Singh Parivar

After the eerie silence, is it Rajnath Singh? It was mid-September when L.K. Advani announced the decision to step down as BJP chief in his ...

After the eerie silence, is it Rajnath Singh? It was mid-September when L.K. Advani announced the decision to step down as BJP chief in his closing address to the national executive in Chennai. The formal imprimatur on a decision the RSS had obviously made, laid the ground for a succession battle in the party. The peculiar circumstances that led up to it 8212; the fierce furore over Advani8217;s Jinnah speech 8212; also promised to launch a discussion on BJP-RSS relations in a new century. But even at that time, it looked like the party would be much too taken up with the excitements of the horse race to spare its energies for the far more demanding project of recasting the terms of an unequal and congealed relationship. In the event, though, the party did none of the above. If it refused to rise to its outgoing president8217;s challenge to stand up to the RSS, it did not even go through the motions of any sort of a leadership contest.

In a sense, the opaqueness, denial and lack of democratic procedure that preceded what is supposed to be Rajnath Singh8217;s selection as BJP president is a systemic feature. Political parties in India routinely shirk competition and debate, put a premium on contrived unanimity. Yet, the hush Rajnath Singh, if and when formally anointed, will step into is peculiar to the BJP. For a long time, the BJP has been in denial. Advani8217;s Jinnah speech triggered a moment of choice that was waiting to catch up with the party after it lost power. In its essence, it is this: to grow beyond its sharply defined strongholds by framing a more expansive agenda than the restrictive RSS worldview permits, or to remain trapped in a politics of hoary resentments. The party has steadfastly refused to own up to this choice.

Could Rajnath Singh, reputed for his ability to take the harsh decisions, but also for his leanings towards a hardline Hindutva, possibly be the man to eventually articulate the agenda for a more adult, more modern BJP 8212; is the tantalising question. In times when the parliamentary contest grows more and more presidential, is this quintessential organisation man to be his party8217;s prime ministerial candidate? Or is he just the 8216;stop-gap arrangement8217;, to tide over intense factional strife? For the moment, the BJP appears to have made a choice that deliberately leaves most of those questions hanging. Rajnath Singh8217;s elevation merely underlines the enormous challenge before the party, it does little to resolve it.