The Nation

OTHER STORIES RELATED TO NATION Orissa: 13/12 Reenacted Hindutva Style

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had every reason to be relaxed as he walked into Parliament House Annexe on March 19 to chair a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Party. After all, only four days earlier he had successfully tackled the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's shiladaan programme in Ayodhya. But barely had Vajpayee settled down, when he faced a verbal assault. He was taken aback by the sheer viciousness of the attack aimed at him by B.P. Singhal, a BJP member of the Rajya Sabha and the younger brother of VHP Working President Ashok Singhal. "How could you receive an anti-national, pro-Taliban person like Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Maulana Abdullah Bukhari in the prime minister's residence?" asked Singhal referring to the Government's various meetings to defuse the Ayodhya heat. "There is no point in continuing in power if you lose your credibility." Vajpayee, for once, was rendered speechless. He mumbled something about not wanting to stick to power but having to do it because he did not want to create a political vacuum at the Centre.

There have been stormier meetings in the BJP but the one last week reflects the churning within the party over issues it is alleged to have abandoned when it forged the National Democratic Alliance in 1999-Ayodhya, Common Civil Code and abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution-the constant and forceful espousal of which had catapulted the party to the status of the largest single bloc in the Lok Sabha.

Two days before the stormy scenes in the Parliament Annexe, the RSS Working Committee meeting in Bangalore virtually distanced itself from the BJP, accusing it of severing its links with the Sangh by veering away from the saffron agenda. "The only link now is that some swayamsevaks are in the Government," said RSS spokesman M.G. Vaidya.

UNEASY COMRADES: At the Bangalore meet (above), RSS pracharaks led by K.S. Sudershan (below left) were openly critical of Vajpayee's pacifist Government

The indictment couldn't have been stronger. Vaidya's statement created a flutter in the party circles. By political convention, such a controversy is resolved with a clarification or an explanatory statement. But since none was forthcoming it was assumed that this was the official RSS word on its ties with the party that it nurtured.

For the BJP, the implications of the RSS distancing itself from it are too frightening to even ponder: it would mean the withdrawal of not just the 40-odd RSS pracharaks who currently function as its organising secretaries, but also of over 4,000 RSS full-timers working in the party. Senior BJP leader J.P. Mathur best summed up the potential dilemma of the average pracharak: "I will do what RSS leaders tell me to do. If they want me to go back to the Sangh, I will go."

The Nation

Five Commandments of the RSS to the BJP # Shift ministers like L.K. Advani and M. Venkaiah Naidu to the party. Keep a distance between party and the Government. # Do not succumb to anti-RSS blackmail from NDA partners. Defend Gujarat Government. # Retain distinct Hindutva identity despite being in the NDA. Address the Ayodhya issue. # Prioritise workers' rights while divesting public-sector units. # Be cautious on globalisation. Check entry of MNCs in the consumer goods sector and give protection to small-scale sector.

The relations between the RSS and the BJP, nowhere near cosy at the best of times, have been under constant strain ever since the party came to power in 1998. Then on, the RSS frontal outfits have been constantly sniping at the party. The Swadeshi Jagran Manch has often showed that when it comes to attacking the Government's economic policies, it can outshout the opposition parties. The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, the saffron trade union, vies with the CITU and INTUC in protesting against the Government's privatisation policies, while the Bajrang Dal and the VHP rake up needless issues like Valentine's Day that do nothing more than embarrass the Government.

These were of course minor hiccups until the VHP gave notice of reviving the Ram temple agitation in January this year, warning the Government to sort out the issue before March 12. The alternative: forcible construction of the temple in Ayodhya. Initially, the Government ignored the warning, emboldened by the people's lukewarm response to the VHP's Sant Chetavani Yatra from Ayodhya to Delhi in January. The Vajpayee Government was smug enough to believe that the VHP was in no position carry out any threat.

It was only when VHP workers started trooping to Ayodhya to attend the 100-day-long Purnahuti Yagna programme in February that the Centre woke up. The crisis was subsequently defused, but the BJP's relations with the RSS had by then sunk to an all-time low. Singhal's outburst last week thus reflects the sentiments of hardliners in the party who find themselves ideologically closer to the RSS in the BJP's post-1999 phase. That Singhal is not alone is borne out by the fact that half a dozen BJP MPs had defied the party directive and courted arrested en route to Ayodhya on March 15.

But it would be an exaggeration to say that there is a danger of the RSS calling it quits. The RSS brass prevailed upon the VHP leaders into making frequent changes in their March 15 programme: from transporting carved stones to the acquired site and performing a puja there to donating the stones to a Central Government representative 3 km from the acquired site. But within the RSS, pracharaks are livid and look at the VHP's sudden climbdown to save the Vajpayee Government as a loss of face.

A section of the Sangh leadership, quite simply exasperated at the repeated compromises it has to make for the sake of NDA Government, has even mooted the idea of launching a new political outfit. Their argument: what is the point of supporting a political organisation that is indifferent to the RSS agenda. The RSS leadership is expected to vociferously raise the Hindutva pitch, unmindful of its consequences for the NDA Government. That is why at the Pratinidhi Sabha in Bangalore, it adopted a resolution calling upon Muslims to understand that their safety lay in the goodwill of the majority community.

The statement expectedly came in for sharp criticism from the Opposition, some NDA partners as well as a section of BJP leaders. In the Rajya Sabha, there was cross-party condemnation of the attack on the Orissa Assembly by VHP-Bajrang Dal activists on March 18 (see box). The Hindutva torch-bearers within the BJP are undeterred. "We should not allow any anti-Hindu government to continue," says Gorakhpur BJP MP, Yogi Adityanath. Even the usually laidback parliamentary backbenchers are getting restive. Last week, during a parliamentary debate on Ayodhya, Kharbala Swain had his senior party leaders squirming in their seats when he showered praise on the VHP in his speech. Then again on Thursday, the rift in the NDA between the BJP hardliners and allies came into the open in the Lok Sabha when BJP's Vinay Katiyar clashed with the JD(U)'s D.P. Yadav.

Some BJP leaders privately admit that at present the party may be in a worse situation than even in 1984-when the BJP won only two seats in the Lok Sabha. "At least, the party's ideological moorings were intact then", the party leaders say. They cite the electoral debacles in Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Punjab as a hint of the shape of things to come if the RSS workers are not enthused enough to come out to work for the BJP. Whenever the two have operated in tandem, the results have been encouraging. In Gujarat for example, the RSS is functioning in coordination with the ruling BJP which is alleged to have abetted the post-Godhra riots. In the ongoing campaign for the municipal election in Delhi as well, the Sangh cadres are out on the streets sweating it out for the BJP candidates. "It is a fallout of the Godhra incident. All Hindutva forces have united," says a Delhi BJP leader. Sources say Union ministers campaigning in Delhi have been quietly instructed to refer to the temple construction in their speeches.

The BJP brass would rather that the RSS stick to its cultural agenda and refrain from interfering in economic policies or administrative issues. On their part, RSS sources say they would choose to be less belligerent if a pro-Hindutva leader like L.K. Advani were to take over the reins of the party. The home minister is said to be reluctant to revert to the party for fear of fuelling the impression that a parallel power centre was being built in the BJP.

For the moment, one crisis appears to have blown over. But the next one is barely 10 weeks away with the VHP giving the Government a June 2 deadline to hand over 42 acres of acquired land in Ayodhya. Fortunately for the party, there is a chance to sort out matters with the RSS at the BJP's National Executive meeting in Goa from April 12. If the "family" can sort out its domestic matters, everyone barring perhaps the opposition parties will be a whole lot better off.

-with Stephen David