Rogue elephant

NO single word would imply as much to the fortunes of the BJP as 8216;8216;Ayodhya8217;8217;. Having first propelled the party to the ce...

NO single word would imply as much to the fortunes of the BJP as 8216;8216;Ayodhya8217;8217;. Having first propelled the party to the centre-stage in national politics, Ayodhya comes haunting it every now and then to disturb its peace.

It is an irony of fate that the onus of burying the ghost of Ayodhya has fallen on the shoulders of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who, as any BJP insider would vouch, only grudgingly accepted the party line on Ayodhya. However, there is an element of poetic justice even in this too. After all, he owes his rise to power to the Ayodhya issue.

While fate catches up with Vajpayee, he finds himself face to face with another Sangh Parivar sibling, VHP, which has flourished on the Ayodhya agenda. The goals of the two vary. The VHP must push its own agenda to remain what it is. Vajpayee can deliver, what his office permits him.

Therefore, the current exercise by the Shankaracharya of Kanchi to negotiate a settlement with the All India Muslim Personal Law Board AIMPLB. Since everybody must concede something, the supposed magical formula is that the Hindus give up Kashi and Mathura and the Muslims forgo Ayodhya. This is exactly what the current laws of the land permit 8212; a status quo over all places of worship, except Ayodhya.

If everything goes by the script, Vajpayee, who has often attracted both abuse and ridicule from the VHP, would have the last laugh. After grudgingly accepting the Ayodhya-line and then benefiting from it the most, he would facilitate the construction of a grand temple also and leave all protagonists of Hindutva as mere bystanders in the process.

The new partition

raquo; Vajpayee has never been comfortable with Ayodhya
raquo; He senses a Hindu vote bank but thinks it will prefer moderates to VHP
raquo; Hopes Shankaracharya will do a deal on mandir

raquo; Singhal is scarcely on speaking terms with Vajpayee
raquo; Feels he, not Vajpayee, has feel of Sangh cadre8217;s pulse
raquo; Sees Shankaracharya initiative as a sell-out to Muslims

It may or may not happen. The trend would start unfolding itself from July 6, when the AIMPLB meets at Lucknow to consider a response to the Shankaracharya8217;s initiative.

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It things get going, where would it leave the VHP, then? Robbed of Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura, it would be only required to wind itself up. No organisation would do it. No wonder then that it has pitched in for a fight. If needed, it is prepared to take on the BJP and work for the defeat of at least Vajpayee in his Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency.

The VHP is given to a lot of loud-talk. However, there is no denying that the BJP draws basically on the same core cadre, which is common to the entire Sangh Parivar. After having fed this cadre on a strong Hindutva diet, the party leadership would have a hard time taking it along after opposing the VHP stand on Kashi and Mathura.

Therefore, it is the RSS, which holds the key to an end to the present Ayodhya imbroglio as far as the Parivar is concerned. So far, the Sangh has endorsed the VHP-line on the three shrines. The Sangh Pratinidhi Sabha is scheduled to meet at Kanyakumari early next month. A veto by the Sangh either way would tilt the scales decisively.

Rebuffed VHP and a Parivar war no one wants

Prevailing political wisdom in New Delhi insists the VHP is being pushed to the margins by an increasingly 8216;8216;devil may care8217;8217; prime minister. At its conclave in Raipur, the VHP was not targetting Muslims or jihadis or Pakistani or, indeed, any familiar bugbear. Its ire was reserved for the in-house enemy, Atal Behari Vajpayee.

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In the speeches and recent statements of the VHP brass, a certain sense of betrayal has been apparent. That the government could seek to find a solution to Ayodhya over the VHP8217;s head came as a genuine shock. Yet no less evident was a certain desperation. Outmanoeuvred by Vajpayee, at least in the short run, the language of VHP President Ashok Singhal and General Secretary Pravin Togadia has seldom been as strident.

In the coming days, the VHP can be expected to lobby support within the RSS family, particularly among other Sangh wings miffed with the BJP, such as Dattopant Thengadi and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh or the perennial swadeshi lot. Right now it8217;s threatening, cajoling, hoping. Nobody wants a final confrontation; nobody wants to contemplate the consequences for the Sangh.