BJP and Congress: The Deewaar problem

The Congress has a great programme, but a suspect leader. The Bharatiya Janata Party has a great leader, but a suspect programme, says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan

It is hard, when you look at the political scene, not to hark back to that famous dialogue from Deewaar, you know, that bit where Amitabh Bachchan tells Shashi Kapoor, 'Mere pass bungla hai, gadi hai, naukar hai, bank balance hai, tumhare pass kya hai?' And Shashi Kapoor grimly replies, 'Mere pass ma hai.'

If the Congress were to ask the same question to the Bharatiya Janata Party, it would get a similar answer. 'Hamare pass Modi hai.'

But now the charm of even Narendra Modi may be wearing thin. Still, his waning attractions are not a problem for the BJP alone.

India has a bigger political problem over the next decade. This is that while one party has a great programme but no leader, the other has a great leader but a very dodgy programme.

Paradoxically, the party with the great leader has a democratic tradition and the party with a lousy leader doesn't. Instead, it has the ein Fuhrer (one leader) tradition, while the party with the democratic tradition talks freely about ein Volk, ein Reich (one nation, one people).

In another contrast, it is the party with the ein Fuhrer problem that talks most of secularism and inclusiveness.

In short, both the BJP and the Congress -- and, therefore, national politics -- are in a bind. If the Congress wants its values to survive, it has to change its leader; and if the BJP wants to do the right thing by India, it has to change its programmes.

The big challenge

How will this get done? The Congress still thinks it needs Rahul Gandhi; and the BJP thinks it needs the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, if not its affiliates.

Who will call the bluff of the Gandhi family that they are indispensable?

How will the BJP outgrow its parochial parent that still provides the feet on the ground during elections?

To make it even more difficult, neither Narendra Modi nor Rahul Gandhi can forget the lessons they learnt when they were political toddlers.

Modi's attitude is of gratitude; Rahul Gandhi's, one of imperiousness.

Modi is deeply imbued with the RSS philosophy, which is fine as long as he restricts himself to the thought that Hindus are a superior lot. But it is not at all fine if it also means harassing the minorities, whether religious or any other, including the Westernised middle classes.

Likewise, Rahul Gandhi is deeply imbued with the Congress philosophy, which too is fine, provided it is restricted to the pre-1980 one. But since then, another strand has been added to it: That only a Gandhi family member can head the party, while the rest touch their forelocks as they bow out backwards from the royal presence.

In other words, as Jawaharlal Nehru and Atal Bihari Vajpayee had shown, the problem lies not with the general beliefs of the two parties -- which are very similar now - but with the corollaries to these beliefs.

These corollaries comprise the RSS attitude to the minorities and the Gandhis' royalty syndrome for the Congress.

In both cases, these negative corollaries are working to nullify the positive attributes of the two parties.

Furthermore, during the political debates and discourses of the last two years the opponents and proponents have tended to use these corollaries as convenient. When one side attacks the core values, the other side trots out the corollary.

As a result, everyone is very confused.

Confusion rules

This confusion extends, it would seem, even to Modi, who is otherwise very clear-headed. In an effort to remain focused on his development agenda, he has now got no less a person than Mohan Bhagwat, the head of the RSS, to say that Indians should 'celebrate the diversity of India's religions and not discriminate against them.' Bhagwat had also said that India is a Hindu country, which is different from saying it is a Hindu-majority country.

The BJP and the RSS are now both trying to suppress the fringe elements. One signal has come from the Maharashtra chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, who says the government will not do moral policing.

This thought will have to be constantly drilled into the RSS by the BJP. Even Modi will have to become less seemingly tolerant of the transgressions.

The Congress, meanwhile, faces exactly the same problem. If you accept that the RSS is to the BJP what the Gandhis are to the Congress -- arbiters, guides and above the fray -- the Congress party members have to tell the family that the time has come to take off.

But as Atal Bihari Vajpayee is said to have asked in a different context, 'Magar yeh sab hoga kaise?'

That is the real challenge of the next few years and the outcome will determine the shape of politics for a couple of decades.