The selection of former Congressman Himanta Biswa Sarma as the new Chief Minister of Assam and the election of Trinamool renegade Suvendu Adhikari as West Bengal Leader of Opposition marked the elevation of ‘non-Sangh’ leadership in BJP
New Delhi: Last weekend was a watershed for BJP—the selection of former Congressman Himanta Biswa Sarma as the new Chief Minister of Assam and the election of Trinamool renegade Suvendu Adhikari as West Bengal Leader of Opposition marked the elevation of “non-Sangh” leadership, which has emerged in the RSS-mentored party since the advent of the Narendra Modi era. Sarma, who quit Congress in 2015 protesting that Rahul Gandhi preferred to play with his pet dog rather than listen to his grievances as Congressman, is known for his smart strategising: his management and execution of BJP’s growth story is not confined to Assam, it engulfs the entire Northeast he heads the North-East Democratic Alliance—NEDA, the BJP-led front which dominates the “Seven Sisters”). He replaced Sarbananda Sonowal, a former All-Assam Students Union chief and erstwhile Asom Gana Parishad stalwart. BJP’s footprint in the NE region, which was negligible till 2016, has been routed through the induction of non-Sangh elements who have thronged the party in recent years. Sonowal gracefully stepped down as CM and facilitated the heralding of BJP 2.0 by proposing Sarma’s name in the legislature party. Unlike most parties where transition is not sans hiccups, in Assam, BJP showed exemplary cohesion and unity during the transformation.
The list of former Congress stalwarts who transited to BJP includes N.D.Tiwari, the former CM of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand who headed the breakaway Congress (Tiwari) in 1996, floated by the detractors of P.V. Narasimha Rao with the unobtrusive blessings of Sonia Gandhi (the party dissolved itself in 1998 when Sonia Gandhi began her marathon tenure as Congress President). It includes the progeny of Tiwari’s 1976-vintage bête noire, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna—son Vijay, who was made BJP CM of Uttarakhand and daughter Rita Bahuguna Joshi, now a Cabinet minister in UP. [H.N. Bahuguna was a vanguard lieutenant of Indira Gandhi during the 1969 Congress split: he was removed as CM of UP by Sanjay Gandhi, replaced by Tiwari. He triggered the fall of Congress in February 1977 by accentuating the formation of rebel Congress for Democracy (CFD)—later a fulcrum ally of Janata Party—led by Babu Jagjivan Ram: a minister since Jawaharlal Nehru’s interim Cabinet in 1946, who, in 1975, had moved the resolution in Parliament to give legitimacy to the proclamation of Emergency].
Najma Heptullah—a grand-niece of freedom struggle Congress stalwart, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad—who had been AICC general secretary and Deputy Chairperson Rajya Sabha during her Congress incarnation had been in the first Modi Cabinet of 2014. She now is Governor of Manipur. The CM of Manipur, N. Biren Singh, left Congress in 2016 and joined BJP. Arunachal Pradesh CM, Prema Khandu too transited from Congress to BJP in 2016. The list in NE includes Bhubaneswar Kalita, a former Assam Youth Congress chief and a key minister in the Tarun Gogoi Cabinet, who quit as chief whip of Congress in Rajya Sabha in August 2019, stating that the party is opposed to national interest and is paving its own way for destruction. He joined BJP on 9 August 2019. Same year, a former CM of Maharashtra, Narayan Rane, did likewise and switched to BJP. While Kalita and Rane are in Rajya Sabha, the “one-day CM of UP”, Jagadambika Pal, also a Congress renegade, graces the BJP benches in Lok Sabha. The cross-over of Jyotiraditya Scindia can be described as “home-coming”, considering that his grandmother, Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia, was a founder vice-president of BJP in 1980 and his aunts Vasundhara Raje and Yashodhara Raje are BJP leaders in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, respectively. A.N. Namassivyam quit as PCC chief in Puducherry to join BJP, as did Raj Kumar Chauhan, a Dalit former Cabinet minister of Delhi. Spokesperson Tom Vadakkan’s decision to switch from AICC to being a member of the BJP panel of protagonists is a visual turnabout. 25 Congress MLAs defected with Scindia in Madhya Pradesh; in Goa ten of the 15 Congress MLAs quit to help form a BJP regime. In Karnataka, 14 Congress and JD(S) MLAs backed the B.S. Yediyurappa dispensation. Add to this list Baijayant Panda, scion of an important politico-business family of Odisha, who quit Biju Janata Dal and is now a BJP national vice president, like Mukul Roy, an erstwhile Trinamool stalwart.
Precursor of BJP, Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS) was conceived by RSS supremo M.S. Golwalkar while the Sangh was banned post Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination between 4 February 1948 and 11 July 1949. Hindu Mahasabha leader Shyama Prosad Mookerjee had quit the Nehru cabinet protesting against Congress policies, particularly on Jammu & Kashmir. He met Golwalkar in Nagpur and BJS was launched on 21 October 1951 as a “national alternative to Congress party”. RSS decided to play an unobtrusive role—some of its pracharaks—Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Nanaji Deshmukh, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, L.K. Advani and Sundar Singh Bhandari—were “loaned” to BJS. The practice continues till date. B.L. Santosh, BJP general secretary, is presently on “loan”. His predecessor, Ram Lal, has reverted to duties in RSS, as has his predecessor, Ram Madhav. The template of coordination between RSS and the political party—BJS initially, now BJP—evolved in 1951, continues.
BJS was dissolved in 1977 when Janata Party was formed. The Janata experiment of non-Congress parties collapsed in July 1979 with a split. The issue of “dual membership” of RSS members in Janata Party had rancoured since 1978: after the return of Indira Gandhi to power in January 1980 it flared up. National Executive of Janata Party banned its members from being “dual members of RSS”. Formation of BJP ensued, in which not only erstwhile BJS elements but many Janata stalwarts like Sikander Bakht joined. Former Judge of the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Mohammed Currim Chagla, who had served in Nehru and Indira Gandhi cabinets, declared at the inaugural rally of BJP on 6 April 1980: “who says there is no alternative to Congress? I see the alternative in the form of BJP.” Pointing to Vajpayee, he declared, “The future PM is sitting beside me.” Atal Bihari Vajpayee responded at his poetic best: “Andhera chhatega, suraj niklega, Kamal khilega”. Lotus (Kamal) was adopted as BJP’s election symbol. The rest is history.
Johns Hopkins University scholar and expert on the rise of the “brotherhood in saffron”, Walter Andersen, who had been an American diplomat in India in the 1980s and who had studied in Allahabad University in the Seventies, wondered in July 2014 if under Modi BJP will become “inclusive” and orient itself on the lines of Christian Democratic Parties which dot the political horizon of Europe and resemble a moderately conservative Centre-Right dispensation which espouse Chirstian (Read: Hindu) ethics while advocating for broadly inclusive politics. Nearer home, the Swatantra Party, which was formed by Congress right-wingers and their broad-based allies post the sharp left turn by Congress at the 1955 Avadi AICC session, is an experiment which was short-lived. In 1967 with 44 seats Swatantra was the main opposition, followed by BJS’ 35 MPs.
Will BJP 2.0 emerge as an alternative available to members of national political parties who prefer not to dwell on regional sentiments and remain in the national mainstream?