BJP’s moderates now on backfoot

The BJP leadership has been jauntily unconcerned about the departure of former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh, a stalwart urbane figure and confidant and friend of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, leading to the surmise that the party may now be inclining more toward its hard Hindutva roots through the RSS and not be fussy about the moderation that seemed to take centrestage under Mr Vajpayee’s influence.

Top party leader Arun Jaitley, who seems to call the shots in the BJP nowadays along with its president Rajnath Singh and PM nominee Narendra Modi, has been utterly dismissive of Mr Singh and has virtually asked him to “grin and bear it” following the rejection of his request to fight the Lok Sabha elections from Barmer, his home district.

Mr Singh has been a reluctant rebel. When he was expelled by the BJP some years ago for not being harsh on Mohammed Ali Jinnah in his book revisiting the story of Indian Independence and Partition, he showed little hesitation in returning when afforded the first chance, courtesy L.K. Advani, whose voice still carried some weight. Mr Vajpayee’s influence had not vanished altogether, but there were signs of it waning.

There can be little question now that BJP moderates, especially those whose careers did not originate in the RSS, are on the backfoot. Besides Mr Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, has also been handled roughly. She also does not belong to the RSS stable.

The turmoil within the BJP, manifest in the process of selecting candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, is being erroneously portrayed in some quarters as a youth versus age battle. But Ms Swaraj, for example, is of the same generation as Mr Jaitley, her present tormentor, and also enjoys national standing. Still, she is being wholly disregarded. The fact that a buccaneer of the Hindu right, Pramod Muthalik, whose Sri Ram Sene wreaked havoc on young women and on the minorities in Karnataka, could be inducted into the BJP on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls says something for the dominant environment in the party.

If he had to be dropped like a hot potato only hours after gaining entry, this is on account of election-time fears at higher levels that the liberal, educated sections who might be veering towards the BJP in this election might just turn away. The party will find it hard-going if the educated middle class begins to shun it. It should be clearly understood that the treatment meted out to Jaswant Singh can only deepen concerns of political moderates who had begun to see the BJP as something of a normal right-wing party, although with Hindutva characteristics.