There must surely be something symbolic—or at least ironic—in the fact that Uma Bharati ceased to be a BJP leader almost 13 years to the day after that infamous moment when the domes of the Babri Masjid were brought down. Contemporary history has not treated the chief protagonists of the Ayodhya movement kindly. While it did at one point appear a fortuitous breeze steering several political barges to power; as time went by, it took on the proportions of a typhoon causing many a sorry capsize.Consider for a moment the political trajectories of three of the most important leaders to emerge from the Ramjanmabhoomi movement. When L.K. Advani embarked upon his rath yatra in 1990, New Delhi seemed just around the corner. He was quite right to recognise December 6, 1992, as the saddest day in his life. When the domes were demolished, so were his prospects of occupying the highest elected office in the country. While the Ram movement helped the BJP gain political presence and eventually the reins of the Central government, Advani himself had to be content with playing second fiddle to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who could become the prime minister precisely because he was untainted by the Ayodhya blot. Murli Manohar Joshi also went only so far and no further. The man who once remarked that he and his colleagues had no regrets over the demolition, had at one point to resign as Union HRD minister when the Rae Bareli court decided to frame charges against him—a resignation that was not accepted by Vajpayee. But his political bankruptcy was cruelly underlined when he lost his seat in the 2004 general elections. Uma Bharati arguably displayed the most stomach for the Ayodhya cause, as the symbolism of her present Ram-Roti yatra underlines. Yet her claim that she is the “real BJP” rings hollow today. The party has decided that it cannot afford the antics of mavericks like her, charismatic though they may be.Uma Bharati’s expulsion, then, presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the BJP. The party can either be overcome by an attack of nerves and fall in with the Sangh gameplan of hurtling back to medievalism; or it could exorcise the ghosts of the past, including that of Ayodhya, and emerge as a credible, modern party of the right and a serious contender for power.
