elaborately worked out by Ram Manohar Lohia. In that year the Congress was thrown out of power in as many as 10 states, and the fronts that came to power had only anti-Nehru-Gandhism as a common factor. From 1998, Sonia Gandhi’s leadership of the Congress united them. To them she did not merely represent the “dynasty” but she was also a foreigner, a Christian, a woman and totally alien to Indian politics. In fact, it is anti-Sonia vitriol that had brought them together. Looking back, one wonders what else could have united those diverse parties. Just two years back, in 1996, the BJP had failed to get support from most of these regional and secular parties. Consequently the first Vajpayee government collapsed after 13 days. The difference between 1996 and 1998 was the arrival of Sonia on the political scene in the latter year.

Now we also learn from L.K. Advani’s autobiography that he and Mulayam Singh Yadav conspired to keep Sonia away from prime ministership in 1999. Neither of them has mentioned Sharad Pawar’s role. Pawar had revolted in the Congress on the same issue and tried to unite the anti-Sonia Congressmen with the other parties of the same refrain. Apparently, their campaign proved to be politically useful to them. The anti-Sonia (anti-Congress) parties formed the NDA governments in 1998 and 1999.

All those references have become broadly redundant now. Sonia’s refusal to accept the prime ministership totally shocked them. Their one-point agenda proved to be absolutely worthless. Even the harsh critics of Narendra Modi now agree that he won on the issue of performance and governance, though he had consolidated his constituency on Hindutva initially. There is a big debate within the BJP (inspired by the RSS) whether to highlight Hindutva or governance. Many in the RSS now feel that governance, character of the leadership and credibility are more important in the campaign than militant Hinduism, which has lost its appeal. Advani is visibly keen to show his “liberal” and even “secular” face to attract the neutral vote bank. In this case, “neutral” means those who are neither with the Congress nor with the BJP and are not impressed by Left rhetoric.

... contd.