The Bharatiya Janata Party’s embarrassment, on how to deal with members of the Margdarshak Mandal during the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections seems to have been compounded with questions being asked on whether stalwarts such as Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi would be re-contesting from their respective seats. Senior leaders, however, are reluctant to predict how things would unfold, but it appears unlikely that if both the BJP founders decide to throw their hat in the ring, there would be any impediments to their candidacy.
The BJP is in a crisis of sorts, and thus has to use every available resource to bail it out in the electoral arena, where it faces the prospects of taking on a rejuvenated and energised Opposition in states, where last time it had managed to reach saturation point. Soon after Atal Bihari Vajpayee passed away, the Sangh suddenly decided to resurrect him, and larger-than-life hoardings of him were put up during party conclaves. Vajpayee was hailed as a very tall leader, whose respect for the nation’s institutions was monumental. It was no secret that he drew inspiration from India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who had in his initial years introduced him to the rudiments of parliamentary democracy.
Vajpayee’s style was all-inclusive and his political idiom never deviated from moderate thinking. His acceptability was immense—as was illustrated by the glowing tributes he received from even his fiercest opponents following his death. For the present day BJP, which is obsessed with OBC politics, Vajpayee was a prominent Brahmin face, whose appeal cut across caste barriers, with his own community priding themselves over his achievements.
Going by the posthumous exaltation given to Vajpayee, there are signals that the BJP leadership would like to venerate both Advani and Joshi while they are still active. There is no doubt that the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combination has been a most successful duo, leading the BJP to political victories. However, Advani’s role remains uncontested in building the party, brick-by-brick, from a mere two seats in 1984 till the present day. He showed the way forward for others to follow. Referred to as the “Hindu Jinnah”, Advani was unmindful of the description, as he got down to the task of giving direction to a rudderless BJP, which was confused between Jan Sangh’s ideology and the demands of modern day politics.
It was Advani, who by countering the Mandal strategy of V.P. Singh, by embarking on a Somnath to Ayodhya Rath Yatra, ushered in Kamandal politics, while pulling out the plug on the Janata Dal government, which had come to power with the support of the BJP and the Left parties in 1989, following the Congress defeat in the wake of the Bofors controversy. Although it was Vajpayee who ultimately became the Prime Minister, yet it was Advani who controlled the organisation and laid a sound foundation for its growth. Had it not been for the Jinnah fiasco in May, 2005—when in a bid to transform himself from a hawk to a dove—he paid flourishing accolades to the Qaid-e-Azam, Advani would have continued to be in the pole position of Sangh politics. This was his undoing, though it should be noted that there is hardly any leader in the BJP hierarchy who has not, at some stage or the other, been mentored by him.
Advani has been low on confidence ever since he was relegated to the Margdarshak Mandal, and has been inquiring from his well-wishers whether he would receive the party ticket from Gandhi Nagar, when it should be in his hands to take the decision. BJP sources believe that he would want to pass on his political legacy to his daughter, Pratibha, though some in the current dispensation would want his son, Jayant, to receive the nomination. The call ultimately would be Advani’s, and if ignored, it would show the BJP in dismal light.
On the other hand, Murli Manohar Joshi, who in 1977 made his Lok Sabha debut from Almora, enjoys tremendous respect in the Sangh Parivar. During his one term as BJP president in the early 1990s, Joshi had attempted to put the party back on ideological rails, given his own deep commitment to the values and programmes of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. In fact in 2017, the RSS had wanted him to become the President of India—an instruction that was paid no heed to by the BJP central leadership. It was on account of his being ignored that the RSS and the BJP’s relationship became temporarily strained.
In addition, he is the most acceptable Brahmin face of the BJP in general, and if the party has to secure upper caste votes in UP in particular, it simply cannot afford to overlook him, unless he himself opts out of the contest. Besides Almora (now in Uttrakhand), he has won from Allahabad, Varanasi and Kanpur in the country’s most populous state. Indications are that he is bent upon contesting from Kanpur, and it would be in the larger interest of the party that he should be allowed to do so in a battle that is bound to be viciously both twisted and tricky. The BJP would need his political acumen to face the uphill task.
Although the Margdarshak Mandal was created to sideline strong senior leaders, yet it is obvious that the party has committed a colossal mistake. The BJP, on the eve of the 2019 showdown, should recognise this reality. Between us.