BJP, facing a lot of flak, seeks friends

The doctrine of mutual need explains the reported bonhomie between NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and Union finance minister Arun Jaitley. Mr Jaitley popped up at Mr Pawar’s residence out of nowhere and heaped praise on him. Evidently the BJP can’t any more be sure of the Shiv Sena sticking to the alliance government in Maharashtra for long, and would like to keep a second string in its bow ready in order to be able to muster the numbers on the Assembly floor if it came to the crunch.

For the NCP leader, being on the BJP’s right side is politics. His nephew, former deputy CM Ajit Pawar, could be in trouble if the BJP-led Maharashtra government went all out to uncover controversial deals during his tenure. Former civil aviation minister Praful Patel also attracted unfavourable attention during his term as Union minister. Mr Pawar may be keen to put his party’s recent past behind him with the BJP’s help, while for the latter it’s a matter of saving a key state government.

The party grew in Maharashtra, as well as in Mumbai, in alliance with the Shiv Sena, but has now outstripped its regional Hindutva ally in legislative numbers. This is sometimes very much an occupational hazard in politics. In Bihar, the BJP grew greatly in the company of Nitish Kumar’s JD(U). At the Centre, the saffron party could expand its influence significantly when V.P. Singh’s Janata Dal gave it entry. The Sena is naturally discomfited these days and is perpetually cooking up schemes to unsettle its now senior partner, while the BJP, sensing its vulnerability in not just Maharashtra, is on the lookout for smaller allies.

In Parliament, the Akali Dal and Shiv Sena openly differed with the BJP over the Land Acquisition Bill, on which the Narendra Modi government staked so much, putting the saffron government on the backfoot, and it appears their equation isn’t exactly tight on other issues. Currently, when the Modi government is once again in the eye of the storm due to Hindutva-initiated cultural wars and scores of writers and creative personalities are on the warpath, Akali Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Gujral has denounced the killing of a Muslim villager by a Hindu lynch mob at Dadri, and urged the government to move against those creating an atmosphere of communal conflagration.

The Hindutva trouble-makers — and among them are BJP MPs, MLAs and ministers — are not piping down, putting the Prime Minister’s authority in question. Another Muslim has been killed by a lynch mob at Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh, on the question of the “holy cow”. Can the NCP sustain its wooing of the BJP in the present atmosphere? Can other friendly parties continue to remain steadfast?