I f the banner of ‘Hindutva’ proved instrumental in pushing the BJP to the slot of the single largest party by the late 1990s, Vajpayee’s coalition ‘dharma’ has since done the rest. The difference between Vajpayee’s first aborted term of thirteen days and his two successive terms of first thirteen months and now fifty-three months has revolved almost entirely around the party’s new-found ability to cobble coalitions. A broad alliance with a hoodwinking agenda has become an essential hallmark for the BJP’s continuing tryst with power.
The Congress' attempt to steal the banner of Hindutva from the BJP has always proved counter-productive. A desperate Congress is now trying to outsmart the BJP in the realm of coalition politics. And as the battle for ‘Mission 2004’ begins to intensify, it seems the Congress is not doing too badly in this competition. During the last one year, the NDA has lost several allies. And, directly or indirectly, the Congress has been so much the gainer.
As many as six erstwhile partners have moved away from the BJP – the National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir, Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal in UP, Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party in Bihar and the DMK, MDMK and the PMK in Tamil Nadu. More importantly, the BJP’s dream of benefiting from a strategic symbiosis with Mayawati’s BSP in Uttar Pradesh and beyond has gone sour and may even turn into a nightmare if the BSP does indeed eventually tie up with the Congress. Ironically enough, even as the BJP and the Congress try to court new allies, the terms of coalition politics tilt increasingly in favour of the smaller parties with powerful pockets of regional influence. In a possible Congress-BSP tie-up in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress may well be forced to play second fiddle to the BSP, while the AIADMK is destined to dictate terms to the BJP in the event of an electoral pact between the two parties. The bourgeois quest for a two-party model in India can only be pursued through this multi-party maze of strange allies and estranged partners.
A possible Congress-BSP tie-up could leave the BJP forlorn and rather clueless in Uttar Pradesh. Undivided Bihar is another state from where the BJP and its allies had reaped a bumper harvest in the 1999 elections. But this time around, the BJP is not just likely to miss the loyal support of Ram Vilas Paswan, it has also to face the growing pressure of the reunited JD(U) especially in Jharkhand. The BJP’s brave ‘Mission 2004’ targets and the much touted ‘feel-good’ demagogy cannot obscure the actual reality of a worried BJP surrounded by demanding allies within a depleted NDA.
Feel-good is the slogan of the beneficiaries of globalization, especially those who have now got a licence to loot. The entire economy is on offer for foreign MNCs and monopoly corporate houses. The election-eve bonanza announced by the government is full of lucrative booties for big capital and the market it commands. For the toiling masses of this country, there is however only one connotation of the feel-good propaganda: no job, no food; so what, feel good! And let us also remember that the same Central Government which has been busy abolishing subsidies and closing down the public sector has just promised unlimited funds for state governments to combat the so-called 'Naxal menace’.
The hurried rush for early elections, the elaborate attempts to hide the Sangh’s fascist fangs in a ‘feel-good’ cloak and the packaging of India’s parliamentary elections on the lines of a US-style presidential contest, all indicate a devious BJP design to create an unreal atmosphere and steal another ‘mandate’ by hoodwinking the people. The design must be thwarted by all means. The need of the hour is to unleash the fullest energy of the people and transform their plight into decisive anger and resolute action against the enemies and their policies. A people awakened shall never be defeated.