BJP needs to forge an identity of its own

I wish I could believe Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president L.K. Advani when he said at the BJP's conclave that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) with which the party has links had rejected theocracy, the concept of a Hindu state. Then why insist on Hindutva (Hindu nationalism), and not replace it with Bhartvata (Indianness)?

Advani would recall the criticism he had to face after he hailed Mohammad Ali Jinnah as a secular leader on a visit to Pakistan. The RSS literally hauled him over the coals for that. Advani was forced to water down what he said. Not that he made a wrong statement, but the RSS was not ready to forgive the person "who had vivisected the limbs of Bharat Mata [Mother India]."

Advani, I am afraid, may interpret Hindutva differently when he tours the states to explain why the BJP lost these elections. He should realise that the party won in eight states, including Gujarat on the plank of parochialism. Will he reinterpret the victory?

I think the party has once again avoided facing the moment of truth. Surprisingly, it has not struck the BJP leaders that the party is not selling any more because of its divisive ideology. Its Hindutva, soft or hard, is losing its appeal as pluralism gains ground in India. Over the years, India's temperament has become secular.

The crisis that the BJP faces is not that of image, but of identity. The image of Hindutva, despite its limitations, has given the party the recognition it has sought. The new brand does not impart any sharper, popular edge because Hindutva is Hindutva, Hindu in content and appeal.

In due course, the soft Hindutva would assume the shape of Hinduism. The presence of leaders like Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, who has not changed, is a guarantee that it would happen that way. Whatever the explanation on the basis of cultural heritage or nationalism means, it has little relevance when the expression boils down to Hindutva.

Indian Muslims, comprising 15 per cent of the electorate, do not buy this.

Nor does the youth that is attuned to science and technology. They do not feel at home with the language of mandir (temple) or the new word 'inclusive' coined by Advani. They are also Hindu, but they do not feel threatened in a country where they are 80 per cent. The BJP's ploy to play the religion card to garner votes is having diminishing returns.

Where the BJP gets stumped is on the point of identity. The party is intertwined with the RSS so much that it does not have a personality of its own. However liberal the BJP may become, it cannot escape the odium of the RSS philosophy which emanates from Nagpur where some half a dozen persons, never elected by the people or even the BJP members, pronounce judgement on crucial problems facing the country.

The BJP has no cadre of its own and depends on the RSS cadre which includes the Bajrang Dal of anti-Christian fame in Orissa and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of the Gujarat carnage in 2002.

The BJP got a chance to turn over a new leaf when it joined the Janata Party after the emergency (1975-77). It promised to sever links with the RSS. But the erstwhile Jana Sangh members went back on the undertaking given to Gandhian Jaya Prakash Narayan, who led the movement that ousted Indira Gandhi.

Instead, they constituted a new party, the BJP. When the Janata Party was routed in 1980, one of the causes was that the BJP divided the anti-Congress vote. Together the two might have done better.

After the reverse in the recent Lok Sabha elections, I heard some liberal elements in the BJP renewing the demand for going it alone. But in no time they seem to have realised that they do not have the inclination or determination to build a cadre of their own.

The youth can do it if the BJP can attract them more so on its own, not with the RSS which is attracting less of young people at its shakas (camps).

The BJP has not yet done any analysis of the causes of its reverses in the elections. When they met last, there were only harsh words exchanged and inflammatory letters written and leaked out. Had the BJP shed its Hindutva agenda and snapped its relations with the RSS it might have provided a much-needed alternative to the Congress.

If the BJP cannot convert itself into a secular party, it should not hide itself behind soft Hindutva. Its hedging is not going to attract Muslims, liberals or the youth. If it avows Hinduism publicly, it may be more recognisable when it says it is related to the culture and ethos of the people - a way of life.

At present the party has no identity of its own. It is a divided house. How can it retrieve lost ground?

- Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian high commissioner to the United Kingdom and a former Rajya Sabha member.