Why is there disquiet within the BJP following the entry of Babu Singh Kushwaha, former BSP Minister in Uttar Pradesh and charged with embezzlement of National Rural Health Mission funds? To answer that question one has to move away from extremes.
For instance, some have suggested compromise with corruption or with tainted politicians is inevitable and a clear sign of realpolitik and pragmatism. This is a decidedly narrow and limiting definition of those expressions. To others, such compromise is an absolute no-no, and long-term and never-ending defeat or opposition status is preferable to coming to power with the help of dubious characters. Typically, the answer lies somewhere in between.
Given the exigencies of politics and the balancing of principles and realism that every party has to undertake, it is difficult to take absolute positions on corruption. A party — every party — has to necessarily take specific positions in specific situations. All things considered, more than moral certitudes a plain cost-benefit calculation determines decisions.
How does the BJP’s decision to embrace Mr Kushwaha measure up against this benchmark? The Kushwaha community is an MBC (the so-called ‘Most Backward’ among OBCs) group that represents four to five per cent of Uttar Pradesh’s electorate. It has a strong presence in Bundelkhand, a region that in 2007 was dominated by the BSP but, as assessments go, is now seeing a keen contest between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party.
Finding itself edged out in Bundelkhand and seeking an MBC or so-called ‘lower OBC’ mascot, the BJP’s leadership obviously felt Mr Kushwaha was a good catch. In the past five years, as a Minister in the Mayawati Government, he has run a patronage network for his community, distributed jobs and other public goods, and so is in a position to transfer some votes.
However, whether fair or not, the fact remains Mr Kushwaha has also emerged as the face of the NRHM scandal. The anti-incumbency sentiment that is worrying the BSP in the State is particularly marked in the case of individuals such as Mr Kushwaha. This has caused even Ms Mayawati to distance herself from him, in a hope that he (Mr Kushwaha) will take all the blame and deflect attention from his former boss. Indeed Mr Kushwaha’s expulsion was seen as a desperate, last-minute measure by the BSP chief.
It is inescapable then that by adopting Mr Kushwaha the BJP has invited the mess of anti-incumbency upon itself — despite not being anywhere close to power in Lucknow in the past five years. It is possible he will help the party win X seats but, equally, it is probable he will damage the party in multiples of X seats. Elections, those behind the Kushwaha initiative seem to believe, are all about the arithmetic of accretion. Unfortunately, they are also — and sometimes much more — about the chemistry of synthesis. Will Mr Kushwaha just add to the BJP’s votes, or will he add to the votes but at the same time lose the BJP the same number of, or more, votes?
This does not mean, however, that the BJP — or any party — can afford to keep an arm’s length away from every discredited politician at all times. Desirable as that may be, it is not practicable. Take the case of Mr BS Yeddyurappa in Karnataka.
Mr Yeddyurappa faces serious charges of corruption and misconduct that have cost him the Chief Minister’s job. He should not get it back till he is cleared of these charges. Nevertheless, it is in the BJP’s interest to humour Mr Yeddyurappa, incorporate him and his faction in the power structure, and cajole and mollify him to the degree possible — without necessarily giving him the Chief Minister’s job.
There is a reason for this. Mr Yeddyurappa’s politics is organic to the BJP. He has built the party in Karnataka. He is a strongman of the Lingayat community, which is the party’s backbone in the State. As Chief Minister, he may have been part of dodgy deals but he also strengthened the BJP, especially in its base in north and central Karnataka, and gave it a new presence in the Old Mysore belt. For all his angularities, if Mr Yeddyurappa is isolated or forced out the BJP will crumble in Karnataka.
Mr Yeddyurappa offers the purists in the BJP — if there are any purists in politics in the first place — a genuine dilemma. In recent years, the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy (‘YSR’, as he was known) offered the Congress a similar dilemma. The Reddy clan’s wealth creation and crony capitalism were downright brazen. Yet, YSR was an effective Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and had more or less converted the State Congress unit into a personal enterprise. If the Congress threw him out, he would have taken the entirety of the party with him.
So what is the difference between the Kushwaha and Yeddyurappa episodes? Mr Kushwaha is not organic to the BJP; he is an external product. His presence or absence is not critical to the BJP’s survival in Uttar Pradesh. In Mr Yeddyurappa’s case, a party pillar developed distortions. In Mr Kushwaha’s case, the BJP is inviting home somebody else’s distortion.
The BJP is not alone in succumbing in such a manner. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, the Congress was in search of a suitable Muslim candidate for Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. It could have chosen any of a dozen people but for some reason opted for Mohammed Azharuddin, India’s former cricket captain, banned for life for taking bribes and fixing matches. Why make an MP of a man who at the end of the day sold his team and country for wads of notes? How would South Africa have responded if a mainstream political party had sought to nominate Hansie Cronje, also guilty in the same cricket match-fixing scandal, to Parliament?
At their essence, the Kushwaha and Azharuddin examples are not very different. Of course, precedent cannot be equated with justification. The BJP cannot get away with exonerating Mr Kushwaha just because the Congress did similarly with Azharuddin and several others. For that matter, the Congress cannot get away with bargaining with YS Jaganmohan Reddy, son of the late YSR, and offering to gloss over his CBI cases should he merge his rebel party with it. Such a deal would be even murkier than the BJP’s one-night stand with Mr Kushwaha.
