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Family Fight

One of the most commonly seen phrases in the media in recent months is 'Sangh Parivar.' The unstated implication is that the RSS, BJP, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Swadeshi Jagran Manch, Bajrang Dal, and many others are members of a single clan working together on a single masterplan. How true is this assumption?

I think the key word over there is 'parivar' (family). A family may trace its ancestry back to a common genepool, but that does not mean that every member is a clone of the other. Look around at your own family; are you a carbon copy of your cousins or even your own siblings? And however much you respect your parents, can you honestly say that you share exactly the same ideals as they do, especially as time goes by and you make new friends outside the confines of the family circle?

In its 19th year, the BJP is experiencing some of those pains of growing up. It would be both futile and foolish even to try denying the party's relationship with other members of the parivar . But it must also be said that these have been ignored during periods when the party was on the Opposition benches. But it isn't quite that easy to do so when you are in power.

I personally would put most of the responsibility for this state of affairs on the BJP itself. The party made two crucial errors. First, it did not use its time while out of power to discuss and settle its stand on several crucial issues, beginning with, though not confined to, economic reforms. Second, the departure of almost the entire senior leadership into the Union Cabinet left a vacuum in the party organisation that cannot be filled in a hurry. Let me discuss both in greater detail.

Between 1979 and 1997 the Conservatives defeated the Labour Party in four successive British elections. It didn't matter how unpopular the autocratic Margaret Thatcher or how colourless John Major seemed to be; the free-market economic reforms they pioneered were all that the voters required. Three Labour leaders -- James Callaghan, Michael Foot, and Neil Kinnock -- failed to force the party to swallow bitter truths until Tony Blair did just that. Recognising that the first imperative of a political party is to gain power, he ruthlessly axed proponents of the old philosophy.

The same thing happened with the Democrats in 1994, after they lost control of both houses of the United States congress. Bill Clinton had wasted the first half of his term trying to dither with inanities such as the position of homosexuals in the armed forces, something that simply didn't matter to voters. But the shock of defeat helped him focus on what did matter -- the economy.

This is where the BJP slipped up. Take the utterly disorganised manner in which the party handled the Patents Bill and the Insurance Regulatory Authority Bill. These are matters which the party should have settled before they were tabled in Parliament, thus catching a disorganised Opposition on the run. Instead, the chaos on the treasury benches helped the other parties escape. And this leads directly to what I termed as the second mistake made by the BJP.

The BJP has had just three presidents since the party was born -- Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani, and Murli Manohar Joshi. All three are now burdened with ministerial responsibilities that leave little time for party affairs. And it isn't just them, but also several younger leaders who find themselves with their hands full.

Kushabhau Thakre is a good man but he can't cope with this sudden departure. So, who is responsible for the party's image? By default, that role goes to organisations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, whose policies are simply not acceptable to a huge slice of the Indian people. Nor even, perhaps, to some within the BJP itself. You may not like that fact, but it cannot be ignored.

The BJP must build a wall between itself and some of the more far-fetched ideas espoused by, say, the Bajrang Dal. The task would have been easier in the relative obscurity of Opposition or in the relative security of an absolute majority, but neither luxury is available. Can the BJP succeed in carving out its own role without denying its links with its cousins in the Sangh Parivar? Answering that question could decide the fate of the Vajpayee ministry.

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T V R Shenoy