Lonely at the top

IT was genuine exasperation and disgust at the anarchy within the NDA that caused the prime minister’s offer to resign. The offer was made in full knowledge that all those around him, the ones who are “willing to wound and yet afraid to strike”, would not only be down on their knees beseeching him to stay but flat on their bellies in a spectacular show reserved only for designated deities.

India’s charismatic politics can be explained in several ways — for instance, a singular absence of “respect” in the commonly understood sense of the term. We do not respect our leaders: we revere them. To outsiders, this expression of reverence, the posture itself, comes across as obsequiousness. But in our culture, reverence quite easily leads to deification.

The father of the nation had to be conferred the title “Mahatma” before his charisma was beamed across the nation and beyond. Nehru was “Panditji” to the very end. Indira Gandhi very nearly wore Durga’s mukut. Purohits like K. Karunakaran bared Rajiv Gandhi, times without number, before the deity at Guruvayoor to give the young prime minister that essential “lift”, which would elevate him from Parsi to Brahmin.

The logic of electoral politics at the national level has so far not dethroned a charismatic leader once perched on that pedestal. It is arguable that Rajiv Gandhi would probably be relegated to the ranks of would be charismatic leaders because, had he not been assassinated in the midst of the 1991 campaign, he would have had to sit in the opposition. P.V. Narasimha Rao was never in the charismatic mode and, after the demolition of Babari Masjid, a clear liability for the Congress.

It does not take great insight to divine that all the charismatic prime ministers corresponded to an established caste logic as well. They were Brahmins. Mahatma Gandhi, of course, was a Bania but “sainthood” had to be conferred on him before he could be accorded that place on the highest pedestal.

Where do V. P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar, Inder Gujral and Deve Gowda fit into this equation? Well, V. P Singh and Chandra Shekhar are Rajputs, a caste confined to the Hindi belt; Deve Gowda a Vokaliga, a caste of big peasants confined to Karnataka. Inder Gujral’s appeal was restricted to Punjab and the new middle class. Certain configurations, in a culture of growing coalition politics, will continue to throw up such leaders temporarily. For such leaders to stabilise and last full terms the hegemonic projections of the two major parties, the BJP and the Congress, have to be seen to have been brought to an end. This clearly has not happened.

The dizzying rapidity with which government changed before the Vajpayee apparatus stabilised at the Centre confirms two political realities: a deeper churning process is required to create a national coalition in which numerical power is more equitably distributed, and secondly, for the time being at least, coalitions will be dominated and led by either the BJP or the Congress.

This being the case the traditional caste logic which has defined both the Congress and the BJP will apply, the old social pyramid will stand. Remember, the Brahmin is the only pan Indian caste.

The BJP, unlike the Congress, had its ears closer to the ground on the social justice front. Kalyan Singh as chief minister of UP and Bangaru Laxman as party president were part of the BJP’s social engineering not conceived as tactical tinkering but strategic transformation. But between conception and the reality has fallen a long shadow. Singh and Laxman are overtly and covertly powerful dissidents today. The body rejected the transplants.

Reversal in state election, Tehelka, Kashmir and Northeast ablaze, the UTI scam have all been heaped on the government led by Vajpayee. Worse may be round the corner in the form of Ranjan Bhattacharya’s less than discreet interview or later the UP elections.

But there are compelling reasons why the NDA will stumble along, regardless. The first guarantor of continuity is the mortal dread the people’s representatives have of the people. Each one of 545 MPs is mortally afraid of the electorate. There is no arithmetic by which an alternative coalition can assume office. That leaves the option of a change of leadership. Can the caste pyramid be upset?

I have always maintained that the sustained sniping at the PMO, his family were not meant to remove him. The attacks were meant to remove those around him so that Vajpayee could be managed. The PMO was in the way.

If his resignation offer was a gimmick, its purpose could only have been to enlarge his room for manoeuver to fortify those around him, those he failed to defend adequately. When Brajesh Mishra and N.K. Singh, two civil servants, were forced to defend themselves in a press conference, it was abdication of responsibility which in retrospect probably pained Vajpayee.

The recent fiasco in Agra must have played on him too. He knows that the summit was a greater success than it is being made out to be. Had Vajpayee and Musharraf signed a document, they would have spent their lives explaining, defending. Having come back from the brink, they have all the time in the world to manage their respective flanks. And yet just look at the mess in the media surrounding Agra.

For a man who has kept Parliament spellbound on his day for over four decades, one who was the role model for all communicators, his recent lapses and silences must rankle with him.

He is sensitive enough to realise that he is protected by an admiring press. He does not address press conferences and he is forgiven. At Agra, Musharraf met the editors, briefed his journalists, (prior to the summit granted interviews to Indian editors) was eager to have one press encounter before he emplaned and finally invited the Indian media to Islamabad to attend a two-hour talkathon. He is being accused for having spoilt the summit by over exposure. Accepted. But surely our prime minister could have met the editors, held a briefing or two, addressed a press conference before or after the summit. Not a word from him.

That is why one fears that his reference to his “age” and “health” may have been a wail in anguish, his recognition that a great deal of what is being said about Agra is actually a cover-up for the fact that the prime minister who once cast a spell on his audiences was reluctant to go before the cameras.

And look at the itinerary his managers have arranged for him. Countless bilaterals at the UNGA in September and as many during the Brisbane CHOGM in October. Half of them will be cancelled and hapless media managers will not know how to explain.

I bet his heart is not in it either. Yes, his heart is in leaving behind for posterity a structure of peace on the subcontinent. Will that seering urge enable him to survive the storms gathering around him?

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