Drawing the line

FEBRUARY 13: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has asked the Sangh Parivar to draw a Lakshman Rekha within which it can raise contentiou...

FEBRUARY 13: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has asked the Sangh Parivar to draw a Lakshman Rekha within which it can raise contentious issues. He was constrained to make this appeal in view of the embarrassment some of the RSS affiliates have caused to his government. He has made it clear that it would be difficult for him to carry on if the constituents of the Parivar do not play ball.

That Vajpayee has a difficult task in managing the contradictions of running a heterogeneous coalition without antagonising the Parivar cannot be overemphasised. When some overzealous members of the Parivar see the government as theirs alone and are eager to have their agenda implemented, it is a sure recipe for trouble. It is yet to sink into their mind that the Vajpayee government draws its legitimacy from the election manifesto of the National Democratic Alliance, which is notable for the absence of contentious issue like uniform civil code and Article 370. Besides, the liberal image of Vajpayee also played a part in the NDA8217;s success. All this should have automatically forced the Parivar to draw a Lakshman Rekha on its own.

In the case of Deepa Mehta8217;s Water not being allowed to be shot at Varanasi, surely the Parivar had exceeded its limits. Vajpayee was bold enough to deprecate the use of violence. But then Vajpayee is not just a theologian delivering discourses on morality. He is the Prime Minister entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that the rule of law prevails in the country.

Unfortunately, on the issue of Water, it was not the writ of his government, which cleared the script of the film, that ran at Varanasi. With the district administration at their beck and call, it did not take much effort for the mischief-makers to send Mehta and company packing from Varanasi. In doing so, they proved themselves no better than the frenzied lot who demanded that the author of Satanic Verses be put to death. For a government which is keen to shed its image of being soft, it8217;s no advertisement that a handful of people could nullify its decision taken after considerable deliberation and that too at the highest level.

The capitulation of the government on Water may encourage the Parivar to pursue its own divisive agenda as exemplified by the threats the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad has held out to shops and establishments in Uttar Pradesh selling Valentine greeting cards. If the tendency is not nipped in the bud, it can even endanger the government8217;s stability. It is worth recalling that the Janata Party government8217;s collapse was brought about by the issue of dual loyalty of some of its members.

After a certain stage, some of the allies may not remain silent as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has hinted. His advice not to rake up contentious issues like allowing government employees to participate in RSS activities when more important problems face the nation can be ignored only at the government8217;s peril. It is highly ambitious of the Parivar to expect the government to review the Constitution when it does not have even adequate support to make an amendment in the statute. Now the question is what will Vajpayee do if the Parivar does not operate within the Lakshman Rekha.