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BJP in a state of siege

Neena Vyas

All the factors that make for a Bollywood potboiler have come into full play — money, murder, drugs, perhaps even poison, corruption, indiscipline, and defiance.

— Photo: K. Pichumani

DIFFICULT TIMES: BJP president Rajnath Singh.

THE SERIES of sordid events that has shaken the Bharatiya Janata Party in recent months would have lacked credibility if presented as fiction. It is difficult to believe that this party, the second largest in Parliament in numerical strength, was at the head of a ruling coalition for six long years, from 1998 to 2004.

When in power the one catastrophe that pockmarked its rule was the 2002 pogrom in Gujarat carried out just before an election in the State. Now that it is not in power, all the factors that make for a Bollywood potboiler have come into full play — sex, money, murder, drugs, perhaps even poison, corruption, indiscipline, and defiance. Let us not forget it is the party that claims a patent on "nationalism" and India's "culture," standing for "cultural nationalism."

The folly of the India Shining campaign, which bombed with the electorate in May 2004, has now almost been forgotten. What comes to mind are sex videotapes and murder. Some MPs grabbing wads of notes for the favour of raising questions in Parliament; some others seeking hefty commissions on projects to be funded from MPLADS (Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme). Senior leaders challenging the party high command on a televised show. The not-so-secret tussle between the shadowy masters in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and BJP president L.K. Advani, leading to Mr. Advani's resignation from that position. The shooting of party general secretary Pramod Mahajan by his own brother followed, within a month, by the mysterious death of his private secretary Bibek Moitra and the narrow escape from death of Mahajan's son, Rahul. Theories of overdose of drugs taken along with alcohol, or perhaps the mixing of some spurious substance, even poison, in the drugs with the intention to kill are doing the rounds even as the police are trying to separate fact from fiction.

Leadership confused

To say that the BJP leadership is confused as it tries to keep its chin up will be an understatement. Differences in approach at the top have surfaced with the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Sushma Swaraj, who primarily owes her loyalty to Mr. Advani, taking different positions. Ms. Swaraj publicly tried to disassociate the party from the unsavoury goings-on.

This immediately led to rumblings within the party. How could she? Was not Moitra a member of the BJP's youth wing? Was he not an active member of the party for 15 years? Was he not a member of the party's executive committee in Maharashtra? These were questions asked not by those outside the party, but those within. Her approach — which reflected Mr. Advani's — led to several party leaders in third rung positions confessing that now they did not feel they were part of the BJP "family," for there was nothing family-like left in the party.

Other parties, including the ruling Congress, may have had their share of problems: The Volcker report; allegations of corruption in the Scorpene deal (denied strongly by the Defence Minister in Parliament); dissolving the Bihar Assembly in an unseemly hurry, suggesting Constitutional fraud; and most recently, the return of the office-of-profit legislation by the President. But these issues were raised by the Opposition or someone else from outside. The problems were not the outcomes of internal feuds.

In the BJP, not one party leader has even privately blamed conspiracies by other parties for its time of troubles that has thus far lasted two years. When in the wake of the upset of the 14th general election, RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan spoke about the need for older party leaders Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Advani to make way for the next generation, there was intense speculation about a power struggle to come. But even the worst critics of the BJP could not predict the kind of cloak and dagger politics that would unfold in public.

It took the RSS exactly six months to force Mr. Advani's resignation from the position of party president. He was able to get a few months' reprieve thanks to the intervention by Mr. Vajpayee. Even before the formal announcement of his exit at the party's Mumbai conclave in December 2005, the drama involving general secretary Sanjay Joshi was enacted. Sex videotapes, allegedly involving Mr. Joshi, were circulated to the entire party leadership and a television channel (representing a powerful BJP faction) issued an ultimatum to the party: Mr. Joshi must resign, else the tapes would be telecast. The party caved in. Mr. Joshi resigned. A laboratory examination of the tapes found nothing against Mr. Joshi, who then walked back into his job. Even then fingers were pointed by the BJP at some men, and women, connected with the party. No one suggested it was a Congress conspiracy.

The BJP has shown itself to be truly different in that an Uma Bharti defied her party president on camera. Ironically Mr. Advani, breaking with precedent, allowed cameras to record the happenings of an internal party meeting. Ms. Bharti was expelled after she made it clear she could not bear not being Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. Defiance by the party's Delhi leader, Madanlal Khurana, was another episode. Mr. Vajpayee came to his rescue but was unable to prevent a parting of ways.

A revolt by a former Jharkhand Chief Minister, Babulal Marandi, led to the party losing its sole MP in the State. More than half-a-dozen MPs were disqualified for receiving cash for asking questions.

Six years in power had kept the lid more or less tight on a can of worms. They are crawling out now. This is by no means to suggest that other parties, national and regional, are in good health.

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