The turn of events cannot but be distressing for a party which has been hoping to pip the Congress at the post in the next general election by exploiting the latter’s loss of political credibility because of the taint of corruption. However, two aspects of the BJP’s functioning have become clear enough to pour cold water on such expectations. One is that the organisation is, in a sense, virtually leaderless because of its inability to find a replacement for its erstwhile No. 1 leader, Atal Behari Vajpayee. As a result, the party currently has a group of squabbling egotists at the top. The other is that the controversy involving party chief Nitin Gadkari has confirmed that it is the RSS, which runs the party, notwithstanding all the formal disclaimers.

These problems have undermined the BJP’s main assertions on corruption and internal democracy. Even before the latest charges of suspected business malpractices against Gadkari came to the fore, the BJP had found it difficult to berate the Congress on the scams involving the latter because the BJP itself was burdened with the unsavoury record of its Karnataka leader, B.S. Yeddyurappa. Now, while Yeddyurappa is threatening to leave the party, the Gadkari episode has compounded the situation for the party because of his high position. If a party president has to step down for alleged venality, the blow to the organization can be crippling.

Hence, the frantic efforts in the saffron camp to prop him up. Gadkari, of course, hasn’t helped his own cause by his propensity for bloomers, the latest being the comparison he drew between the IQs of Swami Vivekananda, an iconic saintly figure, and the Pakistan-based terrorist, Dawood Ibraham. It may be recalled that Gadkari had set off a furore earlier by describing Lalu Prasad Yadav as a canine follower of Sonia Gandhi. For the present, however, it is Gadkari’s business “empire” which has come under a cloud, compelling the higher-ups in the Sangh parivar to nominate a saffronite chartered accountant, S. Gurumurthy, to scrutinize the details. Not surprisingly, he has given Gadkari a clean chit, which is not unlike a similar official exoneration for Robert Vadra, Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, over his land deals.

While much of this is in line with the cynical brand of politics pursued in India, what is worth noting is the alacrity with which the RSS, which is often described as a “cultural” outfit, has come to Gadkari’s rescue. The reason is that Gadkari was its choice for the BJP president’s post in 2009. Moreover, when it selected the then relatively unknown figure from Maharashtra over other better known claimants like Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, it let it be known that the move was intended to cut the Delhi-based leaders down to size apparently because they are less amenable to dictates from the Nagpur patriarchs.

Having been unable to make Vajpayee and L.K. Advani toe its line, the RSS had apparently decided to opt for small-timers from the provinces to be the president in order to maintain its grip on the BJP. But, now its tactics have begun to misfire since both its last two choices – Rajnath Singh, who replaced Advani after the latter’s praise of Jinnah in 2005, and now Gadkari – have proved unequal to the task. As “provincials”, the term used by Jaswant Singh for Rajnath Singh, they are lost in a big city.

For the RSS, the problem is that if Gadkari has to go, it will be hugely embarrassing not only for the BJP, but for the party’s bosses in Nagpur as well. It will no longer be easy for the RSS to control the BJP, as when it stopped Vajpayee from appointing Jaswant Singh as the finance minister in 1998. For the BJP, on the other hand, the cutting of the umbilical cord will be an unsettling experience because it has become accustomed, since its Jan Sangh days, to be guided by the RSS, which gave it some kind of an ideological anchor. Just as the Nehru-Gandhi family acts as a central point of reference for the Congress, without which it will be riven by factionalism, the RSS is the core of the parivar. In its absence, the BJP will be adrift on the stormy political waters. Its condition will be made worse by the absence of a major figure like Vajpayee.

Moreover, the rift between the RSS and the BJP will affect not only these two organizations, but also affiliates like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang Dal, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, and others. The resultant disarray will mean that the BJP will be unable to use the cadres of these outfits during election campaigns. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP will also come under a strain. (IPA Service)