Soul-searching in BJP

In order to stay relevant, social organisations need to re-invent themselves from time to time. This is especially true of political parties. The goings-on within the BJP, between it and the RSS, as also between it and the Sangh Parivar as a whole, have to be seen in this context.

Until the 2004 election debacle the BJP thought it had got the magic formula, which was a mix of market-friendly economics and social conservatism. Its devotion to the former was not wholly unambiguous. And its version of the latter was, by and large, uni-dimensional. And it was a dimension based on the politics of difference and exploiting that difference with very sharp instruments.

This strategy has also to be seen in the context of the very large number of poor voters, to whom economic issues are less stirring than the sort of social policies that the BJP stood for. But there are limits to any political strategy""or for that matter any strategy""and it would seem that a section of the BJP believes that the limits to an excessively divisive strategy have been reached.

Therefore, if the BJP wishes to widen its appeal to a much larger section of the electorate, it would have to sandpaper its angularities. This is probably how Sudheendra Kulkarni's advice to his boss, Mr Advani, the party president, needs to be viewed. In corporate terms, he is asking Mr Advani to move out of the niche market to a more broad-based one by changing the product suitably.

The RSS has reacted by accusing Mr. Advani of straying from the straight and narrow. It believes that the BJP has to stay true to its original charter, even if this means not being able to expand its voter appeal.

Indeed, it argues that it is only by becoming even more shrill in its espousal of Hindutva that the BJP will command a large share of the vote to give it a majority of its own in Parliament. As a majority shareholder in the Sangh Parivar enterprise, it has the power of not only vetoing policies but also changing the chairman of the board.

Mr Advani, therefore, seems to have run into a major difficulty. To extricate himself, he has already dumped Mr Kulkarni, but it remains to be seen if this will satisfy the RSS. The chances are that it will not, which will confuse the second-rung leadership no end, because it will not know how to strike a balance between the RSS, on the one hand, and Mr Advani, on the other.

A solution to the impasse could be found if the party could arrive at a reasonable compromise. The core question that it must resolve is whether a softening of the hard Hindutva line, even if it leads to an increase in vote share, will translate into more seats in Parliament if the increase is no more than 4 or 5 per cent.

This means that it also needs to ask itself whether the BJP can get within striking distance of a simple majority by entering into sensible electoral alliances of the sort seen in the 1999 election. This is not easy but some judgment has to be made soon because the Bihar election is just around the corner. The BJP's strategy there will be the shape of things to come.