BJPs politics of dualism may backfire

The Shakespearean phrase ‘fair is foul, foul is fair’ can be one way of describing the contradictory nature of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) policies in different parts of the country.

While saffron mobs have been assaulting those suspected of eating beef or transporting cattle in northern India, the BJP's stand in the northeastern states, and also in Goa, is that beef is kosher. When a party spokesman was questioned about this dichotomy during a television debate on the northeastern polls, he used the word, binary, to explain the BJP's stand.

If this duality indicates an acceptance by the party of India's diversity and a refusal to abide by the preferences of the orthodox elements that have had a dominating presence in the party till now, it is a welcome development. This step in the direction of multicultural norms can be seen as an accommodative approach which has not been the BJP's strong point till now although it is the hallmark of all "secular" parties.

However, many people will suspect that this genuflexion towards northeastern sensitivities is no more than an expedient tactical manoeuvre. If the BJP can change its colour once, like a chameleon, it can do so again. It will be advisable, therefore, to wait to see if the BJP is serious or is merely playing political games by trying to pull the wool over the people's eyes.

The reason for the doubts is that irrespective of the policies which the BJP pursues in the northeast, it is unlikely to change its stance on dietary preferences and other lifestyle issues elsewhere in the country. There is also little doubt that it will find it extremely difficult to pull-off the trick of being different parties in different parts of the country without being tied up in knots.

Narendra Modi is lucky in that the BJP has a majority in the Lok Sabha. But the possibility that the party will not be able to fare as well in the next general election and, therefore, may lose some of the seats it won in northern and western India has made the BJP try to make inroads into the virgin territory of the northeast where it doesn't have much of a base.

By Amulya Ganguli