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THE NATION:
BJP MINISTERS
A
Face Lift
The periodic
reshuffles aren't knee-jerk, they're part of an elaborate effort by the
BJP leadership to create a fine balance of youth and experience at its
core
By
Farzand Ahned
Like
chemistry, power politics is often defined by symbols. Last week when
Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee expanded his jumbo-sized ministry for the
fourth time in the past year by re-inducting firebrand sanyasin Uma Bharati
as a cabinet minister and elevating suave lawyer Arun Jaitley to the same
rank, the chemistry of the BJP ministers in the NDA Ministry was clear.
 |
| Khanduri,
Bharati and Jaitley with President K.R. Narayan and Vajpayee |
Bharati mixes
backward caste politics and impulsiveness with spirituality to create
an effective mass appeal among the rural voters, while Jaitley, a professional,
is the modern, urban face of the party. Bharati is 41, Jaitley 48. But
they are not the only ones the party wants to project as its faces of
the new millennium. Says Rural Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu,
a leader with a village background: "After Nehru's cabinet this is
the best team the country has ever had. A truly representative team which
has the right mix of the old and the young, rural and urban, forwards
and backwards, professionals and politicians."
Naidu, 50,
till recently the BJP spokesperson, was not exaggerating. The BJP ministers,
under the umbrella of leaders like Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar
Joshi, who guided and shaped the destiny of the 20-year-old party for
18 years, are aged mostly between 30 and 50. Only a handful of senior
leaders at the top of the ministry - like Vajpayee, Advani, Sunderlal
Patwa, Jagmohan, Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh-belong to the 65-75
age group.
In fact,
party leaders claim the BJP part of the Union Cabinet is studded with
second-rung leaders who were groomed and trained when Advani was party
chief. Sushma Swaraj, 46, not only comes from an urban background but
has brought with her rich political and administrative experience. Naidu,
a Khamma-a landowning community from Andhra Pradesh-is handling the crucial
rural development portfolio. Ananth Kumar, 40, a popular leader from Bangalore,
is in charge of culture. Even among latecomers, Sinha has given a new
momentum to liberalisation. Similarly, C.P. Thakur, a noted physician,
has given a new face to the Health Ministry.
The party,
in fact, is banking on the younger lot among the ministers of state like
Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, 32; Tapan Sikdar, 51, the leader who built the
BJP in West Bengal from scratch; Rita Verma, 45, a former professor from
Ranchi University; Pon Radhakrishnan, who is known as the "Kamaraj"
of southern Tamil Nadu; Jual Oram, a 45-year-old tribal from Orissa; Santosh
Gangwar, 50; Subhash Maria, 48, and Ramesh Bais, 48. They all have their
own image and following in their respective states.
A Healthy
Mix: Party leaders take pride in the fact that while leaders like
Vajpayee and Advani have given an identity to both the party and the Government,
the BJP segment of the ministry also has a good collection of orators
and debators like Swaraj, Bharati and Jaitley, academics like Joshi, professionals
like Thakur, Devendra Pradhan, Radhakrishnan, Arun Shourie and Satyabarta
Mukherjee, farmers like Naidu and Vidya Sagar Rao and ex-army officers
like Jaswant Singh and B.C. Khanduri.
The team
has been carefully crafted to suit the new face that the party has acquired
at the national level with Bangaru Laxman, a Dalit, as party chief and
Narendra Modi, belonging to the backward classes, as the second-most powerful
party man in his capacity as general secretary (organisation).
Despite
this the 50-member BJP team is dominated by either Brahmins or upper castes
like Thakurs, Bhumihars and Banias. Brahmin and upper-caste leaders holding
key positions and portfolios include Vajpayee, Jagmohan, Jaswant Singh,
Joshi, Swaraj, Pramod Mahajan, Shanta Kumar (all Brahmins), Patwa (Jain)
Yashwant Sinha (Kayasth) and Thakur (Bhumihar) which confirms that the
party still maintains its Brahminical character.
But that
is not the only problem. Many ministers were not able to perform because
of the frequent reshuffling of portfolios and ministers. Ministers of
state like Hussain, who have been often shuttled from one ministry to
another, said it would have been better if ministers were allowed to work
at one place for sometime so they could show their talent. But Modi, the
BJP spokesman, explains that in coalition politics, the leadership has
to analyse the situation from a political perspective and decide who should
be where. And despite all odds, claims Modi, the BJP brass has created
a team that combines experience and youth.
Whatever
the defence, when it comes to handling its own party matters senior BJP
leaders often mess up things. During the past three years it foisted three
chief ministers on Uttar Pradesh - socially the most sensitive state -
and finally ended up imposing a Brahmin state unit chief, a Thakur chief
minister and finally a Brahmin governor. In the newly created states of
Jharkhand and Uttaranchal the leadership acted in haste and angered local
leaders and workers.
In Uttaranchal,
74-year-old Nityanand Swami is regarded as an outsider by the locals.
In Jharkhand while the hasty decision to appoint the youthful Babulal
Marandi as the first chief minister has not only caused upheaval within
the party, but also forced leaders like Karia Munda to raise the banner
of revolt. Munda's rebellion could create a Santhal vs Munda rift-of the
14 tribal BJP MLAs, 12 are Mundas while one each is Oraon and Santhal
(Marandi happens to be a Santhal). On the other hand, all 12 JMM(S) MLAs,
including Shibu Soren, are Santhals.
Niggling
factors such as these have the capacity to negate the BJP's desperate
efforts to project a new, youthful image. But as Modi points out, despite
coalition compulsions and the reluctance of some of the entrenched to
yield power the BJP's talent scouts are finding it a rewarding time.
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