In a combative mode

WITH THE REGIONAL constituents of the ruling NDA demonstratively pledging their support to the Atal Behari Vajpayee Government in the aftermath of the Tehelka expose, the Bharatiya Janata Party has moved into a combative mode, driven as it was by the electoral compulsion of neutralising the negative impact of the Opposition's vigorous campaign in the context of the upcoming Assembly poll in four States and the Union Territory of Pondicherry. The political message that came out of the BJP's national executive and the NDA rally is that the Vajpayee Government is not going to oblige the Opposition by being on the defensive and that, instead, the party along with its allies will face the Congress(I) challenge of taking the issue to `the people'. What is striking about this is not so much the line itself but the assertiveness palpable in the way it has been set forth by the two fora.

The political dimensions aside, a significant change in the BJP's position on the substantive issues thrown up by the Tehelka expose is discernible. Although the party leadership continued to harp on the much-too-familiar theory of `conspiracy' by unspecified forces that are out to ``destabilise'' the Government, it has acknowledged, at last, what had come in full public view when Tehelka put out its videotape showing the BJP's president, Mr. Bangaru Laxman, accepting a wad of currency from a self-styled arms dealer purportedly for the party fund. The nuanced shift in accent, focussing on the organisation's felt need to remove the ``dirt that has come into view (post-the Tehelka revelation)'' and to ``look within and counter the negative influences that have gained ground'' within the party, is indeed an admission of tainted image. On his part, the Prime Minister has, while appearing to go along with the `introspection' line projected by Mr. L. K. Advani and the party's new chief, Mr. Jana Krishnamurthi, chosen to place the Tehelka expose in a larger perspective, blaming the murky disclosures on the `system'.

There can certainly be no quarrel about Mr. Vajpayee's diagnosis that much of the cankerous corruption, be it in public life or in administration, is traceable to systemic shortcomings. His call for funding-related electoral reforms and making political parties accountable for the funds they collect and spend is not open to question either. In fact, a wide range of legislative and other proposals in this vital area formulated largely on the basis of the Sarkaria Commission's recommendations have been under discussion endlessly and at different levels for well over a decade, but no headway could be made - and this, despite constant pressure from the Election Commission - for want of that elusive phenomenon called `political consensus'. But the stark reality is that the political leadership in general has tended to be singularly non-serious about concretising the correctives, although they never fail to make the right noises if warranted by the political exigencies of a given situation. Given this backdrop, there has to be some credible initiative on the part of the Government by way of demonstrating its sincerity.

What requires to be emphasised is that the `big picture' related concerns should not be used as a pretext for wriggling out of an embarrassment or as a convenient ploy to evade responsibility in the immediate context. If doubts about Mr. Vajpayee's real intention behind talking of `systemic deficiencies' are not to linger, he has to be seen applying ``strict accountability standards'' and probity norms in his own establishment, considering the fact that some close personal aides of his have come under attack in the wake of the Tehelka revelations, with pressures building up from within the BJP itself, not to speak of the RSS or quite a few of the coalition partners. As an organisation, the BJP has to go a long way before the dent caused in its image by the unseemly spectacle of its party chief accepting a `donation', without any compunction, from a shady arms dealer could be removed, if at all.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Opinion
Next     : Calling a `spy' a spy