Quite right with the Pope

It is the BJP-led government which is making a point of delinking state and religion in the Vice President’s "no" to a religious function where the Pope is to meet various religious heads.

The government may have wanted to use the Pope’s visit to signal its unhappiness with the contempt with which groups like the Southern Baptists in the US have described the Hindus. The Dalai Lama’s presence could not have been the only reason for the Foreign Office’s advice to the Vice President, even though the MEA let it be known quietly that there was a Chinese angle to the controversy. But the MEA had given the Vice President the same advice over a similar invitation when the Pope was here in 1986, but the Dalai Lama was not there. The VicePresident’s "no" is a clear signal that the President or the Vice President or the Prime Minister should not preside over religious functions of one denomination or another. It could be the Pope today, the Sai Baba or the Shankaracharya tomorrow, and the Shahi Imam the day after. It is not too long ago when some of the former Rashtrapatis used to take off to Tirupati every few months. This is not just a matter of the state financing what is strictly a private trip for religious purposes. Given the security and other su-ch trappings that accompany a constitutional authority, a President, a PM or a Vice President, stric-tly speaking, cannot be co-nsidered private citizens while they hold office.

Religion is a private matter and should be kept that way. That it is a government-dominated by a Hindutva party that is underscoring the norm is a tribute to our democracyand its diversity. When the BJP’s detractors say that the party has put its Hindutva agenda on the backburner for tactical reasons,they tend toforget the change that the country’s composition and its system of `one man one vote’ could effect in the saffron party’s perceptions over a period.

In other ways too, the centrifugal tendencies in the country’s politics, which dominated the scene in the Eighties and the early Nin-eties, right from Shah Bano affair to Mandal to the demolition of the Babri Masjid, are now getting balanced by the centripetal forces. Even as regional and caste-based political outfits are increasing in number, they are also realising that their agenda has to be inclusive and not exclusive if they have to stay in business. That is why Mayawati-Kanshi Ram talk about the good of the "sarva samaj"; "Maulana Mulayam" who had at one stage ta-lked about arming the Muslims also wooed the Hindu saints this time. The BJP, which brought down the V.P. Singh government for its decision to divide Hindu society with OBC reservations, gave OBC status to the Jats of Rajasthan in its first act after assuming power.

Whether it is the DM-K, theTDP, the National Conference or the Ak-ali Dal, they have stood for federalism and more power to the states. The BJP in its earlier avatar was for a strong Centre. Today both groups have moved towards a middle ground in an appreciation of each other’s position and in deference to the country’s multicultural character.

There are large chunks in the non-Brahmin collectivity in Tamil Nadu, for instance, for whom Tamil nationalism has lost its appeal and they are now looking for an identity outside the Dravidian fold. Southern hardliners may chafe against the ideological decline of the DMK but it has come a long way from its self-determination demand of the Fifties. Today the DMK, PMK and MDMK members can sit in the Union Cabinet and decide how to deal with the secessionist tendencies in the Northeast or in Jammu and Kashmir. A one time anti-Hindu, anti-Hindi, pro-lower castes party like the DMK is able to sup with the upper-caste, Hindutva-driven BJP. It is not only M. Karunanidhi who wants a say in Delhi.Chandrababu Naidu, Jayalalitha, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Laloo Yadav, Mayaw-ati, Bal Thackeray, Parkash Singh Badal all want a role outside their states, and this is bo-und to make them less sectarian.It is not just power per se which is a strong adhesive between incompatible entities. This has also everything to do with the imperative of running a country democratically and taking along all sections. That is why it has often been said that the BJP is beginning to look like the Congress. After a stint in power, the Democrats in the US become more like the Republicans, and vice versa, and the same is true of the Conservatives and the Labour in Britian. Recently, when the swearing in ceremony of the Vajpayee government took place at Rashtrapati Bhavan, there was the customary call for a group photo. But L.K. Advani turned in the other direction and made a point of going up to Sonia Gandhi to greet her. It was a small gesture but was noticed.

An important reason for the NDA’s success this time was the mainstreamspace that Atal Behari Vajpayee came to occupy. They needed his moderate face and middle-of-the-ground agenda. In some ways the regional parties used the Vajpayee slogan more than even the BJP to get votes. Had there not been a Vajpayee, they might have had to invent one.