Nuclear nihilists

This could be dubbed Jinnah-II for L.K. Advani. Except that the RSS leadership was this time on Advani’s side. That only goes to show just how deep the rot is in the BJP. When it humiliated its second most senior leader for the second time, it did so on its own steam; such is the quantity of hot air produced by a group of BJP backroom ‘experts’ on the nuclear deal. When only a few days back we welcomed Advani’s mature and intelligent reworking of the party position — no problem with the 123 deal but let’s look at domestic legislative safeguards — we had noted that Advani had to sell the line. We had expected resistance in the BJP but not rank reactionariness. We were therefore guilty of assuming the BJP still had some sense left in it; of assuming that it had the basic minimum political savvy to ultimately spot a good tactic. How naive we were. The BJP, it is clear now, is at its directionless worst since the time, to our continuing perplexity to this day, it had adopted Gandhian socialism as its political leitmotif. Nuclear nihilism would be a good description of the BJP’s position now. The party had built up a perception during NDA years that it was muscular but realist in its nationalism. That perception is all but gone as some BJP leaders baffle, bore and bewilder the party’s natural constituency with their obsessive chatter about clauses and sub-clauses.

Evidently the anti-deal jehadis in the BJP command enough influence. But do they do it because they have Atal Bihari Vajpayee in their corner? What is Vajpayee doing when his party is walking all over some of his finest foreign policy achievements? Is he unwilling? Unable? Or is he persuaded this is the right course? Every question is unflattering to the former PM. The Vajpayee we knew would have spotted that Thursday, when the Left and Congress were busy finding face-saving phrases, was an opportunity for seizing the high ground. Backed by what Advani had said earlier, the party could have told the Congress it supports the 123 text, that its reservations do not mean stopping further international negotiations, that it can’t stand by and allow the Left to hijack national interest.

What the nation thinks where national interest lies will be clear once the votes are in. No other party needs an electorally administered detoxification like the BJP does at this point. Nothing else would remind the party that while in politics a lot of failures are tolerated, persistent foolishness is always punished.