NDA partners look for reasons to stay with BJP

Marginalised in the wake of the BJP’s resounding victory in Gujarat, the ‘‘secular’’ constituents of the NDA are no...

Marginalised in the wake of the BJP’s resounding victory in Gujarat, the ‘‘secular’’ constituents of the NDA are now grabbing at anything that the BJP leadership throws at them in the form of assertions that Hindutva will not be an issue in any elections.

Though Hindutva was used covertly by the BJP and overtly by other Sangh Parivar outfits, the allies looked the other way during the entire campaign. Post-Gujarat, each statement from the BJP leadership that Hindutva is not something to be used for electoral gains is being used as a fig leaf to rationalise their existence within the NDA.

From the TDP to the DMK to the Janata Dal (U), the refrain is that since Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee had asked the BJP to ‘‘carry all sections of our society with us’’ at a party meeting recently, there is little to worry. This, despite the continuance of the aggressive Hindutva rhetoric by the likes of Pravin Togadia.

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For form’s sake, DMK chief M. Karunanidhi may have threatened to quit the ruling alliance if the BJP continued to tread the Hindutva path and his TDP counterpart N. Chandrababu Naidu sent out similar messages. But the alacrity with which the allies take comfort from the PM’s tone down-Hindutva message to the Sangh Parivar betrays a sense of helplessness.

‘‘There won’t be any problem for the NDA as long as the agenda for governance is strictly adhered to by the Centre,’’ Karunanidhi said on Friday, conveniently ignoring assertions from the VHP that it wouldn’t allow the BJP to ‘‘budge even an inch’’ from the Hindutva ideology.

In Chennai, when asked about BJP chief M. Venkaiah Naidu’s remark that the Gujarat experiment would be replicated all over the country, the DMK chief quickly recalled the PM’s clarification on the issue. The allies say it doesn’t matter what the BJP affiliates are saying, pointing out that what the PM says should be relevant to the NDA. Karunanidhi even went on to say all the NDA parties had a right to pursue their own ideologies ‘‘as long as it is not thrust on the NDA.’’

Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress is trying to get into the good books of the BJP leadership at the Centre and, if everything goes well, into the Government. Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee is planning to hold a public rally in Kolkata next month to which she reportedly wants to invite a top BJP leader.