Party with differences

Power is the glue that keeps political entities together and individual ambitions in check. It should surprise no one, therefore, that BJP 8212; a party that had always projected itself as a 8220;disciplined8221; entity 8212; today finds itself both out of power and the site of numerous mutinies. The BJP is now arguably in a situation that bears more than a fleeting resemblance to that of the Congress in 1997, when the grand old party was riven by factionalism of every kind and appeared clueless about how it was to regain the national centre stage in political terms. It was the arrival of Sonia Gandhi as Congress president that provided a semblance of unity, which held until it came back to power at the Centre in May 2004 8212; despite the occasional crisis like the Pawar challenge of 1999 over her 8220;foreign origins8221;.

But the BJP has two additional problems. One, a serious crisis of leadership with its two helmsman too old to lead the party for any great span of time. This vacuum has, in turn, unleashed individual ambitions, as the second generation of leaders within the party position themselves and jostle for control. Much of the current tensions, therefore, are personality driven ones and Uma Bharati8217;s transparent attempt to get back her sphere of influence in Madhya Pradesh is a good example of this. Two, the party has now to reckon with its bipolar political legacy created by the fact that while it had used ideology to power itself to the top, it consciously chose to moderate its ideological stances in order to gain power.

This has left the BJP caught between the hardliners within the Sangh Parivar, who are committed to the long term project of a Hindu India, on the one hand, and its NDA allies, who need their 8220;secular8221; plank to retain their popular appeal, on the other. How successful the party is in accommodating itself to these polar opposites could decide its long-term fate. It will not only have to steel itself to dramas like the one the VHP staged at Haridwar, by initially 8220;boycotting8221; the BJP president in order to register its anger at the party8217;s handling of the temple issue, it will also have to reassure its one-time allies-in-government that it is not about to embrace extreme politics yet again. For the 8216;party with a difference8217;, this is going to be a tough call. It would need great political acumen on the part of the BJP8217;s top leadership to steer the ship in the choppy waters of political irrelevance in the days ahead.