The BJP's search for a new line

THE ADDRESS OF the BJP's new president, Mr. Bangaru Laxman, at the national council meet at Nagpur, exhorting his partymen to give up their animosity to the religious minorities and work towards widening the party's social base may sound unusual. Given the long history of the BJP's majoritarian approach to politics (for that matter the very spirit behind the foundation of the Bharathiya Jana Sangh) and the fact that its organisational muscle constitutes those who were drawn into the fold essentially in the course of the campaign dominated by Hindutva slogans, any radical shift in its central theme can hardly be achieved by mere exhortations by its leaders. And in this context, Mr. Laxman's address to his national council members in Nagpur can be of little more than rhetorical significance. After all, the impression that the BJP and the various other outfits of the Sangh Parivar are anti-minority was not the creation of outsiders; their own activities hitherto and the slogans as well as the statements by functionaries (at various levels including those at the top) over a period of time have underlined the revanchist character of the platform. Indeed, the rationale behind advocating a shift at this stage as spelt out by Mr. Laxman clearly shows that it was not a call for a change of heart but rather an exposition of the conditions needed for the party to expand its base.

It may be true, as Mr. Laxman had insisted on pointing out, that incidents of physical attack against members of the Muslim community have ceased to take place after the BJP-led NDA came to power at the Centre. After all, the BJP had agreed to put on hold the Ayodhya issue, the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution and a Common Civil Code even earlier when the party found it necessary to gather non-communal forces on its side. But then, the fact that sections within the Sangh Parivar - the VHP and the Bajrang Dal in particular - continued to campaign on these issues apart from turning their ire on members of the Christian community and institutions run by them since the BJP came to power cannot be glossed over. And in most instances when such attacks took place, the BJP's senior leaders were seen condoning such acts. The remarks by a VHP functionary after nuns in a Madhya Pradesh village were attacked - that it was an expression of patriotism - or the manner in which the brutal killing of Graham Staines and his two sons was seen as an occasion to start a debate on conversions can hardly be seen as an aberration. Instead, one could discern a pattern in all these. And it is in this context that the new line - that the BJP will now strive to shed its animosity towards the Muslim community - will be received with some scepticism.

Be that as it may, the Nagpur meet of the BJP's national council was significant for another reason. And that is the virtual subjugation of the party organisation to the Government at the Centre. Mr. Vajpayee's advice to his partymen that they must desist from making critical remarks about the Government was subtle, the address by Mr. L. K. Advani where he made it clear to the ranks that they must stop behaving like the Opposition is a clear indication that the BJP's leaders would like the party to learn a lesson or two from the Congress(I) on how a ruling party must function. It is a different matter that some of the strident critics of the party's handling of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir or others opposing the Government's economic policy are also those who found themselves excluded from the power structure. But then, the fact that the RSS has made no secret of its opposition to some of the initiatives of the Vajpayee Government on the economic policy front is something that the BJP leaders cannot wish away. And it is in this sense that the economic policy resolution adopted at the Nagpur meet - in tune with the Chennai declaration - assumes significance.

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Section  : Opinion
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