The Hindu : A message more for his backyard

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 30, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

A message more for his backyard

By Harish Khare

New Delhi: It is rather curious that the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, should have chosen a foreign publication and foreign soil to hold out a ``threat'' of retirement in case his latest peace initiative with Pakistan fails. The question is, to whom is the Prime Minister's ``threat'' addressed?

International community? Perhaps Mr. Vajpayee wanted the European leaders to be impressed with the kind of emotional investment he has made in peace with Pakistan. It may work, though only up to a point. The hard-headed practitioners of realpolitik are not going to be swayed by the Prime Minister's retirement noises.

Mr. Vajpayee's target was the audience back home. More precisely, the hard-liners within his Government, the NDA and the Sangh Parivar.

Though almost everybody, from his deputy, L.K. Advani down to the RSS pracharaks, has applauded the Prime Minister's latest initiative, he and his advisers are mindful of the scepticism and reservations in his own backyard.

The Prime Minister's dilemma was, indeed spelt out for him by the Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, in the Lok Sabha on May 8. ``You have our support, but the real question is whether the Prime Minister has the support of his allies, the full backing of his Cabinet and party colleagues and his own ideological brotherhood.''

That situation remains largely unchanged. The Shiv Sena remains vocally opposed to any rapprochement with Pakistan. The Sangh Parivar is at best unenthusiastic. Nobody can be more aware of the Sangh Parivar's amused cynicism than the Prime Minister himself. Nor can Mr. Vajpayee blame anyone for his frozen antagonism. He kept quiet when the hate-mongers were furiously at work these last few years.

The onus, then, is on Mr. Vajpayee to produce ``results''. And he cannot produce ``results'' till he feels he has the elbow room to make ``compromises'', if necessary.

The ``I will retire'' threat is Mr. Vajpayee's way of ensuring that he has the requisite manoeuvring space to cut a deal with Pakistan, which can be electorally sold at home as ``success''.

The ticklish question is whether the BJP's political managers would view the Prime Minister's efforts in the way he perhaps sees the potential of a peace dividend.

Perhaps he knows that the BJP cannot hope for any comfort from the voters in the Assembly elections later this year, and that the party and the Government would have to give the country a convincing enough reason to vote the BJP back to power.

As per Mr. Vajpayee's formulation in Der Spiegel, if he fails as the peace-maker, he ``retires''.

In other words, he would not be available to the BJP at the time of the next Lok Sabha elections.

For now, the BJP is planning to woo the electorate with the slogan, ``Vajpayee ka naam, Vajpayee ka kaam'' (In Vajpayee's name, for Vajpayee's achievements).

The Prime Minister wants to redefine the contents of this ``Kaam''. And he knows that he cannot rewrite his achievement slate, unless the BJP and the rest of the Sangh Parivar revise their calculated political and electoral strategy of animus towards Pakistan.Hence, the ``threat'' from the foreign soil.

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