BJP Dharma: The Guru-Disciple Bond

It isn’t time yet. It’s still 2011 and there are many bridges to cross, before the BJP wheels out its official candidate for the Prime Minister’s post.

The time now is to consolidate and build. To not let even a single political opportunity go by, without delivering a decisive cut to the Congress.

This isn’t 1992. The Ram Janambhoomi issue isn’t centrestage.

Corruption and misgovernance are.

And so it’s time for another Rath Yatra.

The BJP has always had room for the Guru and his disciple. Fact is, it has thrived on such relationships, thanks to its RSS and Jana Sangh foundations.

Under The Shadow of Rajdharma

Through the 90s and the first few years of the 21st century, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-LK Advani combination steered the BJP to heights it had never before witnessed. Their political relationship provided stability, continuity, experience and authority to a party that was beginning even then, to severely lack a solid second-rung. As Advani himself acknowledged, rarely do two political leaders share such a bond, a working relationship that allows them both to thrive and grow without disturbing the fine balance of that bond.

Vajpayee, the poet-Prime Minister and Advani as his able and trusted lieutenant, brought depth and gravity to the BJP leadership. It still is, and will be in many ways, the gold standard to which the BJP will hold itself for many years to come.

Even at its lowest, in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots in 2002, it was Atal Bihari Vajpayee who played the statesman. His admission that the BJP had failed in it’s rajdharma, was viewed by many as acceptance of moral responsibility for the 2002 riots carnage in Gujarat, and regret by the BJP’s highest leader. Little wonder then, that Atalji remains to this day, the BJP’s most widely accepted and respected political face.

Almost two decades on, the BJP finds itself in want of a clear political leadership. True, there are many second rung leaders in the BJP today. Many like Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu and their likes. But today, if the BJP has built up the second rung of leadership that it lacked under the Vajpayee-Advani combine, it is faced with the uncomfortable prospect of its two tallest leaders standing at the crossroads. Narendra Modi, who today, is the only leader who can draw in the masses and consolidate the traditional Hindutva vote back of the BJP.  And LK Advani,the old familiar workhorse of the party, who nurtured its organisational growth over the many decades, and still is, for all means and purposes, the heir apparent to the Vajpayee political legacy.

The last two decades however, have forced the BJP to acknowledge that they can’t win enough acceptance and support by playing the Hindutva card alone. True, with the help of the Saffron family, the Hindutva vote is still largely secure. But as the 2004 general elections proved, the Hindutva card alone isn’t enough to satisfy the growing Indian middle class. The same section of society that spilled out onto the streets in support of Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement.

Hence the BJP today, is choosing to consolidate and build.

It has as it’s Hindutva face, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. A man handpicked from the RSS ranks by his political guru (and the original Hindutva face of the BJP) LK Advani himself, to head the party’s reinvention in Gujarat, in 2001. Many of Modi’s detractors would say that it was he who made full political use of the substantial RSS laboratory that Gujarat had been turned into. Irrespective of the charges, Modi not only consolidated the BJP’s political fortunes in Gujarat, but also took it to never before seen heights, winning a landslide victory in the 2007 state elections.

Modi the Hindutva face had transformed into Modi the icon of Gujarati pride.

It was not surprising then to note how Narendra Modi chose to dwell on the long and rich history of the Guru-Disciple dharma in the BJP – best exemplified in his words by the Vajpayee-Advani political relationship – during his fast in Ahmedabad. After all, Modi wouldn’t have been in this position today, had his guru LK Advani not hand-picked him for the task at hand in Gujarat, in 2001. And while Modi has in many ways taught the RSS and VHP a lesson or two in Hindutva, he knows that without Advani, it will be difficult for him to secure enough national acceptability to achieve his ambitions.

Modi is an ace craftsman when it comes to politics and symbolism. By far the best at his trade in the country at the moment. But today’s India is very different from the India of 1992 or even of 2002. And no matter how strong the Hindutva sentiment, hard economic realities rule our politics.

Today, the BJP’s Rajdharma is to take up the cause of the common man against corruption. The party leadership doesn’t want to mix its political metaphors. So it is LK Advani who will ride the anti-graft Rath from Bihar on the 11th of October. It will be Jayprakash Narayan’s birth anniversary that will see the start of the Rath Yatra, from none other than his birthplace in Bihar. The same JP, during whose movement against the biggest act of corruption independent India has witnessed – Indira Gandhi’s imposition of the Emergency – LK Advani took his first big steps onto the stage of national politics.

