BJP gains from Congress missteps

The ruling Congress itself is responsible for making the BJP relevant. Initially, the stalling of parliament rattled the Congress unnecessarily. The more the government sought the BJP's cooperation, the more intractable it became. This was the game that the Congress too had played when it was in the opposition. It should have figured out how to face such situations.

What really put the Congress on the defensive was its effort to grab power, first in Goa and then in Jharkhand. The party adopted the same old methods to get into the seat through the Congress-appointed governors even though the party and its allies had not the necessary numbers. People were shocked to see the flouting of constitutional methods.

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Defeat either evokes defiance or the desire to compromise. The Congress has opted for the latter. Maybe, it has found that the BJP leaders, from L.K.Advani to Sushma Swaraj, are too ferocious for the Congress to challenge with the timid and the inarticulate lot it has on its side. Maybe, the Congress has decided not to join issue with the BJP. Whatever the reason, it is apparent that the Congress does not want to pick up the gauntlet which the BJP throws down so often. Those who saw Congress president Sonia Gandhi taking on the then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in the Lok Sabha are disappointed over the squeamishness of the Congress leaders. Something has gone wrong somewhere because Sonia is still the party president. Either Sonia has some other considerations in view or her advisors have given her poor advice.

Therefore, New Delhi's overreaction to the denial of US visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi does not come as a surprise. Washington's step was an act of indiscretion and, hence, highly objectionable. The State Department could have ticked Modi off by withdrawing the diplomatic visa while sustaining the ordinary one. True, America bungled. But the pitch to which New Delhi took the incident was so disproportionate that it made Modi look like a martyr. He is responsible for the Gujarat carnage and remains unrepentant.

The BJP's attitude was understandable. It had to go to town because it had been groping for an issue for a long time to be in the limelight. The party converted the visa's denial into an issue of "national pride."

When in power, the party did not say a word over the stripping of George Fernandes at New York, although he was India's defence minister at that time. L.K. Advani was then on a different trip: how President Bush dropped in when Advani was sitting with Secretary of State Powell. The party wanted to take credit for proximity with America.

Modi is himself exploiting the visa's denial and saying all kinds of things to divert attention from the real reason: The report by the National Human Rights Commission on his complicity in what happened in Gujarat. Modi's one vignette is that President Bush has punished him because he has enacted the anti-conversion measure. Another Modi quote is that human rights activists should be punished for their "foreign links." That Washington has again refused him a visa is unfortunate. But it is a non-event, not the end of the world as the BJP is trying to project. Why should the Congress play into its hands? Perhaps the government has an eye on the smooth functioning of parliament. Is this the price?

The Congress is, however, wrong if it believes that the BJP will show any accommodation to the government. This is clear from the manner in which the BJP state governments have refused to introduce VAT, a tax which is to be levied throughout the country from April 1.

The same non-cooperative attitude was behind the BJP boycott of Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee's conference of State Speakers. His idea was not to confront the judiciary but to point out that the Jharkhand judgment indicating guidelines to the state legislature might upset the fine balance which the judiciary and the legislatures had maintained after independence. The constitution gave legislatures unrestricted powers to conduct affairs in the house. Even unwittingly, the supremacy of the elected should not be watered down.

The Congress rightly allowed its states to attend the Speaker's meeting. But it did not support his suggestion that the President, as authorized by the constitution, should make a reference to the Supreme Court for another look on its judgment so as to delineate clearly the power of the judiciary and that of legislatures. The Congress should confront the BJP on this point. The issue is so important from the point of view of the constitution's basic structure of federalism that there should be a public debate on the subject as well as a reference to the Supreme Court. The Congress is mistaken if it believes that going along with the BJP is possible. Some political experts are indulging in a guess-game that the Congress and the BJP can develop an understanding of sorts. L.K. Advani's comment in a television interview that the two have not been talking to each other "enough" is considered significant. Lord Megnath Desai, an Indian economist based in London, has gone to the extent of saying that the Congress and the BJP should cooperate "in the interest of country's progress."

The Congress is wrong in its assessment. The BJP will continue to create more and more difficulties for the Congress because the BJP wants to step in its place at New Delhi. It has also begun to nourish the hope that the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), which includes both the Congress and the Left, may disintegrate in 2006 when the two will be in direct electoral clash during elections in West Bengal and Kerala.

What is sad about the whole thing is that the Congress, which should be fighting the BJP on every front, is seen compromising with it. The Congress does not realize that its strength lies in taking an unequivocal stand against the communal forces. The more it dilutes its stand, the more distant it will go from the people who defeated them in the last election. The country's ethos is pluralism, not the parochialism and prejudice that the BJP fosters. The Congress should have at least understood by this time.

Kuldip Nayar is an eminent Indian columnist.