The Righter Side

There have been many a effort to define the conservative movement’s future in the sub-continent.  The narrative begins with the sad demise of the Swatantra party,  the slow but definite consolidation of Ram Janma Bhoomi movement, the eventual capture and subsequent loss of power by the BJP. It will then end in lament.  In blogs, op-eds and tweets the closing comments will inevitably be fully devoted to grieving the ossified status of the only party that comes close to at least pretending to politically represent the conservative movement.  Forgive me – for I too have sinned!

When Swapan Das Gupta – the demigod for many of those that don’t belong in the grand mansion of the INC decided to write on the right space in the political spectrum it too more or less mirrored the same pattern.   Much of the dissection of Indian right wing would not have happened had the BJP captured another 20-30 seats in the parliament. But that was not to be so. The party would suffer further embarassment at the hands of its own leaders – now turned  rebels. Jaswant was thrown out, Yashwant silenced but Shourie was a different ballgame.

Arun Shourie in one single interview would lay bare the intellectual fatuousness of the Hindutva brigade and the bickering of the party high command. His prescription for all the malaise: RSS. It was the easiest way for BJP to undergo catharsis.

Arun Shourie had called for the RSS to bomb the BJP headquarters and the RSS has more or less obliged by making one of its favorites the party president. In addition at least two effective state leaders have already been neutralized.  Further, there is talk of Rajnath Singh being made leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha. The BJP may well resemble the sectarian Sangh very soon. As Swapan Das Gupta writes:  BJP is falling back on ‘sectarian certitude’ .  It is the price conservatives have to pay for having ignored the importance of sustaining mass movements at the state level.

Vijay Vikram had made an important point about India’s apolitical political culture. It might have more relevance to many of the right wing intellectuals than to the audience he intended it to.

Arun Shourie, Yashwant Sinha and other intellectuals in the right wing are not so inadvertently shy of  political engagement at lower levels.  Arun Shourie would insist on leaving policy to the higher command but would consent the offloading of  measly organizational burden to the RSS. It appears the paradox Vijay Vikram alludes to is not very different from Shourie’s perspective.

But intellectuals cannot further their agenda from Delhi bungalows. They must give it shape and sell it to the masses through the party.

In the meanwhile if the RSS has its way with the BJP it will be back to the days  of RSS brand  socialism, an inane obsession with the Cow and a village based economy that nobody really understands.

And Khaki trousers.

There is no better symbolic representation of the archaic world views of the RSS than that stiff piece of garment.

On another occasion Arun Shourie had lamented the intellectual cowardice of the Indian civil society. When socialism was the norm everybody held flags for socialism. When market economy was introduced everybody it appeared was anti-socialist.  People, he said,  refused to challenge conventional wisdom.

Shourie, we hope, will be forgiving when we accuse him of the same crime.

It is true that BJP owes its birth and growth to the RSS. Stalwarts of BJP have always come from the Sangh. Everybody from Vajpayee to Narendra Modi were trained and groomed in the Sangh. Without the RSS there would not have been a BJP. The Rashtriya Swayam Sevak has given the country a nationalist alternative to the mammoth that the INC is. Those of us that rally behind the BJP should be grateful to the RSS for their child.

But the role of RSS vis a vis the BJP should now be considered complete.

If as Shourie suggests leaders were ‘brought’ from the states or the RSS to replace the current top leadership it would only temporarily solve the problem. In the long run the BJP is better off institutionalizing an open democratic set-up where there are venues for dissent and debate.

It is true that good leaders like Shivaraj Singh Chauchan have come from RSS but why should the current BJP crop of leaders suddenly find themselves superseded by organizers ‘lent’ from the RSS? A BJP district level chief will suddenly find his political progress to the state capital or Delhi blocked by a new crop of ‘outsiders’ who probably spent much less time for the party then him. Why not introduce internal democracy at all levels instead?

Instead of trying to reform the party ‘top-down’ the BJP will find it more advantageous to reform ‘bottom-up’. There is more than enough talent and leadership available within the BJP – the challenge is to channelize them.

It may be practically unfeasible for the BJP and RSS to simply cut away the chord that connects them. But why not institutionalize the BJP-RSS interaction with the set-up of a BJP-RSS forum consisting of select leaders from both organizations?

This way party cadre and leaders may get away with ignoring ‘Sangh stalwarts’ that want to run the party at state or even national levels. And Sangh would stand clean of accusations about interference because of some BJP leaders plotting against one another.

In the long run it is the BJP that will have more influence and ability to affect change. (Ex. nuclear tests) The party unlike its parent indulges in politics and embraces democracy. It will no doubt have a diluting affect on RSS ideology that the party inherited. But ideology-addicted souls need to reflect on whether the enormous social influence the BJP has the potential to wield is worth sacrificing for mere semantics and closed-mindedness.

Dilution does not mean outright betrayal; only a mere contemprorary remoulding of the core cultural nationalism and the vision of a strong India.The Hindutva interpretation is passe and has generally been percieved as shrill, reactionary and Hindu supremacist.

Nationalism is the new religion. Call it a different name than Hindutva. It is eminently possible, perhaps much more easier to deal with and defeat Islamic radicalism and aggressive Christian evangelisation from the platform of a nationalistic organisation than a Hindu supremacist organisation.