Modi can no longer control gau rakshaks

Bharatiya Janata Party's electoral performance is greatly dependent on the support of the Sangh Parivar and its overwhelming participation in electoral campaigns.

The Sangh Parivar's support to the BJP is, in turn, dependent on each of its constituents being satisfied with government policies (if BJP is in power) or if it agrees with the pledges made by the party when it is the opposition.

The BJP suffers from double vision. One scenario is seen when it envisions the country, issues and policy from the point of view of ideology. The other spectre is when it sees matters from the perspective of necessity or pragmatism.

The first standpoint has a holier-than-thou characteristic. The second stance is sheepish or apologetic.

Ideology is rarely an accompanist when the BJP is in power, except when it comes to forcing a warped sense of history down of the throats of millions, when forcing culinary choices on people, when beating the hell out of the marginalised who make their living by skinning carcasses, or when insisting that there is only one way of saying, doing or viewing an issue.

Ideology is a bit like a pre-poll promise. Governance is often a post-poll compulsion and thus the awkwardness. This was the case for the previous government almost a decade-and-a-half ago when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was prime minister.

The BJP was signatory to a National Agenda of Governance (the acronym NAG being Freudian in character) when the NDA was formally launched in March 1998. NAG weeded out essential promises of the BJP - Ram Mandir's construction, Article 370's abrogation and Uniform Civil Code's introduction, which were the party's "core issues."

The BJP had arrived at the predicament because of the Ayodhya agitation and by riding piggyback on Vishwa Hindu Parishad. When the saffron front hit a plateau, it relegated the champions of the Ram temple and made Vajpayee, a temple-sceptic, its mascot.

Through the '90s, the BJP was also aided in securing more allies besides the original Hindu Hriday Samrat (Bal Thackeray) because of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch's pursuit of economic nationalism.

Vajpayee ditched the temple plank and dumped swadeshi. The temple, UCC and Article 370, he argued, could be addressed only when the BJP had a majority of its own. Neo-liberal economic policies were pursued by government, his apologists intimated the disgruntled because, in a globalised world, India could not plough a lonely furrow.

Initially, it appeared that it was little but shadow boxing within the Parivar. But in 2004 when the Sangh cadre simply failed to turn up to campaign for the BJP, everyone knew that this wasn't just pseudo-fighting but a real skirmish.

BJP then used to say that the impractical type will come back to support the party because they had no one else to support; the argument has returned.

Someone is now attempting a copy-paste job based on Vajpayee's script. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team of two-and-half aides and hordes of sycophants should turn to their most favoured deity and pray that it doesn't take effect.

The PM's theorem that 70-80 per cent of the gau rakshaks alone are bad is problematic. It's like the discredited Good Taliban-Bad Taliban differentiation. A gau rakshak is a cow vigilante. After all these decades of promoting the cow and its custodians, there is little sense in attempting to differentiate between rakshaks and sewaks.

Moreover, after spewing venom for the most part of his political career (with equations like relief camps = baby factories; all Mians = Mian Musharraf, or the pink revolution jibe) what is Modi's locus standi in accusing others of adopting a rabid posture?

"Till it suited Modiji, he feted us. And, now?" they say.

Till the other day, gau rakshaks were a moniker for those in the Sangh Parivar who, though not working within the disciplinary framework, were insiders and had access right to the top rung. They were marshalled for duty whenever the necessity arose.

Numerous reports have found links, in different parts of the country, between gau rakshaks, love jihadis, kar sevaks and plain rioters.

How can Modiji jettison them, significant sections in the Sangh ask angrily.

The problem lies in the origins of the regime. Modi allowed everyone ownership of the victory. The fringe elements considered it their victory because it was Modi who led the party and used Hindutva symbols wherever he could - not once did he placate the minorities.

The Swadeshi type, despite feeling uneasy, came along after Modi boosted their hopes by announcing support for Dadidra Narayan and committed to following Sangh icon Deendayal Upadhyaya's Antyodaya philosophy - governance for the last man in the line.

Because Modi is a pragmatist he goes only half-way up any tree. In contrast, this sets up the conflict, and the ideologically or emotionally driven - BMS, BKS, SJM, VHP, Bajrang Dal and ABVP etc - want to go right to the top.

For the VHP this means Mandir waheen baneyenge, for the ones on the fringe this means that every action must be a fight to the finish (whether the target is Dalit, Muslim or other marginalised minorities).

Modi is caught in a trap of his own making. Had he drawn the Laksham Rekha earlier, these forces would not have become so ambitious. The tiger has tasted blood and will want more. Its quest for more flesh may even consume Modi unless he pulls a trick or two. Does he have it in him to quell in-house tumult?