Opinion Summer of struggle

While the reformists have found it hard to sustain the popular resistance despite the Arab Spring in the neighbourhood,Ahmadinejad is now facing the threat of impeachment from the very conservative coalition that saved him in 2009.

For nearly three months now,the political battle between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei has been out in the open. After initial veiled attacks on Ahmadinejad,the clerical establishment has now directly targeted Ahmadinejad’s political aides and arrested many of his supporters in the government.

The latest to be locked up are a former deputy foreign minister and two heads of Special Economic Zones in the north and south of Iran. Until now,more than 50 of Ahmadinejad’s aides have been arrested either for holding “unauthorised beliefs” or on charges of corruption.

The power struggle between the president and the Supreme Leader came into public view earlier this year when Ahmadinejad dismissed the minister for intelligence but was forced to reinstate him under orders from Khamenei.

Ahmadinejad tried to rejig his cabinet and bring the all important oil ministry under his control,but had to backtrack again amidst Khamenei’s displeasure. In the unique structure of the Iranian state,power resides in the hands of the Supreme Leader while the elected president can only operate at his pleasure.

In recent weeks,Khamenei has sought to publicly assert his authority over Ahmadinejad even on seemingly small issues such as a proposed visit by the Iranian foreign minister to Saudi Arabia. Almost all of Ahmadinejad’s predecessors have had problems with the Supreme Leader and have had to withdraw in disgrace after trying to assert themselves.

A few weeks ago,a contrite Ahmadinejad expressed his loyalty to the Supreme Leader on television. That neither ended the contest nor the speculation that Ahmadinejad’s days are numbered. The conventional wisdom is that Ahmadinejad has no chance of political survival in defiance of Khamenei. Some observers of Iran,however,insist that Ahmadinejad might not be a pushover.

Meanwhile hundreds of supporters are deserting Ahmadinejad amidst the accusations that the president and his inner circle form a “deviant current”. In all ideological states — Communist or Islamic — there can be no bigger crime than “deviation” from the official canon.

Deviance and defiance

The president and his aides,especially his chief of staff Efsandiar Rahim Mashai,have been accused of voodoo and sorcery. The best defence Ahmadinejad has had is that he is under the “spell” of Mashai,whose daughter is married to Ahmadinejad’s son.

After his reelection in 2009,Ahmadinejad appointed Mashai as the first vice president. Mashai,touted as a potential successor to Ahmadinejad,had to resign because of Khamenei’s opposition. Ahmadinejad did the next best thing — making Mashai his chief of staff.

Ahmadinejad and Mashai say that the “Hidden Imam”,the messiah of Shi’ite Islam,would reappear in the near future to establish a just and perfect Islamic state. The hidden Imam is said to be the 12th direct descendant of Prophet Mohammad,who disappeared or was hidden from the enemies of the Shia faith in the 9th century.

On the face of it,Ahmadinejad’s claims that he is often in touch with the Hidden Imam do seem strange. Ahmadinejad’s assertion that the 12th Imam will return soon has a political implication that directly challenges the ideological basis of Khamenei’s political hegemony over Iran.

The Islamic Republic,established by Khamenei’s predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei in 1979,is based on the thesis that the clerics have the right to rule until the Hidden Imam appears. This principle is known as the “velayat-e-faqih”.

Ahmadinejad and Mashai are saying Iran no longer needs an increasingly unpopular clerical rule and that power must be exercised by the elected leaders of the nation. As an alternative to Velayat-e-Faqih,Ahmadinejad and his friends have sought to glorify Iran’s pre-Islamic past and the great contributions of the Persian civilisation to world history.

For Khamenei and the ideologues of the Islamic republic,this is utterly unacceptable.

Pure Persian

Last month,the President’s office approved a decision by the Iranian National Academy to replace the French word “police”,in use in Iran since the 19th century,with the Persian word “passvar.”

This was part of Ahmadinejad’s efforts to “purify” the Persian language by expunging Arabic and other foreign words. Khamenei vetoed the decision,because it was seen as yet another sign of “Iranian nationalism” that the clerics think has no place in the discourse of the Islamic republic.

The writer is a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research,Delhi