Analysis: A tale of two masks that slipped

This is a tale of two masks, both of which have fallen off in different parts of the country. The mask which Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has worn with such effectiveness for several decades slipped in the rather unlikely setting of the banks of the Mandovi river in Goa.

The mask which Sonia Gandhi has been wearing ever since she took over as the Congress party's president a few years ago also fell away, again in the unlikely political outpost of Guwahati where she was meeting with her chief ministers.

Vajpayee's mask fell when at a public meeting he took Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's action-reaction theory a step further by suggesting that wherever the minority lived in large numbers, they were unable to live in brotherhood, and that the Gujarat violence must be seen only in the context of the Godhra train tragedy. Sonia Gandhi's mask fell when she told a press conference that in her opinion the prime minister had lost his mental balance.

Predictably, both leaders have denied making the statements for which they have been castigated. Fortunately, in the age of 24 hours television, you can't quite get away with fudging on-record remarks.

The prime minister, for example, has claimed that he was talking of two sets of minorities, only one of which had a jihadi mentality.

Having been present in Goa while Vajpayee was making the speech, and having reviewed the tape, I am afraid Vajpayee's defence rests on weak knees.

The fact is that the entire thrust of his speech was to suggest that the minorities, in sharp contrast to Hindus, were people prone to acts of violence and intolerance, whether they then lived in Malaysia, Indonesia or Gujarat. It was the kind of speech that would have made any saffron-blooded swayamsevak (volunteer) proud.

Sonia has also sought to clarify that her attack on the prime minister's mental health has been misinterpreted. What she meant to say was that the prime minister had a tendency of losing his cool. Having heard the tape of Sonia's press conference, I can assure you that the words used by the Congress party president leave little scope for ambiguity.

Even my seven-year-old son will probably be able to translate her statement and tell you that Sonia had made a direct reference to the prime minister's state of mind.

Indeed, for all their denials, the fact is that both Vajpayee and Sonia have been exposed. The prime minister has been revealed for what he in the final analysis is: a political leader who cut his teeth in an RSS shakha (camp) and who has spent all his life under the Hindutva umbrella.

That he has been projected as a "moderate face" of the Sangh Parivar has been a classic case of political camouflage. In an ideological grouping like the Sangh, the moderate-extremist distinction has little real meaning since when push comes to shove, every swayamsevak has to pay obeisance to the party's ideology, an ideology which sees the minority as the permanent enemy.

Vajpayee's remarks in Goa only reflected his ideological moorings, and all those who are surprised that the prime minister should have spoken out in such a manner might wish to read up on Vajpayee's speech made soon after the Bhiwandi riots in 1970 where he had made similar remarks on the Hindu-Muslim relationship.

As far as Sonia is concerned, the Congress party's spin doctors have worked overtime in the last 12 months to erase her "foreigner" tag, and give the impression of a politician eminently capable of leading the country. Unfortunately, the Guwahati press conference only revealed Sonia's poor communication skills, and her inability to handle the Hindi language in an impromptu situation.

So long as she has a party ventriloquist writing her speeches she might get away with her limited vocabulary, but put her in any situation where she has to show any kind of spontaneity, and she finds herself falling embarrassingly short of acceptable standards.

The dropping of masks means that the country is now confronted with certain uncomfortable realities: on the one hand, we have a prime minister who, even if he genuinely wants to appear statesmanlike at all times, is simply unable to rise above the politics of prejudice and hatred which his party has so artfully practised for several years now.

On the other, we have a leader of the opposition who, while having made some strides in recent months, still prefers to hide behind a veil of secrecy, insecurity, and in some instances, plain ineptitude.

In a sense, the Vajpayee-Sonia equation only magnifies the TINA (There Is No Alternative) factor. How does a country replace a weak and increasingly ineffectual prime minister with possibly an even weaker opposition leader?

The bottomline then is that we have to live with both Vajpayee and Sonia. It may not be the best arrangement, but it is the only one. The way forward is certainly not of doing away with politicians. The better way is to strengthen civil society in the country, those institutions outside the state system who are actually working among the people: citizens groups, NGOs, and voluntary organisations.

If, for example, secularism is to be truly preserved in this country its unlikely that masked leaders will provide a meaningful solution. It is only when those outside the power elite are able to summon the courage to stand up and be counted, that this country will actually be able to move ahead.

The writer is political editor, New Delhi Television.