The Hindu Business Line : RSS:BJP::Family:Congress

When was the last time that Congressmen blamed their topmost leadership for an electoral defeat? In 1977, after Sanjay Gandhi caused his mother Indira Gandhi to lose the general election.

When was the last time that the Congress publically debated the reasons for an electoral debacle? Again 1977. It even split briefly.

When was the last time the Congress effected a leadership change after losing an election? You guessed it. 1977.

Obvious contrast

What did the Congress do after it began to fall part in 1998, when some stalwart ministers in the current and last government began to knock on the BJP’s doors? It scurried back to the Family, which had not been inactive in cutting the ground from under the feet of the two men it regarded as Pretenders — P. V. Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri.

The above questions provide both a contrast and, possibly, sometime in the future, a similarity between the Congress and the BJP.

The contrast is obvious enough. Unlike the Congress, the BJP is truly democratic in its functioning. For instance, in spite of fatwas by Mr Rajnath Singh, the BJP President, it has started a public debate. That can never happen in the Congress.

The BJP President and prime ministerial candidate, Mr L. K. Advani, is being openly blamed for the defeat by partymen. This, too, can never happen in the Congress.

Various leaders in the top echelons have resigned their posts. This does happen in the Congress but only when commanded by the Family.

The churning has only just begun in the BJP. Where and what it will lead to over the next five years cannot be predicted.

Similarities

But it is not the contrast that is striking. It is the similarities that make you wonder.

Two pointers have been provided by persons who think for the party. One was articulated by Mr Brajesh Mishra, former Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The other is being articulated by the modernists in the party.

The Mishra formulation is not very startling. It says the party must adopt a right-of-centre posture.

The modernist formulation is based more on the BJP’s social view of India and, therefore, the BJP’s relationship with the RSS. According to this view, the BJP must cut the umbilical cord that joins it to the RSS.

Left-right labels

Consider the right-of-centre argument first. It sounds nice but what does it mean?

Right-wing has generally come to mean a reduced role for the state and greater role for the markets. On social issues, however, its meaning is not quite as clear.

But two caveats are necessary here. One is that in the presence of so much poverty, the state cannot reduce its role as arbiter; the other is that, politically more significantly, by this definition, given its ‘reformist’ thrust, the Congress is also right-of-centre.

Therefore, these left-right labels are irrelevant in the Indian context. They are, if I may point out, constructs of the Western system of thought, arising from a particular historical circumstance and intellectual context.

Acid test

That leaves social policy which is the only really meaningful one. The only question that the BJP has to face in the context of the RSS is this: What is your view on the 15 crore Muslims of India, not to mention the 3-odd crore Christians.

Whether they call themselves Indian Muslims or Muslim Indians, the BJP is being asked to come to a final decision.

Ultimately, this will be the acid test, just as the acid test for the Congress — which it failed — was whether it could survive without the Family.

Distinguishing feature

Likewise, the BJP has to decide whether it can survive without the parivar. The fear, not wholly groundless, is that if it gives up political Hindutva and the concomitant anti-Muslim stance, it will become indistinguishable from the Congress. After all, at present, this is the only distinguishing feature.

Would it not, then, find itself in the same situation as the Congress did in 1998 with the possibility of desertions and political irrelevance?

In turn, would that not bring back the RSS just as it brought back the Family in the case of the Congress? If so, why give up the RSS in the first place?

Reasons for defeat

What the BJP finally does is likely to be determined by what conclusions it comes to about the reasons for its defeat.

The so-called secular liberal is blaming it on the disconnect between the younger part of the electorate and the Hindutva ideology.

But that is too self-serving an explanation. What is far more likely is a set of very mundane constituency-specific reasons.

When these are identified, Hindutva will probably come way down in the list. This is because it matters in a politically important way only to the Muslims and the Christians, which constitute a very small part of the electorate.

That, however, does not mean that it should be the only thing that distinguishes the BJP from the Congress. Its challenge lies in figuring out in what other ways it can become the party with a difference.

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