August 24, 1998

With the party betraying him, PM must take control

Prabhu Chawla

Can a head of The government perform without the earnest backing of his party? One look at the performance of the BJP-led Government and it is clear the answer is a resounding No. For the past five months, while the prime minister was constantly engaged in shadow-boxing with his allies in the Government and battling an aggressive Congress, his party leaders, cabinet colleagues and chief ministers of the BJP-ruled states behaved like spectators watching a boxing bout, even cheering the other side.

Little wonder then that the prime minister and his close aides are veering around to the view that the BJP leadership has no interest in countering the propaganda against the Government. The party's abysmal failure in building opinion in favour of the Government has naturally upset the prime minister.

Vajpayee's inability to rally the party and its frontal organisation behind his Government has exposed the tenuous relationship between his administration and his party. It has also triggered a debate in the BJP and in Government circles about the desirability of the same person heading both the Government and the organisation. The case for dual charge is bolstered by international examples. For example, the US president, following his election, nominates his party chief. In Britain, the prime minister is also the leader of the party, thus eliminating the chances of parallel centres of power working at cross purposes.

But at home, a cold war is on between the prime minister and his party. For more than a decade, Vajpayee has hardly been consulted on party matters. In fact, the current party structure was put together by Home Minister L.K. Advani, who was party president for eight of the past 10 years. Its present chief has at best a casual relationship with the prime minister. Barring perhaps two, office bearers hardly ever bother to meet Vajpayee. On top of it, three general secretaries have come to loathe Vajpayee both for his liberal approach and, of late, his compromising nature. The five BJP chief ministers have problems vibing with him. Its leaders talk loosely about his Government. Many trace the reason to the fact that none of them owes his or her position to Vajpayee.

It's not as if all is lost. Vajpayee loyalists feel that the trend can be reversed if the prime minister is also made the party president. Examples abound: both H.D. Deve gowda and I.K. Gujral were frequently humiliated because they had no grip on the party. On the other hand, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav and, at the regional level, Laloo Yadav, M. Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha and Farooq Abdullah contain dissent because they control both the party and the Government. P. V. Narasimha Rao, like Vajpayee now, started out without a majority in Parliament, yet got rid of powerful adversaries like Arjun Singh and went on to complete his term because he had a grip on the party as its chief. Indira Gandhi faced instability when the Syndicate ruled the party and overcame it when she took over. The soft-spoken Vajpayee may survive periodic bouts of Jaya flu, in the long term, however, he has no option but to organise a coup within the BJP.

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