Pragmatism bordering on unprincipled pursuit of power

Humility does not come naturally to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Playing boss in coalitions and alliances is intrinsic to their nature.

After 2014, as Modi’s popularity soared and the BJP’s stranglehold on Indian polity became tighter, the number of meetings with alliance partners declined steeply. Policy decisions in government were seldom made after consultation with ministers from the coalition parties in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Some allies, including the BJP’s oldest — the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Shiv Sena — parted ways but the BJP juggernaut remained unbothered and did not change its ways. Even after inducing the split in the latter in June 2022, it stuck to the same strategy, and did not consult the Eknath Shinde group before admitting Ajit Pawar’s group of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) into the coalition.

Consequently, if, and when, the BJP reaches out to other leaders and parties, especially those either outside or on the periphery of its ideological fraternity — as is being done by it on July 18, it suggests that the saffron party ‘needs’ them. In fact, this meeting comes after a series of overtures the party has made to others and reflects the realisation that the BJP on its own may not have the electoral wherewithal to secure a comfortable majority one more time in 2024.

Electoral alliances are transactional for Modi, and seldom there are any great ideological bindings. Witness, for instance, its long now-on, now-off relationship with the Janata Dal (U) and its leader Nitish Kumar. Political ties between the two were shadowed by personal animosity between Modi and Kumar, starting from the days when the then Gujarat Chief Minister began emerging as a pan-Indian leader.

This was paradoxical for a party steered by Modi, more Hindutva-driven than the BJP had ever been during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee years.

During an interaction while working on his biography, I asked (in 2012) him if he was not worried that the number of BJP’s allies had dwindled from what used to be the case when the party was leading the NDA government at the Centre under Vajpayee. He said alliances “[it] will depend on the winnability of the BJP. If allies become confident that by associating with the BJP their chances will increase, they will more seats — they will come and join us. But if they think that [the] BJP will become a burden and that we will be able to save a few seats by going it alone, then they will not join hands with us.”

Modi spoke about the response of other parties. But when the BJP reaches out to other parties and accepts terms set by it, it means that the shoe is on the other foot — it is the BJP which needs new allies more, however minor it may be. This is important, because the BJP is an astute party and does not usually miss the minutest detail. Pragmatism bordering on unprincipled pursuit of power is clearly the party’s mantra now.

Its senior Maharashtra leader and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently confessed to not being a practitioner of “100 per cent ethical politics. But this is necessary because only if you remain alive in politics, can one pursue ethical politics of some sort.”

 After beginning the year in the pole position, the BJP leadership is a shade jittery after opposition parties began redoubling ways to maximise one-on-one contests in 2024. The BJP’s worries are also indicated by its decision to not just line up many parties within the suddenly revived NDA, but also to hold its conclave on the concluding day of the Bengaluru meeting of opposition parties. Quite clearly, the BJP leadership scheduled the NDA meeting on the same day to ensure that the Opposition conclave does not become the sole talking point of the media and in social media discourse. By adding parties to its attendee list, the BJP has consciously bettered the numbers on the other side. In a conspicuous role reversal, it is the opposition that has set the ‘agenda.

But in its efforts to forge the widest electoral alliance, the BJP risks getting entrapped in contradictions. On the one hand the party appointed political leaders who have come outside the saffron fold and thereby are not as enthusiastic about Hindutva. This is particularly true regarding the appointment of Sunil Jakhar and Daggubati Purandeswari as state unit presidents in Punjab, both of whom have come from other parties.

But on the other hand, the BJP is pursuing core Hindutva policies — the push for the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) being the latest. Several of the BJP’s present and former allies have opposed the move on the UCC. This is particularly true of regional parties from the North-East and even the SAD and Telugu Desam Party (TDP). To compound its woes over this initiative, even the RSS-affiliated Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, which works among the tribals and is among the oldest RSS-linked organisations, has asked for the tribals to be exempted from the proposed UCC.

The BJP’s declaration that the July 18 meeting is a work in progress is also indicative of its assessment that the party has much to do before it can feel confident of sewing up electoral alliances nationally. But to be able to achieve, the party must moderate its stance on issues that make potential allies jittery. Fadnavis’ plea for pragmatism cannot be only when reaching out to other parties and leaders. It must be accompanied by more accommodative policies and inclusive politics.

In the absence of an overarching national narrative as in 2014 and in 2019, the BJP feels the need for smaller allies and this realisation points to the limits of Modi’s perceived popularity.

(Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a Delhi-based journalist, is author of ‘The Demolition and the Verdict: Ayodhya and the Project to Reconfigure India’. Twitter: @NilanjanUdwin.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.