And lest we forget, for Advani himself, it’s unfinished business. After all, it was in Bihar that his last Rath Yatra was abruptly cut short, in 1992.

At so many levels and in so many intricate ways, the BJP is taking the next logical step in its political evolution. Changing to adapt with the times, and striving to stay relevant.

Hence, let us not forget that when LK Advani bows before the leadership of the RSS, he is doing so in deference to the decades old tradition of the BJP.

Upholding the Guru-Disciple dharma.

Us And Them…

Over a cold coffee and a slice of cheesecake, I sat down the other day, to a much-anticipated discussion with a variegated bunch of friends. Some from the intelligence community, others from the journalistic community who were following not just India, but the entire region – from the Middle East to North Africa and South Asia.

I am the greedy one, so I attacked the cheesecake.

But that aside, the main reason why I was looking forward to this discussion, was because in the past few months, I’ve been observing a growing storm of arguments and sentiments, about the present condition of the Indian state and its very future.

First, the facts.

From Telangana to Kashmir and from Belgaum to Assam, regional aspirational and separatist movements have sapped our underlying national fabric of its strength.

Left-wing extremism and misplaced political sympathy and patronage of it have cut deep ravines across out nation’s gut. So much so, that the Prime Minister and the Home Minister have both recently underlined the fact that Left-wing extremism is the gravest threat to our internal security.

Gutless, petty and short-sighted foreign policy has reduced us on the world stage to a nation that isn’t really taken seriously, if you know what I mean.

The plague of corruption at every stage of our existence has sapped our national strength like leukemia devouring us from the inside out. Anna Hazare was the right face at the right time, reflecting very real and legitimate sentiments of frustration, helplessness and insult of our collective intelligence at the hands of the corrupt. But the disease runs deep and far, pervading every essence of our nationhood today.

Yes our economy is growing, but the 1.2 billion population that we tom-tom as the best consumer market possible for driving our growth, is being sapped of its spending power by the growing rich-poor divide on the one hand, and the rising inflation and cost of living on the other.

All of these thoughts raced through my mind, as I sat at the table, listening to the conversation.

Till one comment struck me, purely in the sheer enormity of what was being inferred.

My friend from the intelligence community said: “You know, we have a population of over 1.2 billion. 11 percent of that is Muslim. Can you possibly imagine what will happen if they decide to turn radical?”

Barely had I begun doing the numbers, that I froze in mid-thought.

We aren’t Pakistan. Thank heavens! Or Afghanistan for that matter.  Both of which are crippled by radical Islam and Islamic terror.

We have enough of our crippling and divisive problems. We certainly don’t need to add the problems of Pakistan and Afghanistan to our basket of woes.

11 percent of our population turning radical is a very sobering thought. Because as numerous Hindu-Muslim riots in the country have shown in the past, that 11 percent of Muslim radicals will fuel a counter-balance of an equal number, if not more, from the majority Hindu community – out of sheer weightage of majority.

Will my beloved motherland survive then?

I am of the firm belief that the majority of the Indian Muslim community is Indian first, especially when it comes to issues of national interest. Yes, it’s a fact that during every Indo-Pak cricket match, they support Pakistan. So what? Who cares? We beat the crap out of Pakistan anyway. At least there’s someone supporting the underdog!

I also believe that the vast majority of the Indian Muslim community is poor, under-educated and just like the poor and under-educated of any other community, equally gullible and prone to being taken for a ride by the powerful and influential.

I firmly believe that despite the accusations of them not really believing in family planning or monogamy (it’s difficult enough surviving one wife for heaven’s sake!), they’re just your average folk, struggling against everyday problems that their counterparts from other communities also battle with.

But above all, I believe that for the large part, they are not radical terrorists.

Question is, can we as the rest of India ensure that they do not follow in the footsteps of their counterparts in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, or even Yemen for that matter?

I put the question to the group and was rather surprised by the honesty.

Yes, it is a fact that the Ram Janambhoomi movement reflected a growing Hindu nationalistic pride and resulted in a political windfall for the BJP.

But it’s also true that for the first time, it created room for the radicals among Indian Muslims to grow roots within India.

Yes, it’s a fact that 59 kar sevaks died a horrible, horrible death on the Sabarmati Express at Godhra in 2002.

