The battle-lines appear to have been drawn decisively. There was no attempt to be coy or to hide real intent, be it in Goa or Guwahati, with both the Prime Minister and the one purportedly in waiting, raising the level of their rhetoric as never before. Going by current political jargon, the voices emanating from the two lateral corners of India, would be described as communal and secular as the case may be, but all that is silly semantics.
What is of real import is that the polarisation of the polity has taken a starkly significant turn yesterday with the two warring contenders touching base and getting set for the impending fight to finish. While nobody really believed that the east and west would meet, despite Vajpayee’s brief dalliance with a mega secular highway connecting the two, still the poet was allowed to have his day in court so long. But Godhra and Gujarat has changed all that.
Vajpayee’s road of moderation remains a metaphor with a very few of his friends willing to travel on it and he himself abandoning it now, while Sonia’s secular sermon has gained momentum just when the mood in the country seems to be otherwise.
At Goa, one was left wondering if it was Vajpayee who was speaking. The poet was anything but poetic as he set about articulating his thoughts in prim prose. Not mincing words, he did quite a bit of plain speaking on Jehadi Islam and conversions that must have given even die-hard hindutvaites a run for their money. Vajpayee’s ideological home-coming should have gladdened the hearts of the Sangh Parivar which had all but given up on him till recently.
The return of this prodigal to his roots has also coincided with the BJP toughening its pro-Modi posture. With Vajpayee himself harping on Godhra as the flashpoint for the subsequent communal flare-up, the gauntlet has been thrown back at the allies and the opposition which have been demanding Modi’s head. The spirited defence of Modi by the senior leaders of the BJP is a clear indication of the shift in the party’s line of thinking and is a precursor of what is to come in the days ahead.
The hardening of the BJP’s stand is actually more a response to the current debate on secularism which has been brought to centre-stage thanks to Ayodhya and Gujarat and less of a display of confidence in Modi, though that is the impression sought to be given. That Modi’s failure on the law and order front warranted his removal has been of little significance in the overall scheme of things where any capitulation to the allies as well as to the opposition’s demands would have been seen as an aberration in the prevailing mood in the party as well as Gujarat. This also explains the electoral challenge that the party has thrown at its tormentors. For good or bad, the BJP seems to be well on its way back to its basics that catapulted it from a party of just two MPs in 1984 to become the rulers a decade-and-a-half later.
There is of course a difference. While in the eighties and nineties, the BJP systematically and assiduously built up a Hindu votebank and then rode the crest, this time around it is the Hindu groundswell that is now pulling back the errant BJP to its roots. Any more dalliance with the secular damsel would mean enraging the original spouse, a risk the BJP can ill afford, at this juncture. Vajpayee’s tough talk, coming as it does after his visits to two extremes, Gujarat and Singapore, – amidst his own fears that the former would affect the latter – is an indication that he has made up his mind.
At Guwahati, it was the familiar song of secularism that inundated the ears, but this time at a much greater crescendo. Probably, the presence of so many of her chief ministers was encouragement enough for signora Sonia to raise her pitch but it may also be that she has to increase her volume to be heard above the din from Goa, if not for public consumption at least for Prime Time media.
She need not have worried if that be the case, because the secular media is only too eager to fawn on her, the moment she utters the ‘S’ word. As expected, while Vajpayee’s date with ‘communalism’ has been derided, Sonia’s drivel is reported with reverence. And it serves the lady well too, in her attempt to corner all of the secular space, assuming it exists, to the exclusion of every other claimant. Her declaration that the Congress is the natural party of governance is probably her way of saying that she is the natural heir to the PM’s throne, but all the same it may not warm the hearts of the likes of Mulayam and the Leftists, not to speak of other miscellaneous secularists.
The secular parivar are never going to understand that secularism is a grossly inadequate glue to bind them as a force against so-called communal elements and is bound to come unstuck given their own hatred and mistrust of each other. It may probably pass muster in Parliaments where only numerical shows of strength matter but will surely fail to fool the people who will be more inclined to go by past record which to put it mildly, is dubious.
Having said what he said about Hinduism’s tolerance being stretched a bit too far and his admonition of the jehadi as well as conversion brand of religiosity indulged in by the other faiths, it would be difficult any more for Vajpayee to retrace his steps, except at his own peril.
Again, in the absence anything concrete to parade, Sonia will have to necessarily hold on to the toothless tiger of a secularism by its tail and keep up the tirade against ‘communalism’ at least to buoy the spirits of her cheer leaders. While,the secular rhetoric of the Congress is bound to incense the majority in a scenario where even the moderates among them are getting sick of it, the BJP’s return to base is sure to cause political upheavels, first within the NDA and then outside too.
The party of course, believes that it is only responding to popular sentiment and one cannot wholly reject its claim outright, given the disenchantment of Hindus with secularism. Indeed, the day of reckoning for the country, and not for the PM alone, is fast approaching..
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