April 6, 1998

Vajpayee must keep self-appointed middlemen at bay.

Prabhu Chawla

Confronted by a belligerent opposition in parliament and frustrated in his attempts to stamp out confrontationist politics, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee can take solace in one thought. Things could have been worse if he, like his two predecessors, was the fourth and not the first choice for the prime ministership. If a saffron politician has moved in to South Block for the second time in less than two years, the credit goes entirely to Vajpayee. The BJP and its under-developed ruling philosophy may be a national problem but its leader has emerged as its most acceptable solution for ruling the country in the face of a fractured verdict.

In spite of this personal advantage, Vajpayee also suffers from the same infirmity as former prime ministers H.D. Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral. Like both of them, Vajpayee is not the boss of his own Government though he is the leader of the single largest national party, the BJP. Vajpayee has to cope with an additional pressure point -- the invisible Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Though the top leadership of the RSS has refrained from influencing government decision-making directly, a few self-appointed RSS middlemen and part-time professionals have planted themselves in the houses of the prime minister and Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani. Vajpayee's immediate problem is to contain them and their deal-making capacity.

The prime minister is aware of the dangerous consequences of this disadvantage. If his moves during the past two weeks are any indication, Vajpayee has mastered the art of coalition and manipulative politics. Unlike in May 1996, when he kept himself away from political deal-making, this time round he led the BJP alliance from the front. If the Vajpayee of 1996 was a diehard disciple of the RSS, the Vajpayee of 1998 is accommodative and a conformist.

During the past two weeks, Vajpayee has made more concessions to and compromises with his friends and foes than he has ever done in his entire political career spanning over four decades. Not only did he surrender his right to determine the size of his own Cabinet, in the matter of allocation of portfolios, he was dictated by his allies. If that was not enough, highly aggressive sections of the RSS leadership forced him to change his finance minister at the point of a gun. To top it all, his 14 allies eroded his powers too. Political compulsion dictated that he compromise. Vajpayee has, it appears, realised that if his second tenure has to be longer than his first, he will have to liberate himself from the highly secretive and rigid RSS-style of political management without offending its top leadership. For the time being, he has opted to deal with the RSS' top leadership directly rather than through self-seeking middlemen whose personal agendas appear to be to secure plum posts for themselves or their acolytes in academics, media and even in business. He has successfully thwarted the attempts of junior-level swadeshi lobbyists to pack the Prime Minister's Office with their representatives. The prime minister has conveyed to them that while he appreciates their commitment and loyalty to the Sangh Parivar, he would like them to concentrate on consolidating the electoral gains by expanding their social canvas. At a time when the ancien regime is making a determined bid to prevent the smooth transfer of power, Vajpayee expects the Sangh Parivar to act as a minesweeper rather than set off the fireworks.

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