FIRST STRIKE
Campaign blues
ANIL DHARKER
AP
DO we have a Congress Government at the centre? That may be a strange question to ask after a full-term of the NDA Government, but that's the way it seems if you look at the election campaign.
Usually — and not surprisingly — the party in power fights an election on its record in office. You can expect a bit of fudging there, much as a job aspirant presents his CV: glossing over the weak points while highlighting the strengths. And that is exactly what the Bharatiya Jananta Party (BJP) — the main constituent of the NDA — did when it kicked off the current election. "India Shining" and "The Feel Good Factor" were catchy slogans, catching enough to go immediately into our vocabulary and soon popular enough to spawn imitations and parodies, a sure sign of a slogan's success.
Simultaneously, all opinion polls showed the NDA returning comfortably to power, with the BJP increasing its share of the seats. The Congress, in the meantime, seemed unsure of itself on every front; particularly in the all-important area of forging state-level alliances with regional parties. Only when it was beaten badly in by-elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh did the party galvanise itself to do what it should have done to start with. The partnerships often didn't happen simply because Congress efforts were too little, too late. The party was also confused about how to deal with the Sonia Gandhi issue. It plumped for the obvious formulation ("The question of who will become Prime Minister can be addressed at the appropriate time"). But it took so long to say this that it alienated some potential political allies.
The two factors — India Shining and Congress Confusion — taken together could only mean that the BJP would coast to power. Yet, suddenly, the panic's gone from the Congress camp and moved to the BJP's. Is this because Sonia Gandhi's election rallies have drawn the large crowds which L.K.Advani's rath yatra haven't. Or Rahul Gandhi's entry into politics which has given an adrenalin shot to the Congress. Or Priyanka still being a magnetic crowd puller... Yet, are these sufficient grounds for the disarray in the BJP? After all, Sonia and Priyanka Gandhi were attracting crowds even in the last elections; their numbers, however, didn't translate into votes. The effect of Rahul's entry can only be peripheral. As for local alliances, the NDA has plenty of those for itself and many of them are more powerful than the Congress'.
Why then, the alarm buttons? The signs of the BJP's apparent jitters are everywhere, but particularly in the shift of its campaign strategy. A shift of gears in the run-up to an election is not unknown: a party may want to change focus given a new scenario; it may have even planned adding another electoral plank or two as it went along. But the BJP's tactics have not changed gears; they have changed levels. From the optimism of the India Shining campaign, its strategy has descended to personal attacks on the Congress leadership. And as seen by the BJP, that means Sonia Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, with an occasional reference to Rahul and Priyanka.
Even this would not be out of place in the hurlyburly of elections. Except for two things. Sonia Gandhi isn't the Prime Minister, and she hasn't been leading a government of her party for the last five years; Atal Bihari Vajpayee is the Prime Minister and it's his government at the centre. You give so much emphasis to one person only when she has been leader of the nation and when her government's record is on trial. Secondly, the attacks haven't centred around Sonia Gandhi's qualifications to be Prime Minister, which would be legitimate, but on her "foreign origin", which isn't. Not just that: These attacks have been at the level of the gutter, exemplified by Narendra Modi's now notorious reference to her as "a Jersey cow" and to Rahul Gandhi as a "hybrid calf". And the mysterious survey (which only Modi has seen) which concluded that Ms. Gandhi wouldn't be able to get a job as a clerk and Rahul as a driver.
Let's ignore the obvious contradictious here: the cow, after all, is an object of veneration for the Sangh parivar, so was Modi being respectful to the Gandhis? And his disparaging attitude to clerks and drivers was odd, considering the possibility of very many clerks and very many drivers being part of his audience.
These are minor points. The major ones are that our present Constitution treats an Indian citizen born abroad on par with an Indian citizen born in India. This is in the best liberal tradition, and in the tradition of most major democracies in the developed world (except for the United States). This also complements the world view propagated by Vajpayee, which talks of friendship with Pakistan, a future confederation of neighbouring Asian countries, cordial relations with Israel and the Arab world and close ties with the United States and Russia. The attacks on Sonia Gandhi's Italian origins, on the other hand, are shrilly xenophobic and reactionary.
How does one explain all this? Did the BJP find the shine go off of its India Shining campaign? Did it find that India was shining only for the urban middle-class and that the rural majority found the sheen cruelly false? Or did the BJP really revert to its roots and show us, once again, that it is a party of hate? Why else would Lal Krishna Advani, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, the undisputed number two man in the party, share the platform again and again with Narendra Modi? And why would he not ask Modi to tone down his rhetoric? Why would no one stop Vinay Katiyar from mouthing the most disgraceful superstitions (like "Sonia brought bad luck to the Gandhi family"). Why would Pravin Tagodia get away without a reprimand for saying that he would not applaud the victories of our cricket team in Pakistan; he would rather that we had sent tanks to flatten the Pakistani's Multan, Lahore and Rawalpindi.
But Vajpayee and Advani don't always use other shoulders to fire off their rounds; often they use their own. Like when the PM said the Gujarat riots were a "matter of shame" but in the same breath added that if there had been no Godhra, there would have been no riots. Or Advani expressing pride in the cricketers who had done well in Pakistan, especially Sehwag, Tendulkar and Dravid and "our own child from Gujarat, Parthiv Patel" while failing to mention Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan both also from Gujarat. (Incidentally, Advani also called the Babri Masjid demolition a mistake and simultaneously said that a Ram temple will surely be built).
Consider this whole picture and you are left with the inescapable conclusion that the BJP cannot change its spots: the India Shining campaign had a positive thrust, but the BJP is only comfortable with a negative, reactionary angle. The BJP makes attempts to be inclusive and treat minorities fairly but its natural instinct is to exclude everyone who doesn't belong to the majority community. Finally, the liberal Vajpayee world view is alien to the core of the party which would rather be isolationist and protectionist of the country's economy and its culture. In Sonia Gandhi it has found its ideal symbol: her foreigness, her Catholic religion (and no doubt her gender) make her the ideal object for a negative campaign. In doing so, the leaders of the party in power have taken the lead in lowering the level of our national debate. But they can't help it: they are like that only.
Anil Dharker is ajournalist, media critic and writer.
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