Why is there disquiet within the BJP following the entry of Babu Singh Kushwaha, former BSP Minister in Uttar Pradesh and charged with embezzlement of National Rural Health Mission funds? To answer that question one has to move away from extremes.
For instance, some have suggested compromise with corruption or with tainted politicians is inevitable and a clear sign of realpolitik and pragmatism. This is a decidedly narrow and limiting definition of those expressions. To others, such compromise is an absolute no-no, and long-term and never-ending defeat or opposition status is preferable to coming to power with the help of dubious characters. Typically, the answer lies somewhere in between.
Given the exigencies of politics and the balancing of principles and realism that every party has to undertake, it is difficult to take absolute positions on corruption. A party — every party — has to necessarily take specific positions in specific situations. All things considered, more than moral certitudes a plain cost-benefit calculation determines decisions.
How does the BJP’s decision to embrace Mr Kushwaha measure up against this benchmark? The Kushwaha community is an MBC (the so-called ‘Most Backward’ among OBCs) group that represents four to five per cent of Uttar Pradesh’s electorate. It has a strong presence in Bundelkhand, a region that in 2007 was dominated by the BSP but, as assessments go, is now seeing a keen contest between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party.
Finding itself edged out in Bundelkhand and seeking an MBC or so-called ‘lower OBC’ mascot, the BJP’s leadership obviously felt Mr Kushwaha was a good catch. In the past five years, as a Minister in the Mayawati Government, he has run a patronage network for his community, distributed jobs and other public goods, and so is in a position to transfer some votes.
However, whether fair or not, the fact remains Mr Kushwaha has also emerged as the face of the NRHM scandal. The anti-incumbency sentiment that is worrying the BSP in the State is particularly marked in the case of individuals such as Mr Kushwaha. This has caused even Ms Mayawati to distance herself from him, in a hope that he (Mr Kushwaha) will take all the blame and deflect attention from his former boss. Indeed Mr Kushwaha’s expulsion was seen as a desperate, last-minute measure by the BSP chief.
It is inescapable then that by adopting Mr Kushwaha the BJP has invited the mess of anti-incumbency upon itself — despite not being anywhere close to power in Lucknow in the past five years. It is possible he will help the party win X seats but, equally, it is probable he will damage the party in multiples of X seats. Elections, those behind the Kushwaha initiative seem to believe, are all about the arithmetic of accretion. Unfortunately, they are also — and sometimes much more — about the chemistry of synthesis. Will Mr Kushwaha just add to the BJP’s votes, or will he add to the votes but at the same time lose the BJP the same number of, or more, votes?
This does not mean, however, that the BJP — or any party — can afford to keep an arm’s length away from every discredited politician at all times. Desirable as that may be, it is not practicable. Take the case of Mr BS Yeddyurappa in Karnataka.
Mr Yeddyurappa faces serious charges of corruption and misconduct that have cost him the Chief Minister’s job. He should not get it back till he is cleared of these charges. Nevertheless, it is in the BJP’s interest to humour Mr Yeddyurappa, incorporate him and his faction in the power structure, and cajole and mollify him to the degree possible — without necessarily giving him the Chief Minister’s job.
There is a reason for this. Mr Yeddyurappa’s politics is organic to the BJP. He has built the party in Karnataka. He is a strongman of the Lingayat community, which is the party’s backbone in the State. As Chief Minister, he may have been part of dodgy deals but he also strengthened the BJP, especially in its base in north and central Karnataka, and gave it a new presence in the Old Mysore belt. For all his angularities, if Mr Yeddyurappa is isolated or forced out the BJP will crumble in Karnataka.
Mr Yeddyurappa offers the purists in the BJP — if there are any purists in politics in the first place — a genuine dilemma. In recent years, the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy (‘YSR’, as he was known) offered the Congress a similar dilemma. The Reddy clan’s wealth creation and crony capitalism were downright brazen. Yet, YSR was an effective Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and had more or less converted the State Congress unit into a personal enterprise. If the Congress threw him out, he would have taken the entirety of the party with him.
So what is the difference between the Kushwaha and Yeddyurappa episodes? Mr Kushwaha is not organic to the BJP; he is an external product. His presence or absence is not critical to the BJP’s survival in Uttar Pradesh. In Mr Yeddyurappa’s case, a party pillar developed distortions. In Mr Kushwaha’s case, the BJP is inviting home somebody else’s distortion.
The BJP is not alone in succumbing in such a manner. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, the Congress was in search of a suitable Muslim candidate for Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. It could have chosen any of a dozen people but for some reason opted for Mohammed Azharuddin, India’s former cricket captain, banned for life for taking bribes and fixing matches. Why make an MP of a man who at the end of the day sold his team and country for wads of notes? How would South Africa have responded if a mainstream political party had sought to nominate Hansie Cronje, also guilty in the same cricket match-fixing scandal, to Parliament?
At their essence, the Kushwaha and Azharuddin examples are not very different. Of course, precedent cannot be equated with justification. The BJP cannot get away with exonerating Mr Kushwaha just because the Congress did similarly with Azharuddin and several others. For that matter, the Congress cannot get away with bargaining with YS Jaganmohan Reddy, son of the late YSR, and offering to gloss over his CBI cases should he merge his rebel party with it. Such a deal would be even murkier than the BJP’s one-night stand with Mr Kushwaha.
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