To most Indians, Atal Behari Vajpayee has been the right man in the wrong party. His personal views are more liberal than conservative. Yet he has been a life- long member of a conservative party, which is even fundamentalist in approach. Now that he is India's Prime Minister, the question is: will he stay liberal or let the conservative streak guide him? To put it bluntly, whether he is a mask, as RSS ideologue Govindachari described him once, or whether he has been awaiting the opportunity to prove his liberal credentials
His few days of prime ministership sends both messages. The allocation of Home to L.K. Advani and Human Resource, including Education and Culture ... to Murli Manohar Joshi indicates that he has gone by the RSS advice. Both are hardliners and both will set about their task like an evangelist. On the other hand, the appointment of Jaswant Singh as the Planning Commission's Vice-Chairman shows that Vajpayee has opted for a broad-minded person despite pressure. Jaswant Singh is the RSS bete noire ... Is this Vajpayee's way to balance power or to send a polite message to the RSS to leave him alone?
When Advani was driving the rath towards Ayodhya, Vajpayee came to London. I was then India's High Commissioner. I asked him how he had come to London at a time when his party was in the midst of rath yatra. His reply was that all those who were Ram bhakt had gone to Ayodhya and those who were Desh bhakt had come to London. Still, one day after the demolition of the Babari Masjid, he told me in reply to my repeated please to him to leave the BJP: "Let the temple come up."
A similar evidence of dichotomy was visible when Vajpayee attended the party's meeting to prepare the election manifesto and when he sat with the allies to finalise the National Agenda. At the first place, he went along with the arguments on constructing a Ram temple, deleting special status for Jammu and Kashmir and adopting a common civil code. At the second, he not only kept out the three contentious issues but also promised to take such measures for the country's welfare as gladdened the heart of ... all ... with secular credentials.
As Foreign Minister in the Janata Government (1977-79), Vajpayee behaved generously during his visit to Pakistan ... What left Islamabad speechless was (his) reported remark that they should forget what he said in the past because he was then the Jana Sangh member and was now part of Janata Party ... Did the real Vajpayee emerge? Or did he act to suit the ambience?
Riding two horses at the same time can be an acrobatic feat. But it cannot be the way of governance. The gift of gab that Vajpayee possesses has helped him to span the conflicting situations. He has even evaded through ticklish situations. Some time he has simply shrugged his shoulders. But as Prime Minister he will have to take a categorical stand on certain issues. The buck stops at his table. The speeches made from the BJP pulpit, probably delivered to placate the fanatics, cannot fit into the demands of a pluralistic society ... Can he retain (his image) without making the party echo his thoughts, which are often at variance?
What everyone wants to know is how the BJP-led government will be different from the Advani-led BJP ...Sunder Singh Bhandari ... has said in a TV interview that the BJP. will continue to demand the construction of temple, deletion of Article 370 ... and adoption of uniform civil code. But the government, he has argued, will follow the National Agenda, which the coalition members have adopted. This means there will be two points of decision-making: the party and government. Where will the authority of one end and that of the other begin ?... How does the party rectify 'the mistakes' of government? Does it mean that the party is at liberty to start an agitation any time? ...
Still another challenge before Vajpayee is how he distances himself from the RSS for all to see. he has stood in khaki shorts at the rallies over which RSS chief has presided. he has also written an article, My soul is the RSS, which extols the organistion's philosophy. Yet ... the National Agenda gives the allies and others an impression that he does not want to mix religion with politics nor the state with Hindutva. If this is so, why does not Vajpayee assert himself and say so? The RSS leaves none in doubt that the BJP is guided by it.
Vajpayee's equivocal stand on this point only strengthens the general impression that he is the RSS product. And there is no doubt (that) the RSS use his liberal image for gaining strength. Why does he avoid the issue? Or is it an identity of views? The BJP's own pronouncements that it has been compelled to postpone its agenda by its allies indicates only a change of tactics, not policies. What the party is trying to convey is that it will bring to the fore the thesis of Hindutva for implementation once it attains a clear majority in Parliament on its own. The RSS 3-day conclave at Bangalore last week made it clear that they were looking a "a 25-year perspective", nothing immediate. It is a waiting game. More ominous is, however, the statement by Madan Das, joint general secretary of the RSS, that there was no question of dropping ... the claims to Kashi and Mathura. True, this is not on the agenda of the BJP. But, unfortunately, the party always adds the words, "for the time being". It is now for the allies to consider whether they will continue to allow the BJP to fatten itself at their expense.
