March 30, 1998

Can the BJP turn a slogan into common sense?

Swapan Dasgupta

Flanked by Jayalalitha on one side and L.K. Advani on the other, Atal Bihari Vajpayee didn't quite look the man India was anxiously awaiting. At the release of the National Agenda for Governance, grandly billed as the programme that would succeed in "closing the gap between people's aspirations and the government's performance", the near-winner of the 1998 general election looked buoyant and sounded vague. Who wouldn't after the interminable confabulations and dinners that have made the BJP-led alliance appear a Hinduised reincarnation of the United Front? The first government in 50 years (not counting the 13-day wonder) to be headed by a man who has never been associated with the Congress should, ideally, have been a turning point in Indian history. Instead, Indian history is refusing to budge.

Maybe it is rash to jump to conclusions. Maybe future historians will indeed single out March 1998 as the real point of departure. They may even point to the National Agenda as the document that made it happen. It all depends. Depends on how the BJP and its 12 allies interpret the confusing verdict (as distinct from a mandate) of the general election. In essence, they have two choices. The first is to perceive the Vajpayee regime as a patchwork quilt woven together for the sole purpose of forging a government. If this is the self-perception of the regime, it can never work cohesively and can endure only as long as sufficient number of MPs feel disinclined to take another shy at elections. It will be a government that will pursue a line of least resistance, because it has no decisive mandate. It will be in power, but will abdicate governance.

The alternative depends on the BJP. As the largest party, with a national spread -- it has MPs from all the main states except Kerala -- the BJP has to either lead from the front or suffer the consequences. For its own sake, it must transform difficulty into opportunity. There is little percentage in hard-liners waiting cussedly for the day the party has the requisite MPs to scrap Article 370 and enact a common civil code. The fact is that the National Agenda is not absolutely lacking in ideological ammunition for purposeful politics.

At the core is the avowed commitment to give the reforms "a strong swadeshi thrust" via the principle "India shall be built by Indians". Although strategically placed in the section on the economy, swadeshi is much more than a doctrine of economic choice. It is a political philosophy that will begin to have a resonance when applied with the National Agenda's strictures against the "destructive ... politics of negativism and untouchability". In other words, the challenge before the BJP is to take its preoccupation with Indian nationhood well beyond the stifling parameters of Hindu-Muslim discord and translate it into other areas. The BJP has overtaken the Sonia Congress in terms of seats and national reach. To consolidate itself as the new pole of politics, it must strive to elevate doctrine into common sense. If the Vajpayee Government puts its heart and soul into this project -- of course, it has to deliver in limited areas such as investment in infrastructure and equitable Centre-state relations -- it could find that there are returns from even a coalition surviving on a wafer-thin majority. Vajpayee's real challenge is not managing a coalition, but in shaping politics. His statesmanship is not in doubt; he is on probation as a politician.

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