The Hindu : BJP sees a trailblazer

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 16, 2002

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BJP sees a trailblazer

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI DEC. 15. The Bharatiya Janata Party is hoping that its handsome victory in Gujarat will be a trailblazer for the next round of Assembly elections — early next year in Himachal Pradesh and end of the year in Delhi, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. As in Gujarat, these elections will witness a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress, the two political rivals who will slug it out for power at the Centre in 2004.

After the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's role in Gujarat, surely the RSS and its many organisations will try to replicate the "Gujarat experiment" to further their idea of a `Hindu Rashtra'. Ayodhya, Islamic `jehad', Mian Musharraf, even Italy and the Pope are expected to be the RSS-BJP's tested recipe for electoral success.

The BJP is losing no time, hoping to get into top gear at the party's national executive committee meeting here next week-end, where the results of the Gujarat elections will be analysed to see what lessons can be drawn to enable it to win elections in other States.

Narendra Modi's re-election as Gujarat Chief Minister is a foregone conclusion — the BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu, is flying to Gandhinagar tomorrow with party leaders, Ramdas Aggarwal and Sanjay Joshi, and at a State Legislature Party meeting in the afternoon, Mr. Modi will be chosen. Mr. Naidu indicated that the swearing-in of the new "hero" of Gujarat was likely on December 18.

The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, will certainly attend the swearing-in ceremony. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, may also attend.

Here, this evening, party leaders met at Mr. Vajpayee's residence to celebrate and relish the victory. Throughout the day, sweets, crackers and drums said it all at the BJP central office.

But, irrespective of what they claim, senior party leaders are aware and privately admit that the Gujarat victory was the direct result of the Godhra carnage and the riots that followed, that it was a "Modi victory" and not a win for the party leadership. Well before polling, a senior leader had said: "If the BJP wins it will be a Modi victory, if we lose, the party will have been defeated."

A grim reminder for the party leadership came in the BJP's defeat in the Gandhinagar Assembly constituency — the Lok Sabha seat is held by Mr. Advani. Even as Mr. Modi became taller, Mr. Advani had shrunk in stature, as has Mr. Vajpayee, who had indicated he had favoured sacking Mr. Modi after the Gujarat massacres. Mr. Modi did not depend on them for notching up a victory.

Mr. Advani lost no time in blaming the media for the "slander campaign" for the landslide victory and said there was a "total disconnection" between public opinion and the media's views. "Some will be wearing black badges today," he asserted. The party warned "all pseudo-secularists".

Mr. Naidu said frankly: "After the humiliation in Jammu and the string of defeats earlier, this is certainly a morale-booster, a positive effect on the Assembly elections next year.''

Would Gujarat's Hindutva experiment be repeated elsewhere? Responded Mr. Naidu: "We are not apologetic about our (Hindutva) agenda, but it will be anti-incumbency and non-performance which will work against the Congress in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Delhi. In Himachal we will have to fight anti-incumbency.''

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