Shooting itself in the foot: BJP's leadership fissures

The party has become notorious for its venality and opportunistic alliances. It has developed a stake in big-time corruption. Its sister organisations oppose its policies. Indiscipline is rampant in the parivar.

Now, the image of the BJP's top-level leadership has also taken a serious knock owing to party president M Venkaiah Naidu's too-clever-by-half attempt to project his mentor L.K. Advani along with Mr Vajpayee as the BJP's "twin mascots".

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The abject manner in which Mr Naidu withdrew the proposal is equalled only by the wicked way it was madeduring Mr Vajpayee's absence from India. This wasn't as a storm in the teacup, but a significant crisis. It passed only after Mr Vajpayee threatened to "retire" and then resorted to blackmail by declaring that Mr Advani would lead the party in the next election. All this highlights personality clashes and fissures within the BJP's leadership.

Mr Naidu ate humble pie, and the Advani campof which he is a leading memberabandoned its crude attempt to stage a palace coup. The party realised that Mr Vajpayee is indispensable for the National Democratic Alliance's survival and the coming elections.

Mr Advani is a seasoned apparatchik (organisation-man). But he's no vote-catcher. His elevation to Mr Vajpayee's level isn't acceptable to NDA constituents. Mr Vajpayee remains the BJP's sole acceptable public face.

The "two-mascots" formula was a blatant, but not a new, attempt to alter inner-party power balances. Last year, Mr Advani was promoted to Deputy PM, and Mr Naidu to party president. This group now totally controls the party apparatus and BJP-RSS relations.

Mr Advani's followers have marginalised the NDA's non-BJP parties and strengthened its Hindutva component. Proof for this comes from the latest Cabinet reshuffle, discussed in this Column two weeks ago.

Mr Vajpayee has yielded ground to the Advani brigade partly because he lacks the stamina for day-to-day party affairs. But he has never conceded there's room at the top for two leaders.

Mr Advani can rise in importancebut only at Mr Vajpayee's pleasure. This is a paternalistic relationship typical of the sangh parivar, which sets great store by ekachalak-anuvartitvathe RSS "principle" of authoritarian, absolute rule of a single leader.

Both men deeply are deeply rooted in RSS culture. They have a personal equation, but it's skewed. Both are under pressure from their respective loyalists to demand their "rightful" share of power. According to people who have been privy to their personal conversations, neither hides his ambition nor his (sometimes unflattering) opinion of the other.

Ultimately, however, they know they need each other for the sake of party and government. This sometimes clashes with short-term moves dictated by power ambitions.

One cannot understand the Vajpayee-Advani relationship through factional dynamics. Accurately speaking, they aren't faction leaders. The BJP isn't democratic enough to have factions based on ideology, social base or regional affiliation.

Many party managers see the BJP in pre-modern terms as a Hindu Undivided Family, in which the paterfamilias (Mr Advani) holds absolute power.

Internal differences scare BJP cadres. They always deny or cover them up. They blame Mr Vajpayee for plunging the party into crisis by threatening it. In their eyes, he is the loser.

Instead of factions, the BJP has power-centres based on personal loyalty. When these get assertive, Mr Vajpayee sulks or threatens to quit. Mr Advani gives in, but creeps up to a higher level of influence.

Mr Vajpayee is an extremely insecure personpoetic pretensions notwithstanding. Whoever has confronted him in the Jana Sangh/BJP has been brutally punishedright from Balraj Madhok in the 1960s to Mr Govindacharya and Kalyan Singh recently.

Mr Vajpayee is vindictive, and Mr Advani cunning. When Mr Kalyan Singhthe BJP's biggest-ever asset in Uttar Pradeshcalled Mr Vajpayee a "tired leader led by retired bureaucrats", he was expelled. Mr Govindacharya was axed for saying he's a mukhauta (mask).

It's supremely ironical that the RSS should warn the BJP against the "cult of personality". The RSS bases itself on that very "cult", in which sarasanghachalak or Supreme Leader is worshipped. All former and current swayamsevaks pay him gurudakshina. In this secret society-like organisation, there are no elections; all appointments are made from on top.

Yet, "cult of personality" describes the BJP's culture accurately. Everyone must speak reverentially about Mr Vajpayee. His face must appear on all party posters and hoardings. In this, the BJP imitates the Congress in its worst dynastic phase.

A particularly obnoxious ritual Mr Vajpayee revels in is lining up the whole Cabinet to see him off on his foreign trips. Nehru discouraged this when international air travel was far less frequent and much riskier. Such practices are repugnant to a democratic culture.

The BJP cannot easily deal with internal tensions and power struggles. It doesn't freely debate differences. Its cadres obediently take their cue from the top bosses.

Take the Gujarat massacre. Mr Vajpayee called the killing a "black mark" on April 4 last year. BJP leaders agreed. Exactly eight days later, in Goa, Mr Vajpayee exonerated Mr Narendra Modi and his vile Hindutva, and vilified Muslims. No BJP leader questioned him.

For decades, the RSS would mediate BJP power struggles. A key to this was the distance it kept from the nitty-gritty of politics. But today, the RSS soils its hands to the point of taking sides in BJP power-tussles.

Riven by unresolved differences and bitterness, the BJP is headed for more turmoil and incoherence. Its cadres cannot come to terms with new tensions, aggravated by the coming state elections. Now, the BJP's political credibility is set to take a beating.

Praful Bidwai is an eminent Indian columnist.