BJP8217;s version of stability

The party that sought the people8217;s mandate on the promise of getting rid of bhaya, bhookh and bhrashtachar fear, hunger and corruption is today a haven for all manner of people who have an extremely cavalier attitude towards probity in public life. Much has already been written about how the BJP has clasped to its bosom the irrepressible Sukh Ram, who had earlierleft Rs 3 crore or thereabouts lying around in his bathroom like loose change. So much so that the BJP8217;s change of orientation from Jai Sri Ram8217; to Jai Sukh Ram8217; has become a pathetic cliche which bothers only the idealistic and the naive. The party8217;s change of perspective regarding Jayalalitha, who it had not so long ago described with epithets like 8220;the mother of all scams8221; and 8220;the fountainhead of corruption8221;, has also been noted. One by one Yashwant Sinha and Buta Singh, Ramakrishna Hegde and Om Prakash Chautala, all honourable men no doubt despite allegations against them, have found sanctuary within the self-righteous Sangh Parivar. All these are now old hat in a situation when the party appears to have taken to heart the saying, 8220;A new day, a new friend8221;.

What is intriguing is why the BJP has still not been able to get into its ample fold some other distinguished public men and women who too are similarly charged. Given the plethora of persons charged with corruption in India, it is difficultto understand why the Bharatiya Janata Party should have had so much difficulty in building up an alliance system and cobbling together a majority. For instance, why is Laloo Prasad Yadav still a secularist 8220;outsider8221; and why has Sonia Gandhi merely offered 8220;constructive cooperation8221;? In this age of realpolitik, when 8220;compromising8221; is no longer a pejorative, it should be unnecessary for the Bharatiya Janata Party to have to take recourse to the mathematical genius of speakers like Kesri Nath Tripathi who has proved that 13 is more than one-third of 69 when it comes to the counting of defectors from Opposition parties. Surely, more subtle methods can be found to give the nation a dose of the BJP8217;s version of stability.

P.V. Narasimha Rao too had sought to give the nation stability under himself and indeed he had succeeded to the extent of governing for five uninterrupted years. He started with numbers short of the magical majority figure in the Lok Sabha but, by and by, he too is said to have exercisedthe effect that catnip has on cats on parliamentarians. It is another matter that years after he left office, he is still having to do the rounds of courts, charged with the offense of purchasing prohibited merchandise. Atal Behari Vajpayee is a scholar and a statesman, much like Narasimha Rao, and he too has long experience of parliamentary practice and the rule of law. For a man who has announced that he is not interested in seeking another term in Parliament, Vajpayee must surely be uninterested in making an acquaintanceship with the courts.

Nevertheless, there is a delicate irony about the fact that what used to be the distribution of mere portfolios has been caricatured as the distribution of suitcases. While the cartoonist8217;s art is necessarily hyperbolic, the reality is that Jayalalitha has been able to secure for one of her followers the vital law and justice departments. Also, the 8220;substitute finance minister8221; Yashwant Sinha has been compelled to clip his own wings by giving virtually independentcharge of the departments of revenue, banking and insurance to the Revolutionary Leader8217;s nominee in North Block. The most blatant example of the compromises made by Atal Behari Vajpayee to cling limpet-like to power was articulated by an unnamed BJP leader who said that although the Prime Minister is reluctant to use Article 356 to dismiss the DMK government in Tamil Nadu, 8220;we will have to do so if that is the only way of remaining in office8221;.

In such a situation, it is futile to look at this or that policy or programme as the basis of the present government8217;s term in office. The joke is already current about the irrelevance of Article 370 when the important number for the BJP is 270. That other exclusive concerns of the Sangh Parivar have been similarly jettisoned is a relief, even though it was inevitable in the obtaining political circumstances. There is no need, therefore, to hold the BJP to its promises regarding the uniform civil code and other such matters. However, when it comes to the issue ofthe BJP8217;s claim of setting up a 8220;government with a difference one based on su-raj and, hence, wedded to the eradication of corruption8221;, there is not only ample scope but also a crying need to turn the light on the BJP8217;s pretensions.

While both Machiavelli and Kautilya held hypocrisy to be an inevitable attribute of the Prince, they were not talking of rulers who need their mandate from the people. The leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party may yet be made to realise that democracy is a different political arrangement altogether. They have been so used to functioning within the authoritarian setting of the Sangh Parivar where legitimacy resides only in the will of the supremo that they have little understanding of the republican spirit. For instance, they do not seem to realise that in a democracy while you can fool some of the people all the time and all the people for some time, it is impossible to fool all the people all the time. This is a truth that has been demonstrated to the Congress leaders. Nowthe BJP leaders are in line to learn their lesson.