People's Democracy

BJP DRAMA GOES ON

Behind Modi Reprieve And Kesubhai's Anger

Babulal Likhure

AN atmosphere of fear prevails in Gujarat." The situation borders a "mini-Emergency." The easiest guess about who uttered these words will obviously point the needle of suspicion to a Muslim who has either lost a family member in the 2002 riots or a secular activist who is being harassed by Narendra Modi’s police or administration.

But, this time these words of wisdom, though late, have come from elderly BJP leader Keshubhai Patel who had twice led his party to absolute majority in the assembly elections — in 1995 and 1998.

The Patel patriarch, BJP’s chief minister in the state twice, spilled the beans recently after hardliners in the party high command virtually ruled out former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s last ditch attempt to portray a liberal image for himself— albeit after biting dust at the hustings.

Vajpayee’s ‘Manali musings’—— his rather belated loud thinking about the need to remove Modi for the riots —— has brought forward a sharp divide within the BJP still not reconciled to the idea of a drubbing they got recently in the Lok Sabha elections.

In fact, Narendra Modi has become a pain in the neck for the BJP which is caught in the dilemma of whether to maintain a liberal facade in order to retain its allies or to go in for an aggressive ‘Hindutva’ policy.

The party’s dilemma over Modi has also once again brought into public focus the debate over BJP’s ‘Mukh’ (face) versus ‘Mukhota’ (mask) controversy made famous by Hindutva ideologue Govindacharya few years back. The week-long not so slanging match between Vajpayee in Manali and BJP president in Delhi, mainly over Modi’s removal, was only a curtain raiser on the ensuing ‘Mukh’ versus ‘Mukhota’ conflict that goes on in the party from time to time. Or is it different masks for different occasions?

In a way, Modi’s arrogance and the aggressive Hindutva policy adopted in the Sangh Parivar’s laboratory that is Gujarat is really the window to show what BJP is all about. This is evident from the fact that the party high command took just no cognizance of the nasty SMS circulated by Modi supporters denigrating Vajpayee as "Atal Miyan" who deserves to be thrown out of Gujarat and Hindustan.

Former chief minister Keshubhai went on record to say that Modi took full four or five days to order an inquiry into the circulation of the anti-Vajpayee SMS, by which time it has gone to thousands of mobile phone users in Gujarat and also elsewhere. It’s a different matter that the text and tenor of the SMS makes it abundantly clear about who is the source of inspiration behind calling Vajpayee ‘Atal Miyan’ to be thrown out of Gujarat.

The verbal duel between the ‘Mukhota’ (Vajpayee) and the ‘Mukh’ (Venkaiah Naidu) over Modi also coincided with a doubtful ‘encounter’ in which all four militants were killed with no independent witnesses available to the incident that took place in the wee hours at a desolate place. The timing of the incident and the immediate announcement that they had come to ‘kill Modi’ has raised eye-brows in many quarters, especially since every time the chief minister is in political crisis an encounter diverts the attention elsewhere.

If the purpose of the prompt announcement that the gunned down terrorists were out to kill Modi was to generate some sympathy for the beleaguered chief minister, it failed to evoke the desired impact as all the top dissident leaders who met at Keshubhai’s residence same evening did not even discuss the ‘assassination bid’ foiled that very morning. Even Modi’s hardcore supporters were not much perturbed over the ‘attempt’ on the chief minister’s life. Some theories are in the air even talking of the historic Reichstag fire in Germany.

If the Sangh Parivar and BJP are willing to dump its ‘tallest’ leader Vajpayee just to retain Modi, they have very serious reasons for it which could ultimately turn out to be ominous for the secular fabric of the nation in the long run.

The message that the BJP sends out in not removing Modi is clear that aggressive Hindutva has worked in Gujarat while Vajpayee of ‘Shining India’ has failed to garner votes. Hence, more of Hindutva and more of communal strife would surely fetch more seats in the elections of coming years. That seems to be the calculation.

There could be more twists and turns to the BJP games in Gujarat. Modi’s sudden silence is itself ominous. The situation is indeed getting curious. (INN)