The BJP's claim of being a party with a difference rests on certain idealised notions, carefully nurtured and propagated. Other parties clamour for power at any cost, while the BJP's pursuit of politics is dictated by the farsighted agenda of realising an alternative vision of India. Other parties readily compromise on their principles, while the BJP is uniquely virtuous inasmuch as it prefers a splendidly moral isolation to the capture to power.
Other parties are only too willing to provide sanctuary to all types of shady characters, whereas the BJP puts a premium on the integrity of its members. All other parties share the faulty Congress vision, characterised by myopic appeasement of Muslims going in the name of "pseudo" secularism, and the BJP cherishes its own idea of India which is not only authentic but also essential for undoing the damage wrought by the self-serving Congress and its paler versions.
The USP of the BJP lies in this 'difference' in terms of vision and behaviour. In fact, this 'difference' has been its self-proclaimed raison d'etre. Objectively speaking, however, the BJP has been no different in its political behaviour. Only, it has stridently been detailing an alternative vision rooted in a fundamental rejection of much of what constitutes the consensual idea of India ..
... Instead of trying for a different kind of consensus, the BJP is attempting to appropriate and usurp that very consensus which it has been deriding constantly. Worse, this appropriation in no way reflects any genuine subscription to the assumptions and ideas implicit in this consensus. So far as claims of a higher measure of political morality are concerned, they are more a myth sustained with the help of a media which, due to its social composition, generally shares the fears and anxieties of the BJP. Much before the so-called aberration of UP, the party had managed a majority in Rajasthan through not- so-moral means. When UP happened, it indicated only a higher degree of a pre-existing amoral disposition which has now been given the attractive name of 'Pragmatic Idealism'.
Had the BJP demonstrated an inclination towards putting the "contentious issues" on the back-burner after having won a mandate on its own, it certainly would have been a welcome shift! As of now, the BJP's denial of a hidden agenda is at best only a tactical posture ... BJP leaders ... have never spoken of reconsidering their position on the very nature of Indian nationhood, its identity and culture. It is from this position only that the contentious issues are framed. Then why has the BJP committed its government to a consensual National Agenda? Is it just a matter of political expediency and opportunism? Most BJP-baiters would have us believe so.
It is opportunism but not of a here-and-now type. This apparent expediency is dictated by the BJP's long-term strategy and agenda ...
... Its own vote share has stagnated. The option is either to make peace with this plateau or to somehow control the formal mechanisms of political power and exploit them in replacing the existing notions of consensus with exclusionist and aggressive ones. BJP ideologues are quit correct in their assertion that their party evolves its strategy within the framework of a long-term plan ... It is in fact only a tactical move in a coolly thought out game.
The growth of the BJP can at least partly be attributed to its acceptance among sections of the upwardly mobile and vocal middle class. The perpetual undercurrent of sympathy for its viewpoint amongst media persons, officials and other sections of the intelligentsia would have been impossible without this acceptance. in fact, the party's imagination of India is coterminous with the self-serving perceptions this class holds as a natural truth. The dexterity of the BJP as a political formation lies in its capacity to present these perceptions not only as natural but also as just. it is in a way trying to reassure its middle-class core by going soft on corruption ... In this respect, the BJP is quite seriously committed to Congressising itself.
The BJP has the capacity to just look different where it actually is not and be different where it really matters. The reason is simple, yet most fundamental. The RSS and its various offshoots have deliberately chosen to adopt the cunning of Kautilya instead of the wisdom of Vyasa ... At present, the BJP is indeed no different ... (Source: The Outlook, 20 April, 1998)
