The Hindu Business Line : Introspection time for the BJP

IN Hindi there is an adage that goes something like this: Subah ka bhoola jab sham ko ghar lotey to woh bhoola nahi rehta (A misdirected person quits home in the morning only to return in the evening having learnt his lesson).

This saying came to mind as one watched the goings on at the BJP's three-day national executive meet that commenced on Tuesday in Mumbai, where the message was loud and clear. Henceforth, it will be back to Hindutva, and in accordance with the agenda set by Sangh Parivar outfits such as the RSS and the VHP.

Addressing a high-level party forum like the national executive for the first time after the party's defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP President, Mr Venkaiah Naidu, struck a strident note, the underlying message of his talk being that the party had tried to move away from hardline Hindutva and had paid the price for it.

Of course, for the record, he said: "The question of going back to Hindutva does not arise, because we never left it, nor will we ever leave it."

Mr Naidu has said the BJP will "never feel apologetic about Hindutva." That is its choice and the rest of the country and non-BJP persons would have no quarrel with that, provided the party does not preach and practise Hindutva at the cost and exclusion of other religions.

It is when a political party tries to push for political space with shrill rhetoric on the relevance of only one religious ideology that the country and its people are headed for a serious problem. This is true of all parties, whether they chant the mantra of strident Hindutva or militant Islam.

The BJP's executive was meant to examine the causes for the defeat of the NDA Government. A flutter was caused on the eve of the Mumbai meet, when the former Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee — the "tallest leader of the BJP", according to Mr Venkaiah Naidu — said in Manali that the Gujarat carnage was one of the reasons for the party's defeat, and that the fate of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, would be discussed at the executive.

But, obviously, this view did not find universal agreement, as the Gujarat riots figured nowhere among the reasons cited for the defeat. On the contrary, in his opening remarks, the BJP President was at his scathing best when he said that the BJP did not believe in "blame-game and finger-pointing".

We were told that one of the reasons for the defeat was "over-confidence, leading to complacency in certain places". Apart from that, not only among the BJP's workers but also its "traditional voters", it was "anti-incumbency" against the sitting MPs that was blamed.

The BJP's allies were, of course, mentioned, though Mr Venkaiah Naidu hastened to add that he was not "blaming" them. But with stalwarts such as the former HRD Minister Mr Murli Manohar Joshi, former External Affairs Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, and the party's UP poster-boy, Mr Vinay Katiyar, losing their seats, the BJP can hardly put all the blame for its poor performance on its allies.

Not that allies like Ms Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu and Mr Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh helped, but, then, the party had only itself and its Hindutva ideology to blame for edging out a tried-and-tested ally, Mr M. Karunanidhi of the DMK, to woo Ms Jayalalithaa, long considered a natural ally.

Interestingly, the handle the BJP leadership has grabbed at the present moment is the Ishrat Jahan case. The involvement of the Mumbai girl in the alleged LeT plot to assassinate the Gujarat Chief Minister has come in handy for Mr Venkaiah Naidu and his colleagues to lash out at the "pseudo-secularism" of the UPA Government and the demand by the Congress(I) and the Left parties for a CBI probe into the Gujarat police encounter.

It is clear that the BJP is making Ishrat and other "terrorists" the new symbols of its political discourse, as it desperately seeks to recreate the space it has lost in the recent elections, particularly in such States as UP, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

With Assembly elections in Maharashtra due soon, and its ally Shiv Sena unrelenting in its criticism of the BJP for straying from the "path of Hindutva", the BJP will obviously go to town over the involvement of the Muslim girl from Mumbai in the terror network.

Remember, how in December 2002, barely nine months after the Godhra carnage and its supposed backlash on a couple of thousand Muslims all over Gujarat, Mr Modi used the `Mian Musharraf' and cross-border terrorism plank to din into the heads of Gujaratis that they were safe from terrorist attacks only in his hands.

Already the Shiv Sena chief, Mr Bal Thackeray, has come to Mr Modi's defence and the speculation on his removal by telling a TV channel: "This is an issue made out by the Opposition. Why are you (BJP) removing him under pressure? You (BJP) think of your party's interest".

Returning to the future of Mr Vajpayee in the party, the BJP executive and Mr Venkaiah Naidu's opening remarks have made it clear that there is an opinion within the party that he should be seen as just any other party functionary. Otherwise, how can you explain the leader of a party that fought the 2004 Lok Sabha elections in the name of Mr Vajpayee, now coming out to say that, unlike other parties, "the BJP is not a personality-based party" and that it would get rid of the "virus of individualism"?

And this after the BJP Parliamentary Board, which met before the executive, vetoed Mr Vajpayee's suggestion of discussing the issue of change of leadership in Gujarat.

But doublespeak has almost become the BJP's mantra these days. It used to be only Mr Vajpayee who would say something on one day, only to say the opposite the next — a feature he has displayed even now over the issue of Mr Modi's removal — but then the infection seems to be catching. Who knows what Mr Venkaiah Naidu might say about the importance of individual BJP leaders at his next press conference?

The political resolution passed by the party on Wednesday has made it amply clear that the BJP is still rankling after its recent defeat. Otherwise, it would not have attacked the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, for "playing second fiddle to "the super Prime Minister, Smt Sonia Gandhi", and accused the Congress and its allies of "systematically" diluting the dignity of the "high office of Prime Minister".

But, then, the BJP's dilemma vis-à-vis Ms Sonia Gandhi has to be understood. She took the stuffing out of the threats held out by Ms Sushma Swaraj and Ms Uma Bharti by not becoming prime minister. She is nevertheless still the only Congress(I) leader who stands between the BJP and its dream of returning to power.

Its leadership has given ample evidence that the attacks on her will continue, and might get worse in the coming days if the Manmohan Singh government offers no indications of collapsing in a hurry. Going back to the subah ka bhoola adage, has the BJP learnt anything from its debacle at the polls?

The answer seems to be a simple `No'. By reiterating that it will go back into the Sangh Parivar's cocoon of communal politics, it has only thrown out of the window the few, feeble attempts it made to convince the minorities that the Government led by it would work for their welfare too, along with that of the rest of the country.

So, in more ways than one, the mukhauta has been ripped off, the gloves are off, and who knows, if Mr Keshubhai Patel's rebellion can be controlled or quashed. Mr Modi, instead of being removed, might be rechristened the "BJP's talent leader"!

(Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in)