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India and Pakistan make subtle shifts in their positions on Kashmir, raising hopes of a renewed dialogue and restoration of peace. Much will depend on what happens during Ramzan.

Fifth Column
by Tavleen Singh
Multinational Myths

Prime Movers

Action Manifested

THE NATION: AYODHYA ISSUE

Ram at Random

Vajpayee's apparent endorsement of a temple in Ayodhya rekindles an old issue and alarms NDA partners. It is also an olive branch to Sangh hardliners.

By Farzand Ahmed and Subhash Mishra

One of the hallmarks of a successful Indian politician is that he should mean all things to all men. On Wednesday, December 6, the eighth anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took the rest of the Lok Sabha by surprise by asserting that the Ram temple agitation was a "nationalist movement". The mission was unfinished, he seemed to suggest: "Kaam adhura reh gaya hai."

On the eighth anniversary of the demolition of the Babri masjid, the Prime Minister took the rest of the Lok Sabha by surprise.

The Congress, the Left and the Samajwadi Party (SP) were up in arms. The BJP, till the other day downplaying "divisive issues", was trying to reconcile the prime minister's statement with its new image. The junior partners of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) were in acute discomfort; with the exception of the Shiv Sena no one seemed to share Vajpayee's views.

The next day saw the anticlimax. At iftaar parties hosted in Delhi by Minister of State for Human Resource Development (HRD) Syed Shahnawaz Hussain and Lok Sabha Speaker G.M.C. Balayogi, Vajpayee explained that what he meant by "kaam adhura reh gaya" was not that the construction of a temple had been prevented but that the dispute had not been resolved.

The building of a Ram mandir-which forms part of the BJP's agenda as kept in abeyance by the NDA's programme-the prime minister said, was only possible "should the court give a verdict" (a title suit is pending before the Allahbad High Court) or following a "dialogue between Hindus and Muslims". There would be no deviation, he clarified, from the NDA's agreed agenda.

While his renowned eloquence-or merely linguistic jugglery, if one were to go by his opponents-helped Vajpayee negotiate a tricky situation, it didn't quite answer the basic question: why did he say what he did?

The more charitable interpretation of Vajpayee's statement is that it was no more than an off the cuff reaction to the extreme provocation of a howling opposition. For three days the Congress and sp had led a demand for the resignation of Home Minister L.K. Advani, HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi and Sports Minister Uma Bharati-all three find mention in the demolition case chargesheet as being collaterally responsible for the destruction of the 16th century shrine. Exasperated at the unruly behaviour, Vajpayee just lost his shirt, his associates say.

The other interpretation is somewhat more elaborate. It amounts to, to quote CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, the baring of Vajpayee's "fascist saffron soul". "Vajpayee's statement," Samajwadi Party leader Ashok Bajpai says, "has unmasked his real face."

Broadly speaking, Vapjayee's words signal possible political mileage for both of India's two largest parties: the BJP and the Congress. Whatever the compulsions of coalition politics and the public fatigue with emotive issues, the fact is the Ram constituency forms a significant section of the BJP's vote bank. Whether it likes it or not the piggyback ride on the mandir issue took the BJP from two Lok Sabha seats in 1984 to 161 in 1996-a period in which it was more or less in a self-described "splendid isolation".

Vajpayee and Advani are not unmindful that a chunk of the party is aggrieved the "distinctive" issues have been more or less jettisoned. From a hard line on terrorism and a vow to abolish Article 370-which gives Jammu and Kashmir more autonomy than any other state-the BJP-led government has moved towards a unilateral cease-fire and a dove-like approach.

The emphasis on economic liberalisation has also upset the protectionist swadeshi brigade within the Sangh parivar. In recent days K.S. Sudarshan, the RSS chief and Bal Thackeray of the Shiv Sena have been Vajpayee's biggest headaches. It is possible that the prime minister saw a cleverly ambiguous statement on Ayodhya as a move designed to quieten his in-house critics and silence those who accuse him of entirely ignoring the BJP's fundament. That the BJP faces a tough election in Uttar Pradesh in about a year must also have played its role.

For the Congress, finally waking up to its job as a combative rather than comatose opposition party, the Ram revival has been a godsend. From the demand that three ministers resign, it is now training its guns on the prime minister himself. Says Madhavrao Scindia, the party's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, "It (Vajpayee's statement) is outrageous. His description of the Ram temple as a reflection of national sentiment is not true. Vajpayee cannot speak for all of us. We are part of the nation and we don't agree."

Nevertheless, the Congress' own record on Ayodhya, as the BJP emphasises, is not squeaky clean. It was Vir Bahadur Singh who-as Uttar Pradesh's chief minister in 1986-allowed worship of the idols placed in the Babri structure, without appealing against a local court's order to do so.

In 1989, Rajiv Gandhi allowed the shilanyas (brick laying ceremony) for the temple and began his general election campaign in Ayodhya by calling for Ram rajya. Despite the overt bravado-a party spokesman in Lucknow demanded Vajpayee too be tried for the "conspiracy" behind the demolition-the Uttar Pradesh wing of the party cautions that "tinkering with an explosive issue" may leave it the biggest loser.

Calculations in Delhi obviously work differently. The central Congress leadership is determined to keep Ayodhya alive. It figures it can use it to mobilise the Muslim vote, so crucial in Uttar Pradesh especially, and also to embarrass the BJP's alliance partners. While Vajpayee admitted "NDA partners are unhappy about what I said" and Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress and Yerran Naidu of the TDP met him to seek clarifications, the murmurs persists. Mamata, really, may be the most vulnerable on this score.

The BJP is not expected to take any immediate steps beyond the prime minister's one contentious line. Yet over the next few months it will be galvanising its footsoldiers for the uttar Pradesh assembly polls scheduled for March 2002; issues and ideas that some NDA members could be squeamish about may well return to centre stage.

This period will overlap with the run up to the West Bengal assembly election of May 2001. Mamata cannot be oblivious of the fact that one in four voters in her home state is Muslim. So even if Vajpayee's statement dies a natural death, there is still a bigger circle waiting to be squared. You could call it Ayodhya's last laugh.

-with Lakshmi Iyer

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