PM has hurt his moderate image

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, DEC. 7. The most inexplicable aspect of the resurrection of the Ayodhya controversy is why the Prime Minister would want to rekindle a political dispute at this juncture when he and his Government have worked diligently and overtime to manufacture an image of moderation and reasonableness? His ``Ayodhya'' remarks are certainly incongruous to the entire approach towards the minority community as well as towards resolution of the Kashmir crisis.

The only charitable answer is that perhaps Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee got caught in the logic of the ``December 6 ritual'' situation. The demand for resignation of Mr. L.K.Advani (as also of Dr. M.M.Joshi and Ms. Uma Bharti) becomes like a live grenade every December 6, and Mr. Vajpayee did not handle it well yesterday; he let it explode in his face. But today's elaboration at an Iftar party can only be described as confusion aforethought.

The sum total of reactions to the Prime Minister's reaction is a serious erosion of ``Vajpayee-the-reasonable-man-who-has exorcised-himself-of-the-old prejudices''. His friends in the Sangh Parivar are delighted that the ``prodigal'' is back in the family's bosom; his detractors are saying in that ``I-told-you- so'' vein that Mr. Vajpayee was a ``mukhota'' and remains a ``mukhota'' (a mask). There is a definite setback to the consolidation of authority, respectability and acceptability that he as carefully built for himself.

In a way there is nothing new in what Mr. Vajpayee has tried to say in the last two days; the BJP has been presenting the same formulations, more or less, since 1992. The only difference is that today Mr. Vajpayee is the Prime Minister, and his utterances carry a weight and authority which neither the judiciary nor the CBI can ignore. He could have stopped at rejecting the demand for his Ministers' resignation; but decided to say - and later clarify - on the possible solutions to the Ayodhya dispute. As Prime Minister, Mr. Vajpayee does not have the luxury to indulge in such partisanship. One would have that this much he must have realized after his ``swaymsevak'' controversy at the Staten Island saffronite congregation.

The Prime Minister can still argue that he remains bound by the National Democratic Alliance agenda - and, the coalition partners are free to trust his word. But that is only a technical argument. A Prime Minister does not run the country on technicalities, and a Prime Minister who takes a narrow technical view of his office ends up doing grave damage to himself and the efficacy of that office's authority. Mr. Vajpayee would have to undertake serious corrective measures to put the latest Ayodhya remarks behind him if he wants to pursue the economic agenda or mount a peace offensive in Kashmir.

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