Lalu’s loyalty to secularism is Tejashwi Yadav’s biggest political test in Modi’s India

In 1990, when then BJP president L.K. Advani was carrying out his rath yatra unbridled, it was Lalu Yadav as CM who had dared to stop him from entering Bihar.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav | @yadavtejashwi

Tejashwi Yadav is carrying many difficult burdens — from keeping the Rashtriya Janata Dal, or the RJD, afloat to living up to his father and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s political and electoral success, to attempting to match his oratory skills and people-connect and sustaining the carefully-crafted caste arithmetic. But his biggest burden is carrying Lalu’s legacy of secularism.

Lalu Prasad Yadav belongs to that rare breed of politicians who have refused to have any truck with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ecosystem, even for survival — a fact stated by Tejashwi himself a few days ago.

Most regional parties have, at some point or the other, established a relationship with the BJP, either at the state level or the Centre despite having a bitter rivalry in the past. However, among the major regional parties, Lalu’s RJD has been an exception — besides, of course, the Samajwadi Party. Quite a feat in a country where even the ever-righteous and holier-than-thou Left has stood on the same side as the BJP amid political compulsions.

That, perhaps, has been Lalu’s most defining characteristic as a politician — his steadfast loyalty to the idea of secularism and his aggressive stance against the politics of Hindutva and majoritarianism. Even Tejashwi has, so far, put up a spirited fight against the JD(U)-BJP combine in the run-up to the Bihar assembly election.

Tejashwi playing it unlike Lalu  

Tejashwi Yadav, however, seems to be playing it safe, walking a tightrope on major political issues. The Yadav scion had welcomed the Ayodhya verdict that paved the way for the construction of the Ram temple even as he added his customary caution, saying that the “focus of politics now should be development”. Adopting a safe, very un-Lalu-like stance, the Bihar opposition leader had tweeted: “Honour the judgement of the Supreme Court. Every temple, mosque, gurudwara, Church of the country is ours. Nothing and nobody is alien. Everything is our own”.

On the acquittal of all accused in the Babri masjid demolition case, Tejashwi seems to have kept a safe silence, much like other opposition leaders, who also feel that taking on an issue that might upset Hindus is way too risky in the Modi-Shah era.

In that sense, Tejashwi hasn’t quite played the role of effective opposition to Hindutva politics, although he has done well by making jobs the central theme of his election campaign.

The BJP bug

If you’ve been running an active political party since the late 1980s, it is difficult not to have been bitten by the BJP bug, in some form or the other.

The year 1989 was a watershed in Indian politics, ushering in an era of Mandal rajneeti, opening the floodgates of Hindutva politics, but most importantly, of seeing an alliance quite unfathomable. To support the quickly cobbled up alliance led by V.P. Singh, the Left and the BJP came together, supported by other regional parties such as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Telugu Desam Party (TDP), and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). The aim was to keep the Congress, then led by Rajiv Gandhi, out of power. Imagine this political scenario that brought the Left, which believes in no religion, and the Right, which bases its politics on the very concept of religion, together. There can barely be a better example of how opportunistic, non-ideological and compulsion-based India’s politics has been. The Shiv Sena in Maharashtra with its Maha Vikas Aghadi is a recent example.

Most regional parties from the north to the south, at some point or another, have been on the same side as the BJP, even when they espouse the cause of secularism.

In the south, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and BJP joined hands after Jayalalithaa’s death. Interestingly, it was Tamil Nadu that had helped Atal Bihari Vajpayee in becoming the prime minister, both in 1998 and 1999 — first with the AIADMK and then the DMK.

In Kashmir in the north, both the main regional parties — the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) — have allied with the BJP in the past. From the Shiv Sena in the West to AGP and other regional parties in the Northeast, the list of BJP allies/once-BJP allies is long.

Be it, Mayawati, Sharad Pawar, Naveen Patnaik or Mamata Banerjee — they have all found friends in the BJP at some point or the other.

The odd one out 

Despite being a regional player, Lalu Yadav and his party have never looked at the BJP as an option. Most regional players are quick to form convenient political equations for the want of power, sacrificing on the ideological front. Ram Vilas Paswan and Nitish Kumar have done it frequently.

The Congress, of course, opposes the BJP because that is the only politics relevant to the party’s goals at this point. However, the party has never shied away from flirting with soft Hindutva — be it Rajiv Gandhi’s 1989 Ayodhya shilanyas or Rahul Gandhi’s ‘janeu-dhaari Brahmin‘ card during the 2017 Gujarat assembly election, the Congress is fairly Hindutva itself, and carries a warped notion of secularism.

In terms of alliances with the BJP, a lot has changed in the Modi-Shah era. With their aggression — ‘my way or the highway’ approach — and powerful electoral rise, allies have slipped out of the BJP ecosystem. Many political parties opposing the BJP now are not fighting against the BJP-RSS ideology, but Modi-Shah’s attitude. Vajpayee’s ‘coalition dharma’ attracted far more friends than Modi can. But even in that era, Lalu stayed away from this ecosystem.

In 1990, when then BJP president L.K. Advani was carrying out his rath yatra unbridled, it was Lalu Yadav as Bihar chief minister who had famously dared to stop him from entering the state. Attempting to bring all ‘secular’ parties together, holding anti-BJP rallies and taking on the RSS have been part of Lalu’s fascinating political legacy.

It is this burden that must weigh heavily on his son Tejashwi Yadav who has taken over the reins of the RJD. He may be drawing frenzied crowds at his rallies that have taken everyone by surprise, but upholding Lalu’s secular credentials while still managing to grab power will be his real test.

Sure, he needs to win elections and keep alive the party his father founded. He must prove his mettle by winning power in the state, if not in this election then the next. But, Indian politics needs a party that can resist either being with the BJP or becoming like it, and with Lalu out of active politics, the hole is gaping. If Tejashwi is to carry forward his father’s political legacy, he must make sure he becomes the one to plug this gap.

Views are personal.