All right, Rajnath?

In an exercise tinged with caution and continuity, Narendra Modi8217;s elevation to the BJP8217;s apex decision-making body leaps out of the frame. The BJP8217;s most polarising leader will now be part of the BJP8217;s Central Parliamentary Board CPB as well as its Central Election Committee CEC. Those looking for a central message in Rajnath Singh8217;s reconstitution of his party office bearers, then, would be rightly tempted to find it here: in Modi8217;s return to the BJP8217;s central affairs after a gap of over four years, in his installation as a major player in its central power structure. In other words, his party has invited Modi to return to haunt its future at the national centre.

The signs were already here. The BJP is increasingly seeking past comforts. It was visible in the way the party rebuffed L.K. Advani8217;s call for a debate over its relations with the RSS. And in the opaque manner in which the baton was passed to a new party president duly approved and stamped by the RSS. Under its new president, the BJP promises to regress to an earlier version of itself, to hark 8216;8216;back to basics8217;8217;. The new BJP will not allow itself to question whether there are any gains to be had from a Hindutva politics that has always been morally flawed in as much as it denies respect to the country8217;s minority communities, but one that has also proved an electoral liability. Chants of 8216;8216;mandir wahin banayenge8217;8217; may well serve to rally the cadres behind the saffron flag, but they have repeatedly proved to be of questionable use with the electorate at large. To win elections, and to form coalition governments, the BJP has had to turn to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his proven ability to swaddle the party8217;s hard edges in ambiguity.

Where is the party going, with Modi on top along with Ayodhya stormtrooper, Vinay Katiyar, also anointed general secretary in Team Rajnath? There are those who see in the inclusion of these two men a nod to Backward Castes and Hindutvavadis at one go. But having been a ruling party for six long years, the BJP should surely see the limits of that argument.