George and friends

All this may not mean the end of the golden days of the government, but the balance has tilted against the BJP, so self-righteous in style, so corrupt in practice

The NDA government kindled hopes of a better future in certain circles. A weary nation, having experienced the rise and fall of the not so united fronts, turned to Atal Bihari Vajpayee for political stability. He was the new icon — idolised by not just his followers but his erstwhile detractors as well — ushering the rule of the saints in an area of darkness.

The politically untidy socialists, led by the stormy petrel of the Emergency days, chose to leap in the dark by joining the BJP bandwagon. So did several other leaders who had built up their reputations in the United Front government by espousing secular causes. They preferred unity to acrimony and agreed to share power with the BJP at the Centre and the states. They realised that there was something to be gained by declaiming socialist/secular slogans. For all their previous scorn of Hindutva and for the BJP, they were now beggars and not choosers.

The spurious unities worked for a while. The prime minister’s personal charisma, assiduously promoted by the media, served to cement the NDA partners and convey to the electorate a semblance of political stability at the Centre. The opposition parties being weak, divided and dispirited reinforced this factor. The Congress, enfeebled by its diminishing influence in Uttar Pradesh, was riven with dissension over Sonia Gandhi’s leadership that ultimately led to Sharad Pawar’s exit. And then came the war in Kargil, a blessing in disguise for the BJP-led government. Though the conduct and performance of our defence minister raised questions, the media sang paeans of praise for the prime minister and catalogued his skills as a leader of peace and war. Some discovered in him the qualities of a Lloyd George and Winston Churchill.

Ultimately, though, this regime has managed to survive owing to the personal loyalty of its coalition partners to the prime minister. Such is their fondness and obsessive devotion to him that they seem oblivious of the larger developments which are unfolding in the country, including the impact of ill-conceived economic reforms on the underclass. They are not even at odds with the extremists, who are busy rewriting the country’s secular agenda. They were unmoved by the murder of a Christian priest and the desecration of churches.

They assail the Congress, perhaps justifiably, but not the Hindutva brigade. Their sensitivities numbed, they have turned a blind eye to the climate of intolerance created by the VHP-Bajrang Dal, the saffronisation of education, and the vilification campaign against liberal-left academics.

By George, the past has ceased to be a reference point for the followers of Ram Manohar Lohia and Acharya Narendra Dev. What, in brief, explains the palpable gap between what they claimed to represent and what they really stand for at the beginning of this millennium? The answer is simple enough. What moved George Fernandes & Co were not ideological niceties and the socialist turns of phrase but electoral needs, and these demanded a hard line against, say, the Rabri Devi government. They needed to capture Bihar, in the way the East India Company seized control of Bengal. And with the BJP’s support, they had the ideal weapon at hand. This is what bonded their political activities together and which determined the nature of their relations with the BJP.

Now, of course, the plot to overthrow a democratically elected government in Bihar has been aborted by an act of indiscretion committed at 3, Krishna Menon Marg by a friend and ally of George Fernandes. The end result is for everybody to see. Rabri Devi has gained a fresh lease of life. The coalition is under threat following Mamata Banerjee’s noisy departure to Kolkata. The PMO is in disarray, with Brajesh Mishra placed in the dock by the Samata Party itself. RSS leaders fume and fret. And a tired-looking prime minister is caught in the nutcrackers.

Corruption in public life is endemic but not all pervasive: the unblemished record of the Left Front governments in Bengal, Kerala and Tripura illustrates this. Elsewhere, though, one era of corruption succeeds another, and the victory of one party merely spurs the other into making a new bid for control of the fruits of office. Regardless of the BJP’s own self-image, nurtured by the hollow pretensions of the RSS, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Having formed a government at the Centre for the first time after decades of job-hunting, the predictable has happened. Today, the myth of a clean party lies shattered; in fact, party stalwarts, having been torn between loyalty to the RSS creed and the compelling demands of governance, may find it increasingly difficult to undo the damage done to their image. Corruption in the party is rampant, and, for this reason, Bangaru Laxman should have done his homework and taken a few lessons from his more enterprising BJP friends in Lucknow or Ahmedabad. He should not have settled for so little.

For an average voter, the crucial point is that Bangaru Laxman has unwittingly demonstrated that even a swayamsewak, imbued with a divine mission, is not only the unabashed scrambler for advantage at the top but is also prone to accepting rupees and dollars. All this may not mean the end of the golden days of the government, but the balance has tilted against the BJP, so self-righteous in style, so corrupt in practice. This may also not be the beginning of the end for the BJP: India’s political gold diggers don’t give in that easily to retire voluntarily to Kashi or Badrinath. They would still want to impart value-based education to us so that we eschew, for the health and wealth of the nation, materialism and reach the commanding heights of spirituality. They would continue to proclaim, after having compromised our national interests, their loyalty to the nation and their commitment to value-based politics. They would repeat ad nauseam how foreign agencies have tried destabilising the nation in order to thwart the steady march towards globalisation. By George, this will not carry conviction.

I trust Arun Shourie, the crusader against corruption in public life, will agree, and that his sphinx-like silence will not be interpreted as an endorsement of the recent murky happenings. There is nothing to probe. Judicial commissions yield nothing. They take time, use up scarce resources, and then their findings get consigned to the dustbin. Those guilty of demolishing the Babri Masjid are at large; those guilty of instigating the horrific riots in Mumbai still call the shots. In this case, though, the candid camera has said it all. Only a new leadership and a new political combination can salvage something from the wreck.

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