Which way will BJP go?

The Advani episode brings out in bold relief the harsh reality: animus against Pakistan is deemed essential by the Sangh Parivar for the sustenance of communal politics. And without communal politics it sees itself as a cypher.

That the Congress too has sniped at Advani is not surprising. The sniping points to the ideological confusion inherent in the party ever since the CWC accepted the partition plan, despite Maulana Azad and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan having gone into a heavy sulk.

There has always been in the Congress a Nehru line in continuous contest with the Purshottam Das Tandon line on the nature of Indian nationalism. It is in the colours of the latter that we shall see Karunakaran in Kerala. Come the state elections, and the RSS cadres will throw their lot behind him. Antony and Chandy will stand out as Christians.

Nothing better illustrates anti-Pakistan venom as the basic ingredient of communal politics than a priceless Newstrack cassette I preserve in my archives, recording the scene in Ayodhya immediately after the Babri Masjid had been pulled down.

The first scene shows a group of young men, colourful bandanas around their heads, thrusting their lances almost into the camera, screaming, 8220;Bomb girega Pakistan par8221; bombs will fall on Pakistan.

The scene cuts to a group of women squatting on the floor in a circle, clapping in a slow rhythm, singing, 8220;Ab yeh jhanda lehrayega saare Pakistan par8221; now this flag will flutter over Pakistan. A swami with booming voice declares: 8220;Abhi hamein Lahore jana hai, Rawalpindi jaana hai8221; we now have to march onto Lahore and Rawalpindi. The final scene shows Bal Thakeray suggesting that 8220;Muslims can go to Pakistan if they don8217;t like mosques being pulled down.8221; Where was Rama in all this mindlessness?

Narendra Modi fell back on exactly this while contriving the 8220;Mian Musharraf8221; slogan during the Gujarat elections which followed the pogrom. All of this must have been painful and excruciatingly embarrassing even for BJP supporters.

Vajpayee turned the party around by his April 2003 speech in Srinagar leading to the January 6, 2004 agreement with Musharraf in Islamabad. Why then, did Advani run into such heavy weather pursuing the same line in Pakistan? Would Vajpayee have sailed through with greater ease?

Probably, yes. Vajpayee always positioned himself a notch or two above institutional hierarchies, a bit of a superior pundit. Advani, on the other hand, depended entirely on personal loyalties within an institutional framework. How many personal loyalties can one leader have?

Vajpayee never had an inflexible image. Advani was hurtling along one direction with such speed that an abrupt about-turn has resulted in snarled traffic. Can this be cleared up? Of course, with Vajpayee standing by him. In his Jinnah remarks Advani missed out on the distinction between truth and popular perception. The latter requires work to change.

If Advani comes out of the thicket, the BJP could well be searching the slot the Swatantra Party once occupied. Swatantra was no 8220;untouchable8221; for anyone. In the age of economic reforms it would be less so. But no one should be misled in a hurry. The BJP is not about to sever its links with RSS. This, plus its desire to attract NDA allies will be the continuing dilemma in the coming months.

Why Advani chose to shuffle off his established image will continue to intrigue his detractors and admirers alike. He seemed so ideologically anchored to the Hindutva of the extreme variety, one which accommodated even Modi8217;s excesses, that marvel, shock, anger were the set of responses when he began to coo like a dove the moment he landed in Pakistan. Clearly the shift was made because the hard Ayodhya-Gujarat line was dead as a dodo after the 2004 elections.

It is extraordinary that he appears not to have taken his Parivar colleagues into confidence on the details of his Pakistan mission. And yet it was more or less clear what his theme would be the day Choudhry Shujaat Hussain invited him to restart worship at the Lav temple in Lahore Fort. This was settled in March, a month before Musharraf visited New Delhi.

The dust that has been raised on his Jinnah remarks has less to do with what he said. It is largely a function of the hysteria generated by soundbite journalism. If you thrust a microphone under Praveen Togadia8217;s nose and ask, 8220;how do you respond to Advani describing Jinnah as secular8221;, obviously Togadia will go ballistic. And before you know a Mexican wave has been created by a hundred microphones thrust under as many noses, all in political wilderness in this season of peace, to carry Togadia8217;s pitch to another crescendo.

Advani must be embarrassed beyond measure because his hosts went to extraordinary lengths to make his visit a historic one. There are few temples in north India so rich in mythology as the Katas Raj temple complex near Rawalpindi. Choudhry Shujaat Hussain of the Pakistan Muslim League personally accompanied Advani to the temple site. Archaeologists from both countries will restore this complex. 8220;Hindus from India will visit temples in Pakistan just as Muslim from Pakistan visit Ajmer,8221; said Hussain. An old temple to Lord Rama8217;s son, Lav, is being renovated in Lahore. The 150th anniversary of the 1857 revolt is to be jointly observed by India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

To ignore these elements from the Pakistan visit and focus only on the Jinnah remarks, somewhat out of context, would reflect on our small mindedness.