But it’s also a fact that the horrors that followed during the communal riots across Gujarat, once and for all gave the radicals among Muslims – in India and abroad – the perfect tool to propagate their vicious ideology.

Do you wonder why it’s always the post-Godhra riots that are dug up by Muslim radicals, when there have been dozens of other riots across India where Muslims have been slaughtered?

Have we – and are we – creating our own Frankenstein monsters?

Today, we face the wrath of the Indian Mujahideen, the HuJI, the LeT, the al Qaeda, the ISI, Dawood Ibrahim… the list goes on. These aren’t creatures that exist and operate within political boundaries. They are creatures sans frontiers. Their terror has no limits, no boundaries, no mercy. They devour all in their path, leaving behind a destructive wake where Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Jews, Parsis, Christians and everyone else is equally devastated. Death does not differentiate based on religion. Neither does terror.

Why then, do we feed the ogre named terror?

Every time the majority flexes its muscle, the minority steps further back into the shadows. Along with numerical might, comes responsibility. Or else, it’s reduces itself to mobocracy.

It is foolishly myopic of us to think that we are isolated and insulated from the world around us. We are judged as a nation and as a people, by our actions and words of intent.

When I was on assignment in Egypt, covering the people’s revolution, I would often be amused to find myself and my cameraperson being aggressively questioned about the country we were from. Each time they’d realise we had come from India (Hind), they’d smile and tell us: “Good you’re not from Pakistan.” Nobody it seems, likes a radical trouble-monger. There are of course various religious and ideological reasons behind their mistrust of Pakistanis too, which I must confess, are too detailed to go into at this moment.

But the lesson learnt was that India is respected abroad as a tolerant country. A nation where people of different religions, castes, colours and creeds live together as one, in peace and harmony. A nation that together with many in the Middle East and North Africa, founded the Non-Aligned Movement. Yet in so many ways – both social and economic – had successfully evolved to become much more advanced and economically stronger society.

Today, as I see and hear the debate around me becoming shriller and sharper, I fear we are poised, yet again, at the cross-roads.

I am appalled when a friend says we should “either do the Muslims in or send them all to Pakistan”. I am shocked when another says, “To hell with it all. I’ve had enough of corruption! So what if he’s been accused of being a mass murderer? At least he’ll tackle corruption! And then they can publicly hang him for all I care!”

To me, this deep frustration and impatience in the educated classes poses the biggest danger to India. Because the world interacts with us. Not the poor farmers, or the greasy politicians as much. It is with us in call centres, in MNCs, in newsrooms and other professional spheres of life, that the flat world meets us. And judges us.

To me, it is a tragedy that we feel so helpless and impotent that we need to turn on our own minorities, because we fail to see that the real enemies lie across the border. And every time we are conveniently myopic, we invite those from across to come over, and indoctrinate a few more from among us. And so the cycle goes on.

“Lets face it,” I remember another friend from the intelligence community telling me. ‘We simply don’t have the stomach to take the fight to Pakistan.”

It was ironic that a few days later, a diplomat told me pretty much the same.

Only today, a friend said: “Look at America. Don’t you agree with their policies?’

I said I damn well do! Look at what they’ve achieved 10 years on from 9/11. They’ve united in a bipartisan manner as one nation, one people, and taken the war to where the terrorists are. They’ve secured their boundaries, strengthened their internal security and intelligence, cracked down on domestic terror – be it Muslim, Christian, or otherwise. And they’re keeping an eye out and a ear to the ground in every centre of worship that could be misused, especially mosques and madarsas.

Today, if you’re an Arab, a Muslim, a Sikh or even a Hindu in America, you’d at worst be pulled over, scrutinised and asked a ton of questions by the authorities. Yes, you could also go through aggressive searching at the airport, if you’re named Khan.

But  I doubt you’d be living in fear of losing your life, or risking your business being burnt to the ground, because it suited a political agenda.

Why is it that we can’t hang Kasab, or Afzal Guru, or Rajiv’s killers alike? Why is it that we can’t go after Riaz Bhatkal, Dawood Ibrahim and Hafiz Saeed? Why is it that our police and intelligence can’t tell us which mosques, temples and churches are being misused by forces that are bent on dividing us? And why if we do find out, can’t we act against them?

The appeasement of the majority is as dangerous as the appeasement of the minority. We are one people, and should be held to the same standards and judged by the same yardsticks. One and all Indians.

