Astride two horses

Asked why he had not gone to Ayodhya with Advani, Vajpayee said that those who were Ram bhakts had gone to Ayodhya but those who were desh bhakts had gone abroad

That Atal Bihari Vajpayee is a right man in the wrong party is a cliche. Still people use it because they have seen him rising above the BJP’s Hindutva line. A person, who can have the Gujarat chief minister drop the the conversion Bill on mere instructions over phone, cannot be communal in thinking. Liberals cite the example endlessly to convince themselves that Vajpayee is a cut above the RSS parivar.

Yet the occasional observations he makes leave even his well-wishers cold. When his secular instinct asserts itself, he is heart-warming. But when Hindu nationalism overtakes him, he is disappointing. What is his actual persona? Is he a person who is trying to desaffronise the BJP? Or, is he creating a lot of dust to mislead the intelligentsia? Is he a Dr Jekyll or a Mr Hyde?

When he succeeded in having Bangaru Laxman, a non-RSS Dalit, as his party head who, in turn, appealed to the Muslims to trust his party, Vajpayee looked like a person wanting to dismantle the communal ghetto in the BJP. But his speeches in the US were aimed at placating the hardliners in India and abroad.
It seemed strange that the same person, who vanquished their lobby in New Delhi, should say in New York all those things which they wanted to hear. Does he hide his real self behind the goody-goody image he emits? RSS ideologue K.N. Govindacharya, who has been edged out of office of the BJP secretary-general, says that Vajpayee is only a mukut (mask). If and when the chips are down, he will be on their side. So is their belief.

Yet, it is difficult to come to such a harsh conclusion because, when L. K. Advani led the Rath Yatra through the northern India, Vajpayee made it a point to leave the country. He stayed with me for a day in London where I was India’s High Commissioner at that time. Asked why he had not gone to Ayodhya with Advani, he said that those who were Ram bhakts had gone to Ayodhya but those who were desh bhakts had gone abroad. He was conscious of his liberal image and wanted to protect it.

Maybe, the two opposite pulls are tearing him apart. It seems he is trying to ride two horses at the same time. When he went to Nagpur to instal Laxman, he also visited the RSS headquarters and paid homage to Guru Golwalkar. Again, he used the word “swayamsevak” (connoting an RSS volunteer) at a speech in New York. But when he found the liberals up in arms, he sought to explain that what he meant was “desh sewak” (the country’s volunteer). True, he does not wear the RSS badge on his sleeves. But he is also careful to convey that he is not distant from it. His statement that the RSS is his soul has still not gone down the throat of those who have looked upon him as a man of consensus.

In matters of ideology, as in leadership, persons have to be unequivocal. Vajpayee lets both the images persist. One pleases one set of people and the other another. Just as he has told Pakistan Chief Executive, General Pervez Musharraf, that peace and terrorism cannot go together, he should also realise that communalism and secularism are two contradictory ideologies.

Vajpayee should realise that the reason why his liberal pronouncements go down well is the centrist sentiments he seeks to strengthen. They represent India’s ethos. Till Indira Gandhi came to power, the centrist or grey area was occupied by the Congress party. At times, it appears as if Vajpayee wants the BJP to occupy that territory, which is neither black nor white but reflects pluralism. He must be having that in mind.

If he did not, he would not have said, long after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, that the solution could still be found through talks. He has rebutted the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which says that the prefab pillars of the mandir are ready. Still, in reply to a question on the mandir, he says that he must get a two-thirds majority to build the India of his dreams. (Again, he issues a clarification that he had not the mandir in mind). He can fight the pro-Hindutva elements by taking them head on. Yet, the VHP people dominated the stage and the audience at the meetings held in the US.

One explanation of Vajpayee’s speeches given to me is that the extremists in India can create such a storm over the Hindutva that only a half-way strategy can stall it. He has his own ways to tame the shrew. It is not a secret that the BJP fundamentalists have not been happy with Vajpayee for some time. They would like to pull him down and they are at it.

Some time back, a few saffronised journalists and pro-RSS MPs met in Delhi to discuss steps to weaken Vajpayee and the liberals he supports. The strategy adopted is to put pressure on him to “lighten the burden” because “of his health.” Who among them will throw the first brick is difficult to say. But the whispering campaign has already gained momentum. So much so, a few NDA leaders have got scared. They want Vajpayee to steer a middle course. They did not like Vajpayee’s observation that he was a “swayamsevak”. A few of them even expressed their unhappiness openly over the remark. That may partly explain the prompt contradiction.

In the face of the saffron crowd trying to deface India, Vajpayee needs the support of the liberal lobby the most. Why is he trying to alienate it through his pro-Hindutva remarks? He is not an ideal person for the liberals. But he is the most acceptable to them. They have no alternative to him at present because the political situation in the country is developing in such a way that Congress president Sonia Gandhi is not emerging as a rival. The Congressmen themselves admit it.

The initiative Vajpayee has taken by having Laxman to retrieve the ground, which the prime minister had lost in his bid to placate the hard-liners, is welcome. But this is not enough. He has to save so many fields from getting Hinduised. His priority should be education, which is being saffronised by Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi with a vengeance. His aim is to rewrite history. He has appointed in many top institutions persons with no credentials except their pro-Hindutva leanings.

The effort Vajpayee has launched to help the BJP cast off its anti-Muslim bias cannot go far if the party remains a member of the RSS parivar. He should not only distance himself from the RSS but should be seen to be doing so. That a senior RSS leader like K. Suryanarayan has attacked him for going away from the RSS is good for Vajpayee. He should cut off his parivar connections completely.

The image Vajpayee enjoys, particularly after his visit to the US, should help him to join issue with the extremists in the BJP and the RSS. But will he do so? Seldom has he been decisive when it came to choosing between the status quo and something new.

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