BJP's 'B' Team: Imitation, not Alternative

27 Dec 2002
(The Times of India, Editorial Page)

Rajesh Ramachandran

After the Congress debacle in the Gujarat assembly polls, the English media has come under attack from the BJP and the RSS for predicting a close fight. No professional journalist would risk losing credibility by deliberately making wrong predictions. Yet, most of the English media did get it wrong in Gujarat. Was it, as the BJP claims, because all of them wanted the Congress to win? Not at all, even if many were deeply discomfited by the state machinery’s collusion in the rioting and Narendra Modi’s politics of polarisation.

Journalists read the picture wrong largely because of the signals emanating from the Congress, which lulled them into believing that anti-incumbency would override Godhra and the riots as poll issues. So much so, not just sections of the national English media, but even the less audible Gujarati press bought the line that the Congress was slowly emerging as a credible alternative to the BJP’s hard-line Hindutva. The assumption was that if the Congress could win against the BJP and its allies in 14 states, it could repeat that success in Gujarat as well.

However, they overlooked a vital point: The Congress in Gujarat was not an alternative to the BJP, but, in fact, its poor imitation. It is no surprise then that the original trounced the imitation. The BJP’s biggest advantage is its ability to switch roles. Whenever it chooses to do so, the BJP can queer the pitch with Hindutva. After all, its core ideology is right wing — politically, culturally and economically. From the anti cow-slaughter campaign in the ’60s to the Babri demolition in 1992 to Gujarat in 2002, the party’s name has changed but not its ideology.

Now, how does the Congress respond to the BJP? After the riots, the Congress appointed Shankersinh Vaghela, a former RSS missionary as party chief in Gujarat. The Congress kept away all its national Muslim leaders from campaigning and instead brought in a band of sadhus.
The Congress candidate against Narendra Modi outdid Narendra Modi. He talked mostly about the Ram temple.

While this soft Hindutva campaign was on in Gujarat, the Congress was effectively helping out the government in Delhi. The Venkataswami commission inquiring into the Tehelka expose had a reputation for fairness and had almost completed its probe. Yet, the Congress forced justice Venkataswami to resign for taking up another ‘office of profit’ from the government. The party never sought a debate on the commission’s fate and the government’s harassment of Tehelka journalists. It cynically waited till the end of the session to raise the issue.

The Public Accounts Committee, headed by veteran Congressman Buta Singh, has not made any progress in its probe into the coffin scam despite evidence that the government had purchased the ‘human remains transfer cases’ at double the price. Meanwhile — and conveniently for the Congress — the CBI messed up the deportation case of Ottavio Quattrocchi, involved in the Bofors payoff case.

The Congress had resolved in March 2001 that it was opposed to privatisation of profit-making PSUs. When the government announced its decision to privatise oil PSUs, the Congress first argued that this would require legislation because these companies were nationalised through Acts of Parliament. Since the government is in a minority in the Rajya Sabha, the Congress stand could have forced an embarrassing joint session of Parliament on an issue that has divided the Union cabinet and the NDA. But within 24 hours, the Congress changed its stand. It was ready to accept the attorney-general’s advice, knowing full well that the solicitor- general had already approved the government’s decision. The two law officers of the government can hardly be expected to fight over a government decision. The Punjab CM recently declared that he was not aware of the Congress’ stand against privatisation of profit-making PSUs and said he would sell the profit-making Punjab Tractors and Punjab Communications.

Though the Congress claims to be a centrist party, it is like a pendulum that cannot rest at the centre when there is a great pull to the right or to the left. In the ’60s and the ’70s, there was a pull to the left in national and international politics and the Congress swung in that direction. Its pseudo-socialist policies spawned the licence-permit Raj, empowering and enriching a few, giving the rest only slogans of garibi hatao. With the pull to the right getting stronger, the Congress presided over the shilanyas that ultimately led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the Bombay blasts and the riots thereafter.

And even as it bought MPs to firm up its government, the Congress sold off oil fields, and ushered in an era of scams — stock market, telecom, oil and so on. Unlike Amarinder Singh, A K Antony had humble beginnings. With his torn khadi shirt and empty pocket, the Kerala CM remained a product and symbol of Kerala’s celebrated welfare state. Now he is dismantling this very welfare state by promoting profit in education and health.

Sure, the English media got it completely wrong by projecting the Congress as an alternative to the BJP. With the organisation completely under the control of a ruthlessly calculating social elite, the Congress can only be a weathercock in the global right-wing gush. Ultimately, the Congress’s is an ideology of power (and the good things of life) which is no match for any ideology of conviction.