BJP146;s flock

In the end, the NDA meet went completely according to script 8212; the BJP8217;s script. Others will see it as a tame denouement to the war of words that was building up between the BJP and some of its allies ever since L.K. Advani pointed his party towards Ayodhya again after becoming party president this time. The meeting convened to 8216;8216;clear the air8217;8217; between the BJP and its allies concluded with a resolution that 8216;8216;preferred8217;8217; a negotiated settlement to a judicial verdict on Ayodhya, foregrounded the issue as one that 8216;8216;will strengthen India8230; as no other issue can8217;8217;, took an unsubtle dig at Nehruvian secularism and then blamed the media for creating misgivings and misunderstandings among allies. In the end, the BJP8217;s partners all signed on the dotted line, including the JDU, the party that most recently made indignant noises on the BJP8217;s perceived return to hardline Hindutva. The contrast is immediate and striking: between the BJP8217;s unabating inner turmoil caused by peevish second rung leaders and truculent sister organisations, and its quiescent partnerships in the NDA. This contrast is settling into something of a pattern.

Though it is the done thing to draw a line in the NDA by labelling some of the BJP8217;s allies as 8216;8216;secular8217;8217;, it has been repeatedly driven home that this distinction was longago rendered politically sterile. If it was power that helped the NDA remain united in its six years in power at the Centre 8212; despite Gujarat 2002 and Narendra Modi8217;s continuance as chief minister 8212; it is the impending election in Bihar that is said to propel its closing of ranks now when it is out of power. Of course, credit also goes to the BJP leadership8217;s masterful playing of the NDA keys that has restrained the discordant notes from becoming cacophonous. It is the BJP8217;s achievement, after all, that the party once shunned as 8216;8216;untouchable8217;8217; has managed to reverse the equations in the NDA to its advantage. But whatever be the reason, through it all, the implication is clear: other calculations always trump ideological issues within the NDA even as an ideologically charged debate over the degrees of Hindutva continues to convulse the BJP.

Many will hail the NDA8217;s staying power as a good thing. Others will interrogate a notion of stability that can absorb a Gujarat and remain unaffected. That is a matter for public discussion to resolve over time. For now, as the erstwhile fiery socialist George Fernandes made his way to meet the arrested Shankaracharya of Kanchi to express his true faith and solidarity, frame the image.