Yatras then were the saffron brotherhood’s way of mobilizing support. Advani and Joshi set out on two relatively minor, but far more fateful, journeys from Varanasi and Mathura to reach Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. In the town, they and their fellow Sanghis presided over the mosque’s demolition and the sparking off of riots across the country.

The significance of the choice of Varanasi and Mathura is worth recalling. They were a coded message to the faithful that the Sangh parivar had not forgotten its objective of demolishing these two mosques as well, a goal which used to be constantly iterated by the VHP along with the determination to build the Ram temple in Ayodhya. In recent years, however, all these purported aims are no longer articulated with as much stridency as before. It is hard remember when even the VHP, let alone the BJP, mentioned the need to bring down the Varanasi and Mathura mosques while the temple refrain has become much more muted.

Given the toning down of the rhetoric associated with the BJP in the 1990s, there is clearly something more than what meets the eye behind the sudden outburst of nationalistic feelings over the latest yatra to Srinagar a la Joshi’s two-decade-old venture. It is not surprising that the BJP has been stressing the peaceful nature of the peregrination from Kolkata to Kashmir since the party knows how damaging a re-enactment of Advani’s “riot yatra” of 1990 will be for the party. No one knows the disadvantages of a communal outbreak more than Narendra Modi, who was ostracized from Bihar by Nitish Kumar before the assembly elections.

Instead of targeting the minorities, the BJP’s aim is to focus on the Kashmiri separatists in an attempt to project its nationalistic credentials as opposed to the Congress’s “appeasement” of the pro-Pakistani groups in the valley. It is only a fine-tuning of the BJP’s earlier castigation of the Congress for appeasing Muslims. The point, however, is why has the Hindutva brigade suddenly taken up the issue after so many years ? The fact that the present time is inopportune because of the signs of improvement in the situation in the valley after the stone-pelting episodes of last summer is a different matter.

What is more to the point is that the BJP probably has no option but to choose the present time when it is under considerable pressure on several counts. One is the belief that it may be running out of steam where obstructing parliamentary proceedings is concerned. Since the CPI(M) has said that parliament cannot be stalled indefinitely, the BJP fears that it may face isolation on the subject. There may be internal differences as well which surfaced when Joshi carried on with his probe into the spectrum scam as chairman of the public accounts committee.

Another apprehension in the BJP’s mind probably is the government’s acceptance of the demand for the JPC investigation. In that event, the BJP will be suddenly left without an issue. Even otherwise, the BJP’s anti-corruption plank has been weakened by its own chief minister, B.S. Yeddyurappa’s land deals in Karnataka, which BJP president, Nitin Gadkari, has described as immoral though not illegal. In addition, the BJP knows that it will remain under pressure in the foreseeable future over the cases of saffron terror.

To make matters worse, the Congress may get a marginal boost in some of the forthcoming assembly elections. While its successes are virtually assured in West Bengal and Kerala along with its allies, it has a fair chance in Assam after the reconciliation with the ULFA although Tamil Nadu remains problematic. Given these difficulties, the BJP desperately needed an issue to remain in the limelight and enthuse its cadres. And what better ploy can there be than the familiar card of Hindu nationalism?

Its difficulty, however, is that the times are different from the Nineties. It is no longer easy to whip of passions by a display of patriotic passions as the devaluation of the temple card shows. Besides, it isn’t only the “unpatriotic” Congress which is opposing the yatra, but even the BJP’s own ally, the Janata Dal (United). Both Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav have voiced their opposition to the provocative charade. If anything, the BJP’s latest act will make Jaswant Singh’s task of expanding the NDA all the more difficult. The alliance has dwindled from 24 members when Atal Behari Vajpayee was prime minister to four at present - BJP, JD (U), Akali Dal and Shiv Sena. If the yatra has a violent fallout, the number may drop even more. (IPA Service)