Harihar Swarup
With the exit of veterans, L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and ailing Atal Behari Vajpayee from the top policy making bodies of the BJP, hold of Narendra Modi and his protégé Amit Shah is complete over the organization. As Prime Minister Modi already holds sway over the government, there is no one to sound a note of dissent. Supporters of Modi and Shah call it a “generational shift”. The three leaders – Vajpayee, Advani and Joshi – were leading lights of the party for four decades as they built up the organization from a scratch to a ruling party at the centre with an absolute majority.
Vajpayee has been ailing and not active in politics for several years. His removal is understandable but why Advani and Joshi were given such a shabby treatment? The two leaders have won their Lok Sabha seats by impressive margins while some younger party leaders in Modi cabinet, like Arjun Jaitely and Smrita Irani, were defeated yet they were given prestigious ministerial berths. Jaitely, in fact, is the shining star of the Modi government. A former BJP President, Advani fell out of favour with the new leadership after trying unsuccessfully to stall Modi by opposing the move to declare him the Prime Ministerial candidate. Joshi, also a former party President, has never hidden his disapproval of Modi’s leadership style.
In a country where old age is still revered, many saw a certain lack of grace in the way BJP’s founders were shown the door. The principle of collective leadership and of a certain democratic consultative process that was visible in Vajpayee-Advani years was given the go bye. This has been exemplified by the current episode involving home minister Rajnath Singh. The whispering campaign within the BJP against his son’s alleged misconduct, capped a series of events; first he had difficulty in appointing a private secretary; next, he was told he would not be on committee that makes senior bureaucratic appointments.
The BJP’s victory -in fact it was Modi’s victory-in April-May general elections greatly diminished Advani relevance in the party. He was denied the post of Speaker of Lok Sabha, not allowed to occupy seat next to the Prime Minister in the lower house and his nameplate was removed from his office in Parliament House.
A school pass was chosen over scholarly Joshi to head the HRD ministry. The dissidents cannot complain since they have been given fair representation at the party’s policy and decision making level. Sushma Swaraj, Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Ananth Kumar, all Advani followers from the rebel camp, have been accommodated. Whose cause can Advani take up now, even if he tries to make his resentment public?
As a token gesture, Advani and Joshi have been given place in a new five-member Margadarshak Mandal (guidance panel), a powerless body.
Having established their stranglehold over the organization and the government, the question comes to the fore; what their approach would be towards the RSS? Evidently, exit of seniors will call for a rebalancing of the BJP’s equation with the RSS, in which seniority and stature, derived from seniority, have played an important role.
Having silenced all dissent-not a healthy development in a democracy-will Modi and Shah attempt to extend their hold over the RSS too? It is too early to hazard a guess but that possibility cannot be ruled out. The RSS will have henceforth no say in organizational and government matters and what remains with this powerful set up is the moral authority.
Nevertheless, an internal challenge, if any left, may come from the RSS, which would test Modi’s management skills. Can Modi afford to take a different line from the one chosen by the RSS? Only the time will snow. If the latest bye election results are any indication, the Modi wave has started losing its momentum. The BJP’s next challenge is in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana where assembly elections are due in October–November.
At the moment, however, having ousted all dissents and likely centers of rivals, Modi has emerged as the most powerful leader, possibly after Indira Gandhi. But all power in one hand is not good for growth of a healthy democracy. Though a powerful orator and a crowd puller, Modi has certain disadvantages also and that is lack of higher education as compared to his predecessor Prime Ministers. One may agree or not, he does not like dissent and has dictatorial streak. (IPA Service)
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