In 1980, when the former Jan Sangh was in the process of breaking away from the Janata Party and being rechristened the BJP by Muhammad Currim Chagla, a relatively unknown woman politician from the Janata Party trenches had famously chuckled, “Aap Bharatiya hain to antarrashtriya kaun hain (If you are Indian, who is international)?”
Sushma Swaraj has come a long way since then, herself becoming the international face of the BJP. Today, the party is looking for a leader or, rather, the RSS is looking for a leader for it. Yet, the affable, attractive and rabble rousing Sushma is not in the running.
Sushma’s politicization, self-confessedly, stemmed from association with the ABVP. The RSS ideology of patriotism and nationalism impacted her deeply. When the BJP struck out independently in 1980, she remained a member of the Janata Party in deference to her husband’s commitment. She finally joined the BJP in 1984 as a reaction to Syed Shahabuddin’s Muslim India campaign in the Janata Party.
Her joining the BJP was acceptable to her husband, she says, because of similarities between the party and the Lohia Socialists. She felt that both Deen Dayal Upadhyaya of the RSS and Ram Manohar Lohia were keen to develop a closer bond between the two parties. Yet, now, when the BJP needs someone to keep Upadhyaya’s ideology alive, she feels she is not up to it. So Sushma is not in the running.
Obviously, with an eye on succeeding patron LK Advani as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, she has calculatedly kept out of the contention for party president. This is no sacrifice a la Sonia. It is a deliberate step. Riven by factionalism, the BJP needs more than just a president to infuse life into it after its defeat in the 2009 general election. The party cadre has not enlarged commensurate with the party’s growth in the country, the Atal-Advani era has to be given a decent burial, and so on. Sushma is wisely not in the running.
In the past decade, the BJP has gained rather impressive expertise in political (mis)management. A tendency to take things for granted and inability to gauge the people’s mood and ground realities led to the party leadership and campaign managers ignoring the global meltdown and donning the rose-tinted India Shining goggles. Rather than providing policies for ameliorating the misery of the poor, the Gen-next bunch was in a tearing hurry to reclaim power and feather their nests after being ousted in the 2004 general election. The “Advani as PM” campaign propped him up for ridicule. Party boss Raj Nath Singh axed three stalwarts – Jaswant Singh, BC Khanduri and Vasundhara Raje Scindia.
In a political party, a failed leader is akin to an aged tiger – hungry but unable to hunt. So Advani went on the hunt silently. This is when the RSS stepped in and decided to tighten the reins, ending the reign of the tribe of elders who were bent on perpetuating their hegemony rather than encouraging younger, energetic leaders who think out of the box without deviating from the core issue of Hindutva. But none of the four who have been nicknamed D-4 (as in D-Company) in the party – Arun Jaitley, B Venkaiah Naidu, Anant Kumar and Sushma Swaraj – is favoured by the RSS. Hence, Sushma is not in the running.
For the RSS, the next BJP president should be young, modern, and swear by RSS ideology and not ape the Congress in style. If the BJP is going to be a Congress clone, the people will not return it to power. Stalwarts like Vajpayee and Advani had their way and the RSS was chary of poking its nose into the conduct of national politics. With the Atal-Advani era drawing to a close, the RSS ideologues are becoming assertive and do not want a BJP president who will grow larger than the Sangh. They do not want anyone from the BJP headquarters in Delhi to head the party. One more reason why Sushma is not in the running.
Yet, there was a time when Sushma appeared to embody all they want. In the 1996 election campaign, she was projected as a modern woman in control and the anti-thesis of Uma Bharti and Sadhvi Ritambhara. While they campaigned on the basis of their ideological commitment to Hindutva, with no reference to gender, Sushma made efficient use of the gender factor. Her plus point was that of a woman’s – being patient, not getting provoked and being incorruptible. She emphasized that empowerment of women must take place within Indian tradition. The RSS viewed her as the quintessential Hindustani nari – at once modern and traditional. At the same time, there are those in her party who are embarrassed at her observation of the Karva Chauth fast with media photographers milling around.
Sushma’s political journey has had its ups and downs but she has pursued her goals singlemindedly. After her marriage to Swaraj Kaushal, the couple was smitten by the Lohia brand of Socialism. Kaushal is a fervent Socialist. Socialism brought Sushma in contact with George Fernandes, Chandra Shekhar and others. Her migration to the BJP raised several eyebrows. Yet, now that her moment to take over the party is at hand, the fact that she will have to dance to the RSS’s tune is a deterrent. So Sushma is not in the running.
At 57, she is currently Deputy Leader of the 15th Lok Sabha and the post of Leader of the Opposition should be hers soon. She will then lead the NDA in the 2014 general election and hopefully turn the fortunes of the BJP. The RSS ideologues consider her a leader in the reckoning and the only woman’s face of the BJP. The party can bank on her appeal to women voters who constitute 50 per cent of the electorate. There is no doubt she has been a star campaigner for the party at times. The RSS does not doubt that she will follow their diktat.
As a vibrant Parliamentarian, she can be a thorn in the flesh for the Manmohan Singh government. As Leader of the Opposition, she will be strident and aggressive. Her performance in Parliament could catapult her to a new high in the years ahead. And so the presidentship of a beleaguered party for two years is a small sacrifice to make for Prime Ministership in 2012. Hence, Sushma is not in the running.
The early years
She began her political career as a student leader in the 1970s, organizing protests against Indira Gandhi’s rule. Born in Ambala, she got an LLB degree from Panjab University, Chandigarh. She was a member of the Haryana Assembly from 1977-82 and again from 1987-90. As a Janata Party MLA in the Devi Lal government, she was Minister for Food and Civil Supplies from 1977-79. She was named the Assembly’s best speaker for three consecutive years.
Shifting to the national arena, she contested the Lok Sabha election in 1980, 1984 and 1989 from Karnal but lost each time to Congressman Chiranji Lal Sharma. But she had trained her sights on Parliament and got