The Usual Suspects

India Today, November 30, 1998
Nov 30, 1998

THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Fangs and the Man

In politics it doesn't pay to be too goody-goody.

Swapan Dasgupta

As a radical movement, the BJP is at its best playing on the front foot. Its record in coping with the power crisis in Delhi may be poor and its onion management record may be dismal, but come cultural issues like the Saraswati Vandana controversy or the nationalist outrage over ISI subversion and the adrenalin starts to flow in the Sangh Parivar. This is what happened in the final week of the assembly elections campaign. Atal Bihari Vajpayee has spiritedly targeted the Sonia Gandhi-Jyoti Basu courtship and L.K. Advani has directed his fire at the RDX carriers from across the border. Even Yashwant Sinha is talking of the despicable legacy of "crony capitalism". This last-minute rediscovery of issues that galvanise the faithful may or may not work. In terms of timing, a complacent BJP has left far too much to the slog overs. However, the offensive has at least ensured the Congress will have to fight every inch of the way to victory.

Regardless of the eventual outcome, this return to the party's "distinctive" platform holds important lessons for the ruling coalition. For more than six months, the Vajpayee Government has proceeded on the questionable assumption that it is best not to rock the boat. It has tried to accommodate everyone and everything. It was even silly enough not to try and take advantage of the post-Pokhran euphoria. The idea was to be magnanimous and appear responsible. The result was the opposite. Magnanimity has been misconstrued as pusillanimity and an inability to cope with power. From West Bengal to NAFED and from Rashtrapati Bhavan to the FIIs, the word is out that this Government is a pushover.

Even in terms of managing a disparate coalition, the non-confrontationist approach has not yielded results. Mamata Banerjee's politics, for example, is centred on uncompromising hostility to the CPI(M). This should have drawn the Trinamool Congress and BJP closer to each other. Yet the Vajpayee Government's attitude to the Basu Government is one of benign neglect. The state Government has been allowed to get away with its provocative and unending anti-Centre posturings. So much so that Basu wasn't even questioned for breaking the sacrosanct rule of not carrying domestic disputes overseas. Worse, neither Vajpayee nor Advani has visited West Bengal to carry the fight into enemy territory. No wonder Mamata is frustrated by a prime minister who is a "good man". George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar -- who also come from different political traditions -- are not similarly angry because the Centre has been consistently supportive of the anti-Laloo fight in Bihar.

There is an obvious lesson for Vajpayee: being goody-goody neither pays nor inspires respect. The election of the BJP-led coalition ruffled many feathers. The ancien regime wants to return to the comforting days of networking and patronage. It won't play by the Queensbury rules. It will manipulate the stock markets, promote industrial strife, engineer outrageous fatwas against Vande Mataram and encourage bureaucratic subversion. Even Uncle Sam will be encouraged to chip in. Remember what happened in Chile between 1970 and 1973 when a mildly left-wing Salvador Allende assumed charge? Allende too tried to be placatory and was gunned out.

If Vajpayee has fangs he should prepare to show them now. In the age of one-day matches, there is no second innings.

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