Opinion Tale of two BJPs

In UP, the party was seen to benefit from the religious polarisation stoked in Muzaffarnagar in the run-up to the 2014 LS polls, but the communal mobilisation left scars on the ground that are yet to fade. (Source: Express photo by Praveen Khanna)

Kairana and Allahabad are two places in one poll-bound state. In Kairana and Allahabad over the last few days, you could see and hear two BJPs. In Kairana, BJP MP Hukum Singh tried to stoke communal faultlines by releasing “Kairana se palayan karnewale Hindu parivaron ki soochi (a list of Hindu families forced to migrate from Kairana)”. He claimed 346 “Hindus” left over “threats and extortion by criminal elements belonging to a particular community”. That list, as an Indian Express investigation has revealed, is riddled with discrepancies, including names of persons who have died and those who left more than 10 years ago for a better school for their children, or a better job. Hukum Singh has effected a somersault since then, blaming it on his team, claiming he intended to highlight a law-and-order, not a Hindu-Muslim, problem. But the retraction sounds forced. Meanwhile in Allahabad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the theme for the BJP’s national executive: vikas, or development, is the solution to every problem, he said. He talked of BJP-ruled states as models of development, and of UP’s yet-to-be electrified villages. And articulated a 7-point code of conduct for his party. At least three of the seven points in Allahabad — saiyyam (restraint), santulan (balance) and sakaratmak (constructive approach) — were directly given the lie to by the BJP’s campaign in Kairana.

So is the BJP in Kairana listening to its own PM in Allahabad? Could it be that a PM seen to be one of the most powerful ever, impressing his own stamp on party and government, has no control over a party unit in western UP? Or is the old story about the BJP actually true — that it expertly and perfectly speaks in two voices? (After all, even in this case, party president Amit Shah also raised the issue of the alleged Hindu exodus from Kairana in Allahabad). Whichever it may be, there is another question: of the credibility of the PM’s promises to the people, and of the BJP’s claim to displace the Congress as the “natural party of government” — in a diverse country, the believability of the latter hinges on more than just a string of electoral successes. The BJP is entering its third year in government at the Centre and next year, the people of UP must choose anew among parties. The distance between Kairana and Allahabad will chase and haunt the BJP in both arenas.

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In UP, the party was seen to benefit from the religious polarisation stoked in Muzaffarnagar in the run-up to the 2014 LS polls, but the communal mobilisation left scars on the ground that are yet to fade. This time in the state, the BJP campaign will be watched more carefully. As the party that rules the Centre and has ambitions  to spread into unconquered areas, it must know that the cost of every misstep will be higher and wider.