The Hindu : Prime Minister for dignified campaign

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 15, 2004

Front Page

Front Page

Prime Minister for dignified campaign

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, MARCH 14. This has to be a delicious irony. While the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to whip up nation-wide excitement over the Vajpayee factor, the Prime Minister himself senses that the general election will be a relatively tame affair. "This is perhaps the first election where there is no tension at the national level on any issue. The country is not divided." This is the Vajpayee perspective on the coming contest.

What remains unsaid is that after six years as Prime Minister in a not-easy-to-manage National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition arrangement, Mr. Vajpayee has managed to avoid dividing society and the electorate in the bitter way some earlier Prime Ministers did. Many may differ with him, even sharply, on issues, but no one really hates him. He will want to keep it that way as the country steams into a full-throated campaign.

Unlike many of his party colleagues and NDA comrades, Mr. Vajpayee wants to keep the campaign at a decent pitch and level. That means no personalised attacks on political rivals. It also means that if he can help it, not much will be made of Sonia Gandhi's "foreign origin"; indeed he sees this as "hardly an issue." His understanding is that the focus should be on roads, electricity, schools, water and other development issues and there is no need to rake up personal issues.

Those who have met Prime Minister Vajpayee in recent days speak of the man's sense of equanimity and laidback acceptance of what the 14th Lok Sabha election will bring in April-May. He has good enough reason to be sanguine about his leadership within the party as well as his acceptability in the country. After all, all serious public opinion surveys and various indications make it clear that when it comes to popular approval, Prime Minister Vajpayee scores consistently higher round the country than his party, and indeed the NDA, does.

Two seemingly potential sources of trouble appear to have come around. First, General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan. There is a calculation that "the international situation has changed" much to the disadvantage of the Pakistani leader. Consequently, there is hope that the current India-Pakistan détente will stay firmly on course and have a real future. There may even be an electoral dividend out of this search for peace in South Asia. The other difficult customer too seems to be playing ball, at least for now. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which more often than not has been sniping at Prime Minister Vajpayee, may not be reconciled to his priorities and non-contentious style. However, there is a sense of satisfaction over the stand the RSS took, at its just concluded Jaipur conclave, on the policies of the Vajpayee Government. "Never before have they come out so openly" in support of the Government over these last six years, is the authoritative assessment. More surprisingly, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad firebrands too raised no trouble over the RSS' latest formulations.

Significantly, Prime Minister Vajpayee believes he has started the process of Hindu-Muslim reconciliation at a fairly deep level, and that his own ideological parivar has now come to accept the reality that the majority community cannot possibly gain by having a relationship of "permanent hostility" with the Muslims. The Prime Minister's view is that the country's Muslims will be ready to accommodate the "Hindu sentiment on the Ayodhya issue" but before that happens, it is necessary for the Hindu community to disavow any designs on Mathura and Kashi. As for the Ram temple issue, he believes that no solution is possible without a "consensus."

As for the genocidal violence in Gujarat in 2002 (which Mr. Advani recently acknowledged as "unfortunate" and a "blot" on NDA rule), Mr. Vajpayee is confident that "Gujarat cannot and will not happen again." Underlying this assessment is a realpolitik understanding that "without Godhra, there would have been no Gujarat."

As far as the economy is concerned, Mr. Vajpayee is optimistic about the results achieved by his Government. He remains satisfied that his Government has more or less kept its promise on generating 10 million jobs, although one has to keep in mind that the nature of employment is changing. Accordingly, he is not much perturbed over the Congress "chargesheet." Wondering why the chargesheet refers to the "Vajpayee Government" and not the "NDA Government," he thinks the country will no longer be taken in by sweeping condemnations.

Mr. Vajpayee belongs to the old school of politics. He is a leader with a golden tongue, at his best in a world of mass meetings, grandiloquent rhetoric, and energising crowd responses. He is not sure what change television has wrought to this familiar chemistry between mass leaders and the masses. Already it looks as if people are no longer responsive to the old fashioned meetings.

However, while there is a quiet sense that the BJP will be able to retain its current tally in the Lok Sabha and there will be no question of any combination other than the NDA forming the next Government in New Delhi, there is no overconfidence at 7 Race Course Road. Neither Prime Minister Vajpayee nor anyone close to him is in a boastful mood about the BJP doing dramatically better. Certainly no one here visualises the party reaching the 300 mark that the BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu, keeps talking about.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

News Update

Stories in this Section

Prime Minister for dignified campaign

Bulandshahr for Kalyan, Katiyar shifted from Faizabad

Never mind the pollsters, the race is still open

Tiger vs tiger in eastern Sri Lanka

China legalises private property

Sahib Singh Verma has violated code: Congress

LJP suffers jolt

Putin wins

Identified