The show cause notice issued by BJP chief Amit Shah to the controversial member of Parliament, Sakshi Maharaj, who had recently implored Hindu women to produce at least four children each so as to protect Hindu religion, has come not a day too soon.
Such obscurantist views voiced in public at a time when Parliament was in session were bound to be latched on to by elements inimical to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, like the Congress, the Janata Dal (U), the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Trinamool Congress. That they became a pretext for the Opposition to ruin an entire session of the Rajya Sabha was deeply regrettable.
The implication of Sakshi Maharaj’s statement was that Muslims were multiplying at a much faster rate than Hindus, endangering the numerical superiority of the latter and the only solution for the Hindus was to produce more children. What effect the ensuing population explosion would have on the country’s well-being seems to be of no concern to a demagogue like Sakshi Maharaj.
Loose talk has become the hallmark of such elements. Earlier, it was Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti who had stirred up a hornet’s nest when she used derogatory language to describe the ensuing electoral battle in Delhi.
She was publicly reprimanded by Modi and a warning was held out to other partymen to refrain from disturbing the communal balance and to stick to the development plank that the Prime Minister had espoused during the Lok Sabha electoral campaign and subsequently in Assembly elections in some states.
However, when Sakshi Maharaj came up with his outrageous comments, Modi and the BJP high command in general were unhappy, but chose to keep mum for fear of his considerable clout.
Many supporters had lent their support to Modi, based on promises of development and employment generation, not for Hindutva.
Now, with the Delhi assembly elections approaching, the BJP has perceived that it is losing ground to the Aam Aadmi Party and a section of the BJP supporters is gravitating towards it, fearing that the BJP is returning to its radical Hindutva agenda.
It was then that the BJP decided to take on Sakshi Maharaj, to stem the disenchantment of the middle class with the party. But for that, it needed to neutralise the tacit support of the RSS which was not out of tune with Sakshi Maharaj.
With some cajoling, Modi and his key ministerial colleagues got the RSS to agree in principle that elements like Sakshi Maharaj needed to be reined in if the Congress and other opposition parties were to be prevented from walking away with the advantage. Modi also threw in his desire to hang up his boots if such indiscipline continued. That had the desired impact.
It was then that Amit Shah was given the green signal to crack the whip.
Almost simultaneously, the high-profile ‘ghar wapsi’ programme, that had led to allegations that the Modi Government was playing to a communal agenda, rather than sticking to its development plank, was shelved. Modi made his thoughts on the issue clear at a meeting of party MPs, where he said there should be no dilution on the government’s focus on development. He has since followed it up with taking up the ‘Make in India’ programme at investors’ meets, like the Vibrant Gujarat Summit.
So far, Sakshi Maharaj is in denial mode. He is maintaining that he has not received the show cause notice and that the notice, in any case, is a matter between him and the party and the people at large have nothing to do with it. As for public perception, a lot would depend on whether and how Sakshi Maharaj reacts to the notice.
The BJP high command will need to stand firm if the middle class voter is to return to the BJP fold in substantial numbers. Any show of weakness would damage the reputation of the Modi-led BJP and affect the party’s fortunes in the long run.
The Delhi elections will be a test of how the BJP is faring in public perception—of whether it has bounced back in public esteem or it is still plagued by a high degree of skepticism, which could escalate.
The party will also need to keep the cadres in good humour and to dispel any impression that it is backtracking on its core values. That would require a tight-rope walk which would require careful strategising.
The Congress continues to be down and out, but its nuisance value is considerable. It will seek to put a spoke in the BJP’s wheel at every stage and the challenge for the BJP would be to keep going forward despite all the efforts of the Congress to sabotage its development and a forward-looking economic agenda.
The ragtag combine of Opposition parties could prove a non-starter as it has on some earlier occasions, but knowing that the Modi raj could spell its doom if they allow their egos to come to the fore, they seem determined to put up a common front, suppressing their personal agendas at least for the time being.
All said and done, the BJP’s conscious effort to return to an inclusive agenda is the only wise way to go forward. But in addition to inclusiveness, it will need to break new ground in furthering its economic agenda.
With the high expectations that the party had fuelled, it is time that it got down to a fresh round of economic reforms soon. There is indeed no substitute for that.
