At a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party’s quotient seems to be down, there comes another salvo from within – a veteran and close friend of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee – Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s stake to the Prime Minister’s post if the BJP comes to power. A party already insecure has been shaken and stirred by the old Rajasthan warhorse
Many an empire was lost for a woman, quipped a senior BJP leader, referring to the fight between Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and LK Advani over whether Vasundhara Raje Scindia should be cut to size in Rajasthan, which is what Shekhawat would like, or remain the leader of the Opposition, a position Advani has backed.
Quips apart, “Rajasthan ka ek hi Singh”, as Bhairon Singh Shekhawat has been known over the years, is feeling mortally offended today because he has been marginalised in Rajasthan and not given importance at the Centre. Vasundhara Raje Scindia has put many senior leaders in Rajasthan in their place and this includes the three times Chief Minister and former Vice- President Shekhawat. But then this is something successful leaders tend to do in order to weaken the hold of their predecessors on the organization and the state.
Bhairon Singh Shekhawat has hit back as he knew how best to. His views were ignored in ticket selection in the recent Assembly polls in Rajasthan. He felt humiliated when the name of his son-in-law Narpat Singh Rajvi was cleared only in the fourth list. He was angry when his other supporters were not given their due.
An objective analysis of Shekhawat’s recent statements underscores the contradictions that are inherent in them. He said he is no longer a member of the BJP, having quit the party, in 2002 when he was elected Vice-President. If he did not consider himself as a member of the party, why make the point that he was not answerable to Rajnath Singh (obviously he won’t be). Or say that he was the senior-most leader in the party (which he is supposed to have quit). Or that he was not consulted when the decision was made to project LK Advani as PM (why should he be when he was not part of the BJP?)
That the statement of a retired 86-year-old leader, who is officially not even in the party, and who wants to contest as an independent, should create so much turbulence in the party was surprising, and revealing. The way the BJP reacted, it seemed as if the PMship was about to be snatched away from Advani.
If the BJP had let Shekhawat’s statement – that he planned to contest the Lok Sabha – pass, or given a measured or a calibrated response, it might have created a different kind of debate. The discussion could have been centred more around whether those who hold constitutional positions should get back into active politics. Legally and constitutionally, there is nothing to prevent them from standing for elections or rejoining a party, but tradition has it that they stay away from active politics, and there is impeccable logic behind that principle. They may be tempted to misuse their constitutional positions while in office to favour those who may help fulfill their ambitions later on, if there is the possibility of their returning to active politics.
The same logic also applies to a Chief Justice going back to practice in the High Court or the Supreme Court after retirement. Or even to government servants. Many, once they are into their early fifties, start to tie-up with those who may open doors for them after they retire.
Rajnath Singh’s sharp response to Shekhawat – that someone who had swum in the Ganges should not think of swimming in a cesspool – only raised his hackles. The upshot of the remark and the controvesy it provoked was to shift the focus away from the issue of propriety of a former Vice-President contesting elections, to the merits and demerits of LK Advani as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate.
Few believe that Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, for all his Thakur appeal (which did not work during the last presidential election when he lost to Pratibha Devi Sinh Patil) and “moderate” credentials, can replace Advani as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate. Advani’s candidature was cleared by his own party after due debate, endorsed by the RSS after much debate, and given a stamp of approval by the NDA. Even the less than happy Sangh leaders had conceded that as long as Advani was there, and Vajpayee had retired, there was little chance of someone else becoming prime minister.
The BJP leaders are a worried lot today. With the way the Congress has handled the post Mumbai situation, quickly diverting public anger against politicians, and stepping up its diplomatic offensive, which has resulted in Pakistan’s admission that the captured terrorist Kasab is a Pakistani, and with inflation coming down, the BJP could lose its twin planks of terror and prices as issues to flog in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections which it was banking on.
Shekhawat’s statement has inflicted damage on the party at a time when it was anyway feeling vulnerable. It has put a question mark against the issue of leadership, unsettling something that had been settled.
Shekhawat’s latest salvo is more than a reaction to Vasundhara Raje Scindia managing to push him into a corner. It mirrors the internal contradictions of the BJP. Such a statement would have been unthinkable in 1995 when Vajpayee was anointed the party’s prime ministerial candidate. Shekhawat appears to have played on the anti-Advani sentiment inside the party and given it a voice.
There is restiveness in the party that the BJP has not taken off under Advani’s leadership as it was expected to. He was expected to do more than just hold the BJP-NDA flock together, synthesizing their pulls and pressures. An impression has gained ground that he is being buffeted around between the moderate allies, who also represent his own inclinations, and the Rajnath Singh-RSS hardliner line on a host of issues.
Though the party did manage to hold on to Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh and lost Rajasthan, it is Delhi which has brought to the fore the fear – Will Advani be another VK Malhotra? The BJP which is usually adept at mounting aggressive campaigns has failed to make the most of Advani’s 50 years of experience in public life at a time when the country is entering a difficult and troubled period and needs an experienced leadership to steer the ship. In fact, the
usually slow to react Congress has been on the offensive about the advantages of a youthful leadership of Rahul Gandhi in a country as young as India.
With his statements and altercations, Shekhawat may not have added to his stature. It is one thing to appear grasping, and quite another to be sought out, as an elder statesmen and a possible consensual choice. But then Shekhawat has little at stake, and less to lose.
On the other hand, the BJP leadership, in its belligerent response to Shekhawat, has only displayed its nervousness and insecurity.