Arun Jaitley has returned to the organisation from government for his second stint as chief BJP spokesperson. His new job is part of an ongoing revamp in the BJP with an eye on the next general elections. Jaitley spoke to Sankarshan Thakur on whether his party is planning a change of course and how he views the challenge of defending it in the second lap of its term in office. Excerpts: So does one congratulate you on this, on your return to the party from government yet again, or is it.Well, if my party considers me as one of the persons who should now be discharging responsibilities in the party, I consider it a great opportunity. I have been looking forward to do organisational work, so I am anxiously awaiting whatever responsibility is handed to me. I have been congratulating myself. Does that mean you prefer the party to government?It is not a question of preference, these are different facets of political work. I worked in the ABVP during the days of the agitational politics of JP. I have been party spokesman earlier, I have worked in various ministries and I have all through been working for the party even without any official responsibility. I am sure this task is going to my liking. There are some things you enjoy more, which are more challenging. And this is one.Yes. The spokesmanship is not very new to me but the other kind of work that I might get is something new to my responsibilities. Which will be?Well, whatever I am assigned, it has not been decided yet. Does the task of spokesmanship has a fresh challenge to it? Is it going to be more difficult defending the ruling party in the second half of its tenure?Political communications and marketing in India are evolving. There was a traditional kind of communication where a written statement was political communication, a speech made at a rally was political communication. Today these are amongst the least covered events. ‘Things have changed, you have to face the cameras regularly. They set the agenda for questioning, so you’ve to keep yourself informed about everything. The media also has no space for long-winded explanations. It pays to be relaxed, not aggressive’ Secondly, the size and character of the media has changed. You have the electronic and the net media now, you have to face the cameras regularly and they can question on you on anything and everything. The agenda for questioning is set by them, so you have to keep yourself informed about everything. The media also has no space for long-winded explanations. One-liners, turns of phrase, the quick retort have become very important. Particularly on TV, you have to be very quick on the draw. You don’t know what’s being thrown at you. Some other ground rules have changed. Aggression no longer pays. We as politicians are trained to put across our views in an aggressive manner but when people are watching you in their bedrooms and living rooms, they want sobriety, they want you to be relaxed, they do not want you to be overstating things. These things have become counterproductive, you become unconvincing. But is it going to become more difficult speaking for the BJP when it appears to be returning to its old Hindutva hardline as elections get nearer?There are labels that the media identifies you with: hardliner, softliner, these are media labels. You cannot allow the space available to you in the media to be hijacked by the labels the media wants to give you. You have to use that space to say what you want to say. Irrespective of what the question may be.(Laughs) No, you have to answer questions and give specific answers but you can still say what you have to. I will relate an anecdote to you. I was in England a couple of years ago and there was this television programme. There was some EU election in which Labour had done badly and there was this Labour leader on the programme who was asked by the anchor: ‘‘Is it the beginning of the decline?’’ She looked at him contemptuously and then smiled and said, ‘‘That’s a loaded question, I will ignore it but I will still tell you something.’’ So she used the time to say what she said. So it is a question of how to turn a loaded question or a label around and use your media space. But how would you respond to Vinay Katiyar being made BJP chief in Uttar Pradesh? What is the message the party is sending? And what are people to make of the way Narendra Modi has continued at the helm in Gujarat despite what has happened there?Vinay Katiyar has several facets to him. He is a several-time MP from UP, from Ayodhya, in fact. He also represents in the context of UP, a social composition whose support base has been very important for us. He is individually capable of inspiring a large chunk of the BJP leaders. Do we utilise this positive potential of Katiyar which is available to us or do we allow our opponents to set the agenda and ask us Why Vinay Katiyar? When parties decide these things a lot of factors go in and you pick a man who is at that moment best suited for the party’s needs. ‘This govt’s agenda is the NDA’s agenda. There’s no reason to believe there will be no NDA in the next election. You people keep talking about hardline and Hindutva, but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating’ So Katiyar is the man of the moment for you in UP.He has been appointed because the party thinks he and his strengths are best suited. Do you look around and see who you might be competing with?There is no real competition here. There are some people who are very good and when you debate with them, it’s a pleasure interacting with them. There are a large number of such people, in Parliament and outside. Is there an element of personal sparring with someone like Congress spokesman Jaipal Reddy?You react to comments, not to people. I have known Mr Reddy for a very long time, we have a healthy respect for each other. In the last election, I remember, it was me from the BJP and Kapil (Sibal) from the Congress and we have been known to be very close friends. If the National Agenda of Governance is good for the government, why isn’t it good for the BJP? Why does it keep issues like Ayodhya boiling on the backburner?Agendas are formulated on the basis of consensus, political parties, as they have grown, get identified with some issues, they become part of their political personality. When you enter into electoral politics, everybody will have to shed some colours because those colours are not acceptable to the others. But that you wrongly believed in those colours and that the time has come to discard them is not correct. Political parties will never accept that, they have grown with certain ideas, they have believed in them. It is not just us, everybody makes adjustments in coalitions. The Akalis after all are identified with the Anandpur Saheb resolution but they have been with us always, the CPI was a part of the National Front government even though there was little Communist about Chidambaram’s economic policies. But doesn’t all this make for convenient political doublespeak?It is not doublespeak, it is in a sense a reflection of the reality. The BJP believes in the uniform civil code, the Leftists continue to believe in their ideology but when you are part of a coalition, you are bound by those rules. That does not mean you shed your own principles and ideologies. So were there to be a BJP government, are we to understand that the issues now on the backburner will be back on the agenda?That would depend on what the manifesto of the BJP in that election is and what its commitment to the people is. This government came on the NDA manifesto and the agenda currently is the NDA agenda and there is no reason to believe that there will be no NDA in the next election. You people keep talking about hardline and Hindutva, I think you should wait and see how things roll out, the proof of the pudding will really be in the eating.
