Anita Saluja
It was Congress-Mukt Bharat for the BJP. But now, it seems that the BJP is also keen to get rid of its alliance partners. Gone are the days, witnessed during the Vajpayee era, when the allies were treated with respect and their voices were heard. Now, the communication lines between the two have stopped working, as the BJP alone is in a position to run the government.
Allies, no doubt, are miffed with the BJP. The Shiv Sena was the first to desert the BJP to form the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government, joining hands with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of Sharad Pawar in the state. Last week, on the issue of the farm Bills, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) pulled out its only nominee in the Modi government, Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and later chose to walk out of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The PDP of Mehbooba Mufti was dumped in Jammu & Kashmir, as the BJP prepared to implement the Hindutva agenda of abrogation of Article 370.
The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) of Union Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has signalled that his son and LJP president Chirag Paswan is competent to take any decision with regard to LJP’s continuance in the NDA.
The AIADMK is also unhappy, but is biding its time, as Tamil Nadu Assembly elections are due in early 2021. Until then, the state government needs the patronage of the central government.
The allies are nostalgic and miss the Vajpayee touch. SAD supremo Prakash Singh Badal could dial and talk to Vajpayee and LK Advani to sort out issues. Now, no one takes such calls in the BJP.
For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his first term in office, his late colleague Arun Jaitley was the pointsman for talking to allies. Being from Punjab himself, he knew the pulse of the state and could easily guide the PM. He also happened to be close to Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar and could sort out issues that may arise from time to time.
Jaitley once confided that whenever he travelled to Patna, or Nitish came to Delhi, the JD (U) leader expected a tin of Gopaljee Rasgoolas from the former. Obviously, issues, too, were sorted out in a spirit of bonhomie.
Now, the tragedy is that there is no one to even talk to the allies, let alone addressing their grievances. The Modi-Shah duo seldom talks to the allies. No third person, like Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, or BJP president JP Nadda, has been assigned to talk to the allies. In such an atmosphere, there is no forum for the allies to ventilate their grievances. There is no one to discuss the pending political demands of the allies, take them to the top leadership and get back with some sort of feedback for the allies.
The allies are bitter that the NDA exists only on the paper. PM Modi never held an NDA meeting to discuss policy issues. The allies were not taken on board, ahead of passing the Bills to replace the Ordinance in the brief Monsoon Session of Parliament.
The controversial Bills that replaced the Ordinances are the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020; the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020. The issues worrying the farmers are that they will no longer get paid the Minimum Support Price (MSP). The existing mandis established under the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMC) Act have been excluded from the definition of Trade Areas under the new law.
Ideally, these Ordinances/Bills could have been sorted out in the NDA meeting. But the times have changed. Despite the popular protests by farmers, the allies could not influence the opinion of the BJP on these controversial Bills. The Modi government knew what it was in for and was determined to forge ahead. The manner in which these Bills were pushed through in Parliament showed the determination of the Modi establishment to forge ahead on its chosen path.
The allies are up in arms. Yet, the PM is not rattled. Clearly Modi is taking a calculated political risk to sidestep the allies, with an eye on expanding the BJP footprint across India. He wants to establish the BJP as an all-India party, replacing the Congress that claimed to be the only pan-Indian party.
Who could have thought that BJP could be a coalition partner in the Jammu & Kashmir government? By joining hands with the PDP, Modi made it possible and thus expanded his base in the state. Similarly, he brought the BJP to power in the North-East, when the saffron party stormed to power in Assam and in the Red bastion of Tripura. The BJP is now out to replace the Congress in West Bengal and Odisha as the principal challenger to the ruling parties in the state.
The BJP’s sudden aggression in showing its thumb to its allies is not without reason. The party is no longer in a minority position in the Rajya Sabha to need the help of its allies. Earlier, it needed their support in the Rajya Sabha, where it was in minority, for pushing Bills during the first term of the Modi government. Now, the BJP no longer needs the crutches of the allies and can stand on its own feet in the Upper House. In case, it does need some extra help during the voting in Parliament, there are a handful of friendly-Opposition parties, ever willing to bail out the BJP government.
Having carved out a niche for themselves, Modi and Shah want to expand their footprint all over India. Having played second-fiddle to Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and SAD in Punjab for years together, they are keen to establish the BJP as a strong party in these two states.
With the Punjab Assembly polls due in 2022, the BJP wants to try and expand its base in the northern state, which is not possible, if it continues to cling on to the Akalis. Even in Bihar, once a junior partner of JDU, the BJP is seeking parity with its ally. With the aim of spreading its tentacles in all states, it is natural for the BJP to desert its allies. No one is as confident as the Modi-Shah duo of overshadowing everyone in elections — Lok Sabha or Assembly!
The writer is a Delhi-based journalist.