Ironic as it may sound, the escalating stridency of the VHP could prove to be the biggest aid to the Congress in its bid to lead a secular alliance to power in the 2004 general elections. The three-day brainstorming session of the party that ended here this morning has a sent out a three-fold message — the Congress will now play a pro-active role in bringing together secular forces to take on the BJP both in the ideological and electoral arena; Sonia Gandhi will be projected as the undisputed leader of not just the party but also of the proposed alliance; and the Congress will refashion itself as a middle of the road outfit that can carry diverse streams within its amorphous fold.The party has remained silent on one central issue — how it proposes to tackle the wide acceptability A.B. Vajpayee continues to enjoy as the only non-Congress Prime Minister of the country to complete a full term in office.It is significant that despite the no-holds barred attack on the BJP-led Government’s policies and the RSS-VHP-BJP-Bajrang Dal combine’s ideology, Sonia Gandhi did not mention the Prime Minister even once. Although Congress spokesmen maintained that any indictment of the Government is automatically an indictment of its leader, the fact remains that the Congress has failed to find enough ammunition to directly criticise Vajpayee.One reason is that today Vajpayee represents the same broad, consensual, please-all ‘‘middle path’’ that the Congress seeks to replace. The difference is that while the Congress as a whole wants to follow this approach, Vajpayee’s ‘‘moderate’’ face is that of his alone. He has been able to carry a 24-party coalition together largely on this reputation and has been seeking to enlarge his personal constituency through a ‘‘peace and prosperity’’ agenda.But with the VHP stepping up the campaign on the Ayodhya issue and stridently attacking the Prime Minister, the Vajpayee plank threatens to get eroded in the run-up to the next elections. Even those who believe that Vajpayee is a genuine moderate may find it difficult to back the leader of a party that is once again seen as a helpless appendage of a trishul-wielding saffron brigade.The decision of the VHP and RSS to press for a legislation to hand over the Ayodhya site for the construction of the temple also has the potential to rock the Vajpayee government. For the moment, the BJP has rejected the demand citing the NDA agenda. But if the BJP changes its stance as elections approach, or issues a separate election manifesto incorporating the Ayodhya issue, some NDA partners could leave.For the Congress, that is the best-case scenario. Having shed its reluctance to go in for coalitions, the party is now keen to get as many ‘‘secular’’ parties in its fold. The Congress has finally acknowledged that the coalition era in Indian politics is not a ‘‘transient phase’’ and in order to reach even the outskirts of South Block, it will need a host of pre-and post-poll allies. A Congress leader today described NDA constituents as ‘‘subjectively secular and objectively communal’’ since they were allies of the BJP. But if any were to leave the alliance and join hands with the Congress, it would become ‘‘objectively secular’’ as well.
