Power versus ideology

the BJP’s “hidden agenda” is not without reason. The most obvious reference is to the party’s relationship with the RSS whose ideological perspective is unambiguously defined in terms of Hindutva. While electoral compulsions force the BJP to change its priorities, the RSS ideological conviction and commitment are beyond politics and business. The question that arises now is about the BJP’s ideological position vis-a-vis theRSS.

It is true that, in competitive politics, no party can claim to be purist. Transformation in the nature of parties is not unnatural, especially with those parties whose birth is located in a movement other than political. The Labour Party of Britain, for example, witnessed significant changes in competitive parliamentary politics, from its earlier ideological position as a labour movement. Even its counterpart, the Conservative Party, is not today what it was in the 50s and 60s. A factor which acted as catalyst in transforming parties in Western democracies has been protracted coalitional politics. It narrowed the gap between not only the Left and the Right in Italy and other countries of the West but also influenced religion-based parties acquire a more liberal and democratic character.

Though the RSS has never been a part of party politics, it faced severe resistance at the political level from the Left and the Nehruvian stream which dominated Indian politics for decades after independence. It wasonly after the formation of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) in 1952 that formal communication could be established with rival ideological formations. The BJS emerged as a defence force of the RSS in politics and also an instrument for mobilising public opinion in favour of an integral approach to nation-building with a Hindu-cultural content. Opposition to minorityism has been cardinal to the BJS and later the BJP. However, a process of incremental change could be traced in it since the mid-60s.

Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, the chief architect of its ideology, made the BJS socialists-friendly, and this led to the party’s desertion by many rightists (Swatantrites) or their expulsion. In 1977, the mass movement under Jayaprakash Narayan led to a closer interaction between the BJS and other non-Congress opposition parties, including the CPI(M). The BJS gave up contentious issues and merged in the Janata Party. At this crucial juncture, the RSS also showed some flexibility by proposing an amendment in itsconstitution to save the Janata Party from being shattered on the issue of the `dual membership’ of the Jana Sangh leaders.

However, changes in the BJP during this decade can be attributed to its acknowledgment of a radical transformation in India’s political ecology. Politics is no longer hegemonised by the upper castes, and the traditional political dominance of the North is virtually over. Moreover, elitism in politics has been replaced by mass consciousness, indicative of the growing spread of mass democracy in its true sense. Emergence of regional parties with strong federal sentiments is another important ecological ingredient.

The BJP has responded to these changes by, first, applying social engineering at the organisational level and, secondly, making concerted efforts to demystify its image of a Hindu party confined to the Hindi belt with inherently centripetal inclinations. The social composition at the middle and upper levels of party organisation has increasingly become more heterogeneous.However, such changes do not affect its relations with the RSS as long as its perspective of nation-building, secularism and nationalism does not contradict the basic principles of the RSS.

Like the BJS, the BJP draws its strength and ideological inspiration from the RSS. The popularity graph of the party is largely a reflection of the spread and acceptance of the Hindutva ideology. The net achievement is, of course, higher than some values sacrificed when the party came into power.

The BJP-led government would be the best deterrent against minorityism which has a tendency to grow under state patronage. But the RSS does not expect the BJP to become either a Hindu Mahasabha or a Shiv Sena. Nor would the RSS let the party drift from its Hindutva ideology. Thus, unlike the Indian Marxists who have neither grown nor transformed themselves, the RSS-BJP has grown to maturity.

The formation of the BJS triggered a debate inside the RSS on the question of its joining active politics. As a small organisationthen, protesting the misappropriation of state resources to suppress the cultural realities and values of India, it did cast its shadow on the internal politics of the Congress, particularly the factional politics between Nehru and Patel or Tandon. The Congress was a divided house on the question of allowing RSS men to join the organisation. A.G. Kher, a senior Congressman, then warned the RSS-baiters in the Congress: "RSS men are not politically trained and don’t throw them into dilemma." The dilemma was ultimately resolved by forming the BJS. Had the Congress been then led by Patel, instead of Nehru, the birth of the BJS may have been put off, if not prevented.

The theory about the end of ideology cannot hold true in the Indian context. Ideology has an important role to play in shaping the nation’s destiny. It is ideology which gives orientation to programmes and channelise the cadres’ energy. The questions of a uniform civil code, the Ayodhya temple, or Article 370 are part of larger national questions.They can be suspended for a while but cannot be abandoned for ever.

There is no harm if the BJP undergoes a change in its approach to these problems. But it would not be in its interest to shy away from its own core issues. Liberalism and democracy need primacy in the present political circumstances and the party is all set to adjust with them with its new face and role but it should not be overconscious of its liberal image. It is this overconsciousness of Nehru which harmed India’s socio-cultural integration more than anything else.

The writer is a senior lecturer in Political Science at Delhi University