People's Democracy

BJP Today: Confused & Rudderless 

Sitaram Yechury

FINALLY, the BJP president, L K Advani, has announced his resignation. However, not immediately.  As a face-saving, he was allowed to announce that he will demit office after the BJP’s silver jubilee session in December.

It was way back in April that the RSS sarsanghchalak, Sudarshan, had publicly stated that both Vajpayee and Advani should relinquish office. Vajpayee does not hold any position in the BJP. Advani’s exit as the president was, thus, imminent. 

In an editorial in People’s Democracy (June 12, 2005), we had stated: “When the RSS chief had pronounced that the older leadership must give way to the younger generation, the change was imminent sooner than later.” This stands vindicated. 

One need not look far for reasons to have made such an assertion.  On many occasions, we had reiterated that the BJP, as its previous avatar, Jan Sangh functions solely as the  political arm of the RSS.  This is so because that was the precise nature of its birth. The RSS was banned following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. The then RSS sarsanghchalak, M S Golwalkar, entered into a series of deceitful compromises with the then home minister, Sardar Patel, and the government of India to have the ban lifted. Some of the conditions they had agreed to were to draft a constitution for the RSS which clearly stipulates that it shall not take part in political activity. Thus, came the formulation that the RSS is a “cultural organisation”. However, given its pernicious political project of converting the secular democratic Indian Republic into a rabidly intolerant fascistic “Hindu Rashtra”, the RSS required a political front to advance its objectives and propagate its views. The opportunity arose when in 1951, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee resigned from the Nehru cabinet and was looking to forming a new political party. The RSS had then sent some pracharaks, who included A B Vajpayee, L K Advani, S S Bhandari and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya to assist the formation of this new political party.  Thus was born the Jan Sangh. Since then, through its various avatars transmuting themselves to today’s BJP have functioned solely as the political arm of the RSS. Thus, there can never be any doubt as to who controls the BJP, or, for that matter, all other outfits of the RSS-led Saffron Brigade.

Readers will recall that this is not the first instance of the RSS calling the shots in its various tentacles, including the BJP. One example should suffice.  Following the defeat of the emergency in 1977, the RSS dissolved the Jan Sangh and decided to merge with the Janata Party. Obviously, the idea was to control this larger political formation in order to expand its influence especially since they were running the central government. Both Vajpayee and Advani were members of the central cabinet at that time.  However, when the demand arose for the RSS sections to resign their membership if they wish to continue as members of the Janata Party, mayhem broke loose.  This was the famous “dual membership” crisis that wrecked the Janata Party and led to the fall of the government paving the way for Indira Gandhi’s return. The RSS, thus, chose to betray the people’s anti-emergency sentiment – highlighted by the rapid growth in their democratic consciousness – rather than “compromise” with its fascistic ideological construct. 

On this occasion, however, the exit of L K Advani is sought to be projected as due to his remarks on Jinnah in June and the so-called “ideological deviation from core RSS beliefs”. Advani’s visit to Pakistan and his comments there are like the proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back.

The exit had little to do with such a projection.  After all, it was L K Advani and his infamous rath yatra that brought the RSS/BJP and its Hindutva ideology to the centre-stage of Indian politics. It would be the height of dishonesty today to suggest that Advani deviated from core RSS beliefs.  The real reason why the RSS sought a leadership change in the BJP is because of the crisis that has currently gripped the Saffron Brigade. This crisis lies precisely in its growing inability to rouse public opinion in its favour or to mobilise people on its issues.

Since its defeat in the 2004 general elections, the RSS/BJP has not been able to come to terms with it.  Till date, it has not been able to explain its defeat in any coherent manner. This is also reflected in the fact that some of its allies have drifted away while its own following appears completely confused and rudderless. The situation is compounded further by its performance as the opposition in the parliament. It is unable to reconcile to a situation where all issues that it used to raise with the objective of deepening the communal divide no longer seem to engage the people’s attention, at least not with the same degree of passion as  it used to in the last decade.  This is only good for the health of  our secular democratic republic.  On all other issues, which affect the day-to-day existence of millions of Indians, the RSS/BJP is clearly seen on the side of the exploiting classes who only heap greater miseries on the people.  On this score as well, they simply cease to represent the people’s interests and hence unable to strengthen their political mobilisation.  They have, thus, forfeited their right as the main opposition party to use the parliamentary forum to champion the people’s interests.  Instead, they disrupt parliamentary proceedings due to the lack of any issues that is of real concern to the people. 

This is the real crisis facing the RSS-led saffron octopus today.  For India and its secular democratic republican character, this, in a way, is both a blessing and an opportunity. The RSS’s inability to sharpen communal polarisation, at least for the time being, despite all efforts, must be utilised to consolidate and strengthen the secular democratic character of India. This opportunity must also be utilised to strengthen the Indian people’s desire and struggles for a better livelihood. 

The RSS’s insistence for a change of guard in the BJP leadership is designed to try and change the situation in its favour.  However, the RSS focus on its pernicious ideological project of a fascistic “Hindu Rashtra” and, therefore, to hark back in history has a blank agenda for India’s future. This only widens the mismatch between it and the Indian people who are currently engaged in more serious issues that determine the content and character of the country’s future. 

By changing the BJP’s leadership, the RSS hopes to sharpen its efforts of communal polarisation in order to resolve the crisis and seek the people’s support.  Its increasing efforts to regain the control of State power in India by taking recourse to whipping up inflammatory communal tensions and strife spell disaster for India’s unity and integrity. All Indians who cherish the secular democratic foundations of the modern Indian republic must be vigilant to face these dangers.