Opinion What’s the big idea?

The BJP can claim some satisfaction in forcing an obdurate government into finally responding to scam related issues. The results of this response remain to be seen. But now the BJP will have to exercise very delicate political judgment and not overplay its hand. Our political parties are naturally inclined to hubris; and the hubris of an opposition that has smelled blood can be as self-defeating as the arrogance of the ruling party.The BJP is banking on corruption being a significant political issue. But while there is great outrage on corruption,there is no mass political momentum behind the outrage. Previous occasions on which corruption became,even if briefly,a large social and political movement were exceptional. The anti-corruption element of the JP movement and V.P. Singh’s revolt after Bofors had three things in common. Both had aligned to a broader set of social movements. Both were ultimately aided by the fact that there was serious defection within the Congress. And both had an alternative locus,even if briefly,of moral innocence. None of the three conditions now obtains: there is no real social movement in politics; no senior Congress leader is likely to jump ship making the party vulnerable from inside. But most importantly,it is still very difficult for the BJP to project itself as innocent on the corruption issue. Last time it lost an election that was its to win,in Rajasthan,was due to perceptions of corruption and it may very well end up repeating the feat in Karnataka and Uttarakhand. The BJP still has another dilemma. Rightly or wrongly,in terms of personal projection,there is no BJP leader at the national level who cuts a trustworthy sympathetic figure. Let us grant that the reputation of the prime minister and the Congress president has diminished because of the recent scandals. But comparatively,they still have the benefit of the doubt. Whether this is fair or not is beside the point. It is a political reality. What this means is that while there is a desire to hold the prime minister accountable,there is little political clamour to see him humiliated. He has got away with so many sins of omission. This is not just because of the support of the Congress president,but also because there is still a residual sense of the alternatives not being too palatable. The BJP will have to play this game delicately; it has to force accountability without appearing to be obsessive in a way that comes across as unsympathetic.Finally,the one dramatic shift at the current moment is that large swathes of the ruling classes have lost their credibility: journalists,bureaucrats and even judges are coming into the line of fire. This can result in one of two equilibriums: either a free-for-all of dirty accusations; or a reining back in of the anti-corruption outrage in an act of mutual complicity. Neither will be conducive to sustaining anti-corruption politics. The BJP has to be careful in not falling into a trap of its own making. Two subtle shifts have already taken place. These portend some dangers for how it plays the issues. First,in a generalised climate of suspicion,even-handedness to most people means targeting both parties. Even the Supreme Court has muddied the waters by going back to 2001 and opening the door for scrutiny of everything from bank loans to policy decisions. So the room has opened up for “what we did,they did even worse” kind of argument,now backed up by a free-for-all in state agencies. Again,the truth will not be at issue. What will emerge is a “plague on both your houses” kind of syndrome. Second,the CAG report’s overdramatic figure of a “loss” around Rs 1,70,000 crore has caught the public imagination. But strictly speaking,it is a figure based on contestable assumptions. But it also includes the cost incurred by policy decisions taken during the NDA’s tenure. There is also now a great confusion about the different levels of this issue. There is the issue of auction being the right policy choice; there is the issue of whether within the framework that government settled upon there were procedural anomalies; and finally there is the issue of corruption per se. Unfortunately,all three issues are now being treated on par as an undifferentiated whole. And the more policy choices are confused with corruption,the more vulnerable the NDA becomes. Even “non-corrupt” policy choices will now be deemed suspicious,because of a bizarre logic of retrospective assessment. But the BJP seems to be abetting this confusion,and this will come to haunt it. The Congress will also try and use another tactic: the fear of Hindutva. Much of this will be,as Digvijaya Singh’s example shows,callow. But there are already signs that the BJP will fall for the bait. Conversations leaked by WikiLeaks should not be taken too literally; there are layers of complexity in interpreting them. But the BJP would have been better off ignoring Rahul Gandhi’s remarks. Or it should have had the imagination to say (in its own terms) that yes indeed,India has remained secular because of a particular civilisational ethos. If the majority community begins to tolerate terrorism within its ranks,it indeed will be a huge problem for India. In short,instead of denial or defensiveness,which is its usual mode of operation,the BJP could have used this occasion to articulate a more affirmative and inclusive vision of its own ideology. There are signs that the RSS is backing away from its restrained tone on Ayodhya. If the BJP has any political imagination,or any understanding of Hinduism,it ought to now make a dramatic gesture. It has made its point about history. But now it could help transcend that history by eschewing plans for dramatic temples at Ayodhya. Instead,push for Ayodhya as a shared space,where Ram becomes a symbol of peace and compassion rather than a threatening structure of stone. Instead of constantly being on the defensive,the BJP could at one stroke lay to rest so many ghosts that still haunt it. It needs a new imaginative politics.Finally,there is the space of ideas. What are the big ideas on corruption that the BJP wants to champion? Does it want to take the lead in political finance? Does it want to take the lead in police reform? If it does not occupy this space quickly,mere negativism will not take it too far. It still needs to show that it can be more than an opposition party.

The writer is president,Centre for Policy Research,Delhi

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