Nitin Nabin is a Madhuri Dixit fan. He may, however, want to listen to Raj, played by Shah Rukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, as the 45-year-old steps into JP Nadda’s shoes.
“Jindagi ke har mor par tumhe do raste milenge, ek sahi, ek galat (you will find two ways at every turn in life—one right, one wrong)” Raj was telling Simran’s (Kajol) mother what his Pops (Anupam Kher) had told him. The wrong way is very easy, but it will eventually lead to failure; the right way is very difficult, but it will ultimately lead to success.
That was reel life, and Raj was romancing. In real life, for the BJP’s national president, there is nothing like ‘galat’ or wrong way, which will fail. He is already a winner. Now, he knows ‘Uparwala jab deta hai toh chhappar phar kar deta hai’—when the Almighty gives, he gives in abundance through the roof. Nabin also knows the ‘uparwala’ who has given him more than he could dream of. The easiest way to show gratitude is to sing Bryan Adams to that uparwala—“I’m going one way/your way/it’s such a strong way.”
JP Nadda did exactly that. He survived and thrived. Nabin can do the same. It would, however, be a convenient, not ‘sahi rasta’. He doesn’t have to be ungrateful, but he can still do a lot of things that are right for the party. As it stands, a lot of his colleagues are unhappy. His selection means the end of the road for an entire generation of leaders. With a 45-year-old at the helm, those born before the Emergency will have to fight for their relevance and growth in the organisation nationally.
Doubtful authenticity
Many of them are already struggling with the idea of how to address the new party president— bhai saheb/Nitin ji/Nitin bhai/Nabin babu/Sir/Mahoday? Many apocryphal stories are doing the rounds in party circles. One of them is about how Nabin has been reaching out to Union ministers as part of a familiarisation exercise and how he got upset when he was put on hold before some ministers came on the phone. Another story revolves around how senior party functionaries have had two meetings to ensure that Nabin is accorded the respect that is due to a party president.
That many other, more deserving leaders, with proven organisational, political and electoral skills and experience, were ignored to bring in a virtual rookie as their boss hasn’t gone down well with them. Disciplined soldiers as they are, and also knowing whose decision it was, they remain silent and glum. Scratch the surface and their frustration comes out: what’s the reward for merit or work in the BJP? What’s the difference between the BJP and the Congress when even the most vital decisions are made by just one or two individuals alone? Promote youth but not at the cost of merit and experience, they say.
Nabin must be aware of the crushed toes, the broken ambitions and the wounded pride in his party. He must not do what Rahul Gandhi did when he became the All India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of the Youth Congress and the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) in 2007. The Congress leader took his appointment as an opportunity to try to get rid of the old guards, triggering a chain reaction from which the party hasn’t recovered since then.
Nabin’s first test is to convince his party colleagues that he wasn’t chosen for the top post because Nadda should look better in retrospect. He should be looking to surprise them. It’s nobody’s case that he should do it by defying the uparwala. Because the uparwala knows the best about politics and elections. Nabin can do it by becoming the uparwala’s sounding board, not a stenographer, and the link between the top and the rest in the party. There is a growing disconnect between the top party leadership and the karyakartas because the latter only get instructions from the top and are then left to fend for themselves. Visit the BJP headquarters in Delhi on any normal day and check out how many karyakartas and leaders are there to meet national office-bearers. It’s mostly deserted.
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‘BJP forgets workers after polls’
The other day, I was asking someone working for the BJP in West Bengal about its poll prospects. He was confident that there is very strong anti-incumbency against the Mamata Banerjee-led government. The BJP would sweep the urban and semi-urban areas at least if people come out to vote. I wondered why they wouldn’t.
“Who would guarantee their safety if the BJP doesn’t win?” he asked. And he went on, “Forget about the voters, even BJP workers are scared because they know that the party forgets about them after elections, and they have to think about their own safety. The party doesn’t even provide legal help to workers against whom FIRs are lodged.” From West Bengal to Karnataka to Kerala, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other BJP leaders talk about the killing of BJP workers by political rivals. They forget about it soon after the elections. Campaigning in the 2018 Karnataka Assembly election, Shah repeatedly talked about the killing of over 24 workers of the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. “Once we are in power, we will ensure justice,” he declared.
The BJP did come to power in Karnataka after some time, but Shah had forgotten about those victims by then. One can’t probably blame him. He has too many things on his mind. BJP karyakartas would love to see Nabin taking interest and showing initiatives in issues like this. That will go a long way in winning him his party colleagues’ respect.
The big question is how actively he will engage with the RSS. He is not the RSS’s choice as the BJP president. The Sangh was given his name as a fait accompli—for information, not confirmation. It has come to terms with the fact that its ideological protégé, the BJP, doesn’t want its advice in running the organisation or the government. As RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat says, there can be matbhed (difference of opinion) but no manbhed (heart-to-heart difference) with the BJP. Also, the Sangh has only benefited from its former pracharaks running the country.
Having no say in the new BJP president’s appointment has, however, left a sense of helplessness and despair in the Sangh. The Sangh knows that the BJP is its “mazboori” or compulsion today and even blames the Congress for it. RSS outreach wing chief Ram Lal did as much during an interaction with Muslim intellectuals in New Delhi last week. Responding to a query about the RSS always supporting the BJP, Ram Lal said, “Mai Congress ke logon se milta hoon or kahta hoon jab tak aap Sangh ko gali dete rahoge, hum BJP ko support karte rahenge…aapko support kaise karein…aap support mango to sahi? Sangh ki majburi aapne BJP bana di hai (I meet Congress members and tell them that as long as you keep abusing the Sangh, we will continue to support the BJP… How can we support you when you are not seeking our support? You keep insulting us. You have made BJP a compulsion for the Sangh).”
Ram Lal was the BJP’s longest-serving national general secretary (organisation), holding the post for 13 years until his return to the RSS in 2019. He knew what he was speaking. As someone closely associated with the RSS summed it up to me: “With Nabin’s appointment, No. 1 & 2 sent an unambiguous message to the Sangh: Aap toh shakha chalao, baaki hum chalaa lenge (you run your shakhas; we will do the rest).”
For someone who has the best interests of the BJP in mind, Nabin can’t afford to be indifferent to such feelings of desolation in the RSS. Individuals may come and go, but institutions like the RSS and the BJP will remain. Nabin would do well to make Nagpur his first port of call.
DK Singh is Political Editor at ThePrint. He tweets @dksingh73. Views are personal.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)