Instead today, I wonder: Are we running the risk of becoming a nation of impotents that feels strong enough to pick on the weak, just because it’s convenient and they’re within reach?

Or are we poised for an awakening like no other?

An Indian revolution where we come together as one people, a nation of equals, to throw off the yoke of corruption, intolerance, mistrust, ignorance and subsequent divisiveness. An Indian dawn that sees us marching forward on the path of economic progress side-by-side with our fellow Indians from every corner of the country?

The choice is ours. To thrive united. Or implode and disintegrate.

UPA’s Stick Approach Forces A ‘Civil’ Rethink

My right thumb!

“Unfortunate but unavoidable”, was how Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put it yesterday, when pushed to react to public outrage over the midnight raid by Delhi Police on the Ramlila Maidan, where Baba Ramdev was staging his satyagraha. Three words, which when coupled with Kapil Sibal’s ‘hurt and outrage’ expressed yesterday, seem to have settled the balance of power firmly in favour of the government. A government that is now in no mood to benevolently allow the politics of fasts to continue. The immediate fallout: The government frowning upon Anna Hazare’s proposed protest fast in support of Baba Ramdev at Jantar Mantar.

Simultaneously in Haridwar, Ramdev was in a conveniently forgiving mood. His brand of fast-politics has been repelled in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh by the UPA and Mayawati respectively. Faced with the ominous threat of multiple investigations into his organisation and its functioning by various Ministries of the government, Ramdev now says he has “followed his sanyasi dharma and forgiven the Prime Minister”.

The stick approach clearly seems to have worked for the UPA government, with Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hedge now saying that the Civil Society Representatives will participate in negotiations with the government on the drafting of the Lokpal Bill on June 15, 16.

It’s the right approach by Anna Hazare and his followers. The representatives of civil society have won a hard-fought victory by forcing the government to the negotiations table over the Lokpal Bill. Their place, now, is across the negotiations table and not on the streets on New Delhi. Their responsibility is to accurately reflect the opinions and demands of the civil society that they represent, in the negotiations over the Bill. The only way they can be true to their cause, is by participating in the negotiations, not boycotting it. The stakes for civil society are too big to be frittered away in petty politicking and childish boycotts.

And involved engagement of the UPA Government with the aim of protecting civil society’s interests are paramount and must remain so.

But these are also testing times for the UPA Government. Giddy with the success of its stick-approach having worked, the government now needs to ensure that it doesn’t gloat in victory. The UPA must remember that it is a popularly elected government of the people, for the people and by the people.  Acts like imposing Section 144 in New Delhi and refusing permission to Anna Hazare, to fast in protest at Jantar Mantar, are signals of the government tottering dangerously on impinging civil liberties.

Governance is as much about acting in national interest as about protecting the people’s interests, and the UPA will need to prove through the Lokpal Bill and its decisions on the black money issue, that it is truly a progressive alliance, equally adept at both.

A Cross-Dressing Yogi Does Not A Hazare Make

Ramdev's 'Dupatta' politics

Forgive me if this treads heavy on your yogic sensibilities, but there was something intrinsically ludicrous when cross-dressing yogi Baba Ramdev launched himself from his perch at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, into a gaggle of women and senior citizens – all to save himself from the Delhi Police.

Here was a man who had been wooed by the high and mighty of the UPA. A man received at the Delhi airport by no less than four of the Congress’ top leaders, ready to kow tow before his whims and fancies. Here was a man whom the RSS and Govindacharya had praised for his gumption and willingness to tread where the BJP has feared to step.

But shortly past the midnight hour, like Cinderella’s pumpkin chariot, Ramdev’s beanstalk began to quietly whither away. Perhaps it was the giddy heights of swimming with the power sharks of the capital, that eventually did the right honourable Baba in.

There is no doubt that Ramdev has political ambitions. Ambitions that at one point had drawn such praise from the RSS, that his yogic halo had outshone a blundering BJP stricken by internal strife. There were whispers in the corridors about how the next elections in Uttarakhand would perhaps pitchfork Ramdev from the yoga mat to the political throne. Verily, it was a scenario that had many in the BJP quivering in the state.

Suddenly, somehow, civil society seemed to have forgotten what the Ramdev phenomenon had been all about over the years. Here was a man who has a while back, claimed to have developed a cure for AIDS and for cancer. Here indeed, was a man who said homosexuality was a “bad habit”. A yoga guru who swore he could “cure homosexuality with yoga asanas”. Here was a man who had miraculously morphed into the ‘new age’ poster boy of civil society, bring saffron fervour to the common man’s cause in a manner that only a Baba Ramdev could.

