A time to choose

Later, the prime minister flew into Gandhinagar and threw his weight behind what Advani had told Chief Minister Narendra Modi: the nation will not stand for a repeat of the post-Godhra mayhem. Vajpayee8217;s condemnation of this 8216;8216;cycle of violence and counter violence8217;8217; is the closest anyone in authority has come to hinting that the siege of the temple was 8216;counter violence8217; in retaliation for what had happened in Gujarat since February 27.

Has the wheel come full circle in Gujarat? Some RSS functionaries are of the view that efforts are on to control any large-scale reaction to the temple tragedy. This would suggest that a degree of sanity and moderation may be entering the proceedings after the gruesome tragedy in Gandhinagar.

If some advantage is to be taken of the Kashmir elections, which have exceeded expectations, surely there has to be some clarity in New Delhi as to who will play out the script 8212; the prime minister or the deputy prime minister?

Making headway on Kashmir after the elections both in the state as well as in Pakistan, would require a consistency of approach. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the National Conference may be curtailed drastically, even prepare itself for the Opposition benches. Whatever the outcome, there is complete unanimity in circles around the PM as well as the DyPM that the elected representatives be engaged in extended dialogue towards devolution of powers or autonomy.

There are also suggestions that the Kashmir Committee, under Ram Jethmalani8217;s leadership, be encouraged to liaise with its counterpart in Pakistan whenever it is set up. These involvements will place on Advani a statesmanlike role, a sub-continental vision. The world media, having concluded the elections in Pakistan, will be focused on him as he embarks, step by step, on this higher platform.

The problem, of course, is that his involvement in Gujarat, both as MP and the BJP technician will tend to pull him down from the pedestal of statesmanship to the dusty lanes of sectarian and exclusivist politics. He has to make a choice: play for the nation on a high platform, or cut himself down to size for the party8217;s smaller gains. As the author of the party8217;s electoral growth, the choice for him is a tough one.

One can only invite him to recall what some of his international interlocutors thought of him at the outset of his innings as home minister. When President Clinton sent to New Delhi his friend Bill Richardson at that point US ambassador to the UN Advani impressed him as an 8216;8216;intellectual who will mellow with the job and transform the BJP into a party of governance8217;8217;.

To make the most of the opportunity that Kashmir is likely to offer, New Delhi simply cannot allow itself to be distracted by the small-minded, narrow politics that Gujarat entails. However ambidextrous Advani may be, it is impossible to handle Kashmir and Gujarat at the same time because it is impossible to be magnanimous and petty at the same time. I wish there was a way to delay the elections in Gujarat so far into the future as to have them coincide with the national elections!

There is another way out 8212; to tone down the communal tenor of the campaign in the state by changing the leadership, slowly, step by step, as the party8217;s mood becomes receptive to such a change in the context of atmospherics generated by a wholesome course on Kashmir.

Remember, the mood in the country was very hard indeed when crucial elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Punjab, Manipur and three assembly seats in Gujarat were held in February. Post December 13 deployment of troops on the Pakistan border had taken place and the Ayodhya issue had been placed on a blazing front burner. And what happened? The electorate ousted the BJP.

Even after the fall of the Babri Masjid, the BJP lost the state elections. A hard line is not necessarily good electoral politics for the BJP.

Indeed, had the Agra summit with Musharraf in July been allowed to succeed, the atmosphere in the country would have been 8216;soft8217; for the elections six months away. That was the calculation of some in the BJP 8212; to go into the February elections in search of the widest possible support. The faction of the RSS close to K. Sudarshan was squarely behind such a strategy.

The RSS magazine, Panchjanya, had organised an essay competition in collaboration with Pakistan8217;s Jang group. Winners were to be guests in each other8217;s countries. Even after Musharraf returned to Islamabad a large number of Indian journalists were encouraged to attend his press conference in Islamabad. Had this momentum not been arrested, heaven knows what results the February elections would have thrown up? It is also interesting to speculate how the post September 11 war on terror led by the US two months after the Agra summit, would have impacted on a sub-continent on the mend.

It is my belief that if the BJP were to revert to the thinking which led to the Agra summit, the NDA8217;s prospects in the 2004 elections would improve. A great opportunity is opening up in Kashmir. The alternative, of course, is the hard line which, in a multi-religious country, can only encourage the cycle of 8216;violence and counter violence8217; the prime minister talked about, leaving a nation perpetually on edge, diminished in the world8217;s eyes and not just in the esteem of Standard and Poor8217;s.

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