Opinion - News Analysis   

How far will the new rath yatras go?

Harish Khare

The BJP leadership may have misread the popular mood.

LAST JULY, bombs ripped through the London Metro. That evening the British Parliament met, dignified speeches were made, the Government and the Opposition soberly joined hands to send out a message of a united nation against vendors of terrorism. By contrast the Bharatiya Janata Party, the principal Opposition, chose on Wednesday to disrupt the two Houses in the wake of the blasts in Varanasi. A strange way, if any, to send out any message to the "enemy." Within a week of India acquiring the status of a quasi-nuclear power, the Opposition ended up giving the impression that a couple of terrorists could leverage the domestic political noise.

The BJP ruled this country for six years and it has leaders who know a thing or two about the menace of terrorism because the maximum number of terrorist attacks on religious places — including Akshardham and the Raghunath temple — took place during the National Democratic Alliance regime. But on Tuesday night, the Leader of the Opposition lost no time in blaming the Varanasi blasts on some kind of "appeasement" that the United Progressive Alliance Government was presumed to be practising.

If that act of partisanship was not enough, the BJP leadership has announced it was reviving the "rath yatra" tradition. The new BJP president, Rajnath Singh, who is yet to make any kind of splash, will lead a rath yatra; and, L.K. Advani, who is in search of recouping his sagging leadership profile, will lead another "rath yatra." Political creativity at its uncreative best. The impressionable leaders may have taken too seriously the scepticism over the recent Muslim mobilisation as proof that the country was back in "majority backlash" mode.

This latest "rath yatra" trick will not work again, for three good reasons. First, what the new and the old BJP leaders fail to understand is that India has changed dramatically since Mr. Advani set out in 1990 on his rath yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya. That was the age of rumours and regional media. The Hindi press in Uttar Pradesh was a major tool for stoking Hindu sentiments. Today, the rath yatras will take place in the age of 24x7 television, mobile, SMS, videography and instant transmission. Indian nationalism is self-assured, equanimous, and globally engaged.

The new India does not want to be distracted by claims made in the name of medieval passions. It has probably escaped the BJP leaders' attention that those who are able to make demands on public attention are the ones who are achievers and role models. Politicians no longer enjoy the legitimacy they once did; the BJP leaders have long lost their image of political innocence; and, the Indian citizen — whatever his faith — no longer subscribes to the grammar of religious animosity. And, in any case, the Indian state has learnt the lessons — and, costs — of letting religious zealots run amok. Civil society, too, has got the measure of pretenders who seek to assume the mantle of saviour of this or that "community."

Secondly, the new BJP leadership appears to have totally misread the nature of its own "Vajpayee constituency." A changing India had opted for the Vajpayee-led BJP in 1998-99 because the country was yearning for stability and decency in public life. The middle classes applauded the Vajpayee regime as long as it delivered on these two counts. During its own governmental innings, the BJP leadership came to appreciate the untenability of the "Hindu agenda" — either as a blueprint for governance or as a recipe for an electoral majority at the Centre. Now out of power, the uninspired and uninspiring leaders are turning their back on their own constituency.

Thirdly, the new and the old BJP leaders seem to have learnt no lesson from the Gujarat riots. "Shining India" turned its back on the BJP and the NDA because the country disapproved of Narendra Modi's deliberate and calculated Muslim-bashing. A strategy of communal polarisation could work at the Gujarat level, but it did not help the Vajpayee regime encash the "feel good" mood. The Vajpayee regime did much to help the country move on to a new agenda of growth, development, globalisation, and self-assurance. The "rath yatra" strategists seem not to have noticed the change India's new priorities.

It is possible that the BJP leadership is banking on some kind of over-reaction from the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh — just as the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government's over-reaction in 1990 helped the BJP's strategy of Hindu consolidation. However, the Samajwadi Party today is no longer able to help the BJP. The Left parties can be relied upon to counsel Mr. Yadav to practise responsible "secular" politics.

Moreover, the Rajnath Singh-Advani duo is making the mistake of underestimating the Indian state's enhanced capacities to deal with the trouble-maker. Compared to the 1990-1992 paralysis at the top, the Centre is much more purposeful and experienced in dealing with communal politics and violence. The BJP leadership seems to have not noticed the Manmohan Singh Government's capacity for competence. The new rath yatras will come to a grinding halt.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Facing terrorism
Australia's uranium dilemma
Towards corporate social responsibility
How far will the new rath yatras go?
Pervez Musharraf and the India-fixation
Children dying for a glass of water
Corrections and clarifications
Thailand's troubles
Wonder v. fear and guilt
Reprehensible
Offices of profit

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu