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Inner-party manoeuvres

The changes effected by Rajnath Singh in the Bharatiya Janata Party have the appearance of a shake-up — with no less than Narendra Modi dropped from the party's highest decision-making bodies, the Parliamentary Board and the Central Election Committee. The other casualty is Sanjay Joshi, general secretary (organisation). Mr. Joshi, who lost his job to an alleged sex scandal in December 2005, returned barely months later armed with an internal clean chit. So what is common between Mr. Modi and Mr. Joshi? They are friends; they are Hindutva extremists; and they were both protégés of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Yet it would be unwise to overinterpret the changes. The BJP under Mr. Singh is hardly about to embrace moderation. He anointed himself Prime Minister-in-waiting at the BJP's National Council meeting held in December 2006. Significantly, the event was marked by a gung-ho return to previously forbidden subjects — the Ram temple at Ayodhya, the uniform civil code, and the repeal of Article 370. In recent months almost any issue the BJP has taken up has centred on the theme of the alleged appeasement of Muslims. From Mohammad Afzal through Saddam Hussein, the Sachar report, affirmative action, infiltration, terrorism, internal security, and Pakistan, the Muslim factor has determined how the party would react.

The party responded with stunning silence to Hussein's widely-condemned execution — and no prizes for guessing why. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance regime sat for years on mercy petitions filed by Rajiv Gandhi's killers. Yet on the question of Afzal's hanging, the party's frenzy has bordered on the extreme. The BJP seems to be in dire straits in Uttar Pradesh where the Assembly elections are just months away. There is apprehension that the Bahujan Samaj Party could eat into its core vote. The BJP chief's calculation seems to be that Hindutva and Muslim bashing will be able to stem the tide and polarise the votes between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party. So what explains the removal of Mr. Modi from key posts? Whatever it is, it is not ideology. The Gujarat Chief Minister is perceived to have political ambitions going beyond his State. In recent months, he has tried to obliterate the memories of the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 and repackage himself as an `apolitical' doer, a moderniser. In a party bristling with prime ministerial hopefuls, the last thing Mr. Rajnath Singh needs is a rival who is about the same age as he is, and can work the crowds better than he can ever hope to do. It is a different matter that a reality check shows that neither Mr. Singh nor Mr. Modi can expect to be Prime Minister in an era dominated by coalitions and alliances.

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