And all of a sudden, Ramdev could do no wrong. So much so, that even a reticent Anna Hazare found himself hitching a ride on the Ramdev-wagon.

For me that was the tragedy. Allow me to speak my mind. I find something intrinsically fishy about Ramdev. I find him a slippery character. I don’t have a problem with him taking up the common man’s cause. It is a just cause and will work miracles for our economy if the fabled black billions come home to roost. Somehow, I can’t seem to bring myself to trust him. And its got nothing to do with his saffron robes or his Hindi. I have a problem with his reasons for taking up the anti-black money cause.

The UPA government and the Congress in particular, has not yet given me a single plausible reason for not revealing the names on the ‘black’ list handed to them by Swiss authorities. Their reticence smacks of an amateurish attempt at shielding the guilty. Even the Supreme Court was unforgiving in its opinion about the UPA’s reasons for not revealing the ‘black’ list.

But I’d rather put my faith in the unassuming Anna Hazare and his warriors, when it comes to fighting my cause – be it the Lokpal Bill, black money or anti-corruption. When Hazare puts his name to a cause, chances are I will be ready to consider it. Perhaps, even support it. Hazare too speaks in Hindi. His means are simple. So are his ideas. Perhaps too simple. But isn’t that simplicity what we should be looking for in our search for solutions to seemingly complex problems?

Such is Anna’s credibility, that it wouldn’t make a sliver of a difference if he were to ditch his white kurta and Gandhi topi, in favour of saffron robes. And I’m sure, he’s puritan enough, not to choose to slip into a salwar-kurta at the first sight of the police. Now that’s something I buy!

 

Karnataka: Nothing Personal About Such Politics

And just like that, they’re “friends” again. Karnataka Governor Hans Raj Bhardwaj and embattled Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa were all about PDA (public display of affection), at a public function in Karnataka. Even as behind the scenes, the hectic peace-brokering continues.

With Bhardwaj admitting that Yedyurappa did in fact have a “massive majority”, the hugs, handshakes and smiles were on display for all who bothered to see, that the hatchet had been buried. For the moment.

A senior BJP MP from Karnataka told me, it was a triumph for democracy. After all, the ego battle between the two had brought governance to a standstill. I in turn pointed out that governance had been crippled in Karnataka long before the Yeddy-Bhardwaj ego battle had even begun. Like the Bellary brothers for instance, who had made life hell for Yeddy, or the many corruption allgations, or even the rebel ranks within the BJP, that had almost succeeded in toppling the first ever BJP government in south India. The BJP’s problems were, after all, more from within than from without. My MP friend responded, saying, “It is a democracy and in a democracy, one must never rule out the chances of a person’s change of heart.” Obviously referring to the change of heart by the 11 rebel BJP MLAs, who have returned to the BJP’s fold in Karnataka, reposing their faith in Yeddyurappa’s Chief Ministership. Fair enough, but somehow, I don’t get the sense that the basic underlying problems within the BJP in Karnataka have been resolved. If anything, they’ve been pacified for the moment, and will remain quiet till the next opportune moment presents itself. Yeddyurappa, and the party leadership’s dogged belief in his right to the Chief Ministership of Karnataka, are convenient and ample cash cow.

The sticking point however continues to be the Speaker, K G Bopaiah, who, according to the Supreme Court ruling, acted in haste, improperly disqualifying the 16 rebel BJP and independent MPs. I asked the BJP MP whether a change in the Speaker was “within the realm of possibility”, as a peace offering to the Governor, and he was willing to only go as far as to say that “corrective measures would be warranted”. Whether that means that Speaker K G Bopaiah will be shown the door or not, depends on how the BJP stands up to the Governor when push comes to shove.

Cloak-and-dagger politics

Governor Bhardwaj has clearly taken the first step in patching things up with Yeddyurappa in Karnataka, doing away with the prospect of another floor test in the next Assembly session, by publicly saying Yeddyurappa has a “massive majority”. If the BJP does not respond in kind, with action against Speaker Bopaiah as its peace offering, the situation could so easily go back to square one. And yet again, it will be the voters of Karnataka, who will be the losers. And this time, don’t be surprised if the voters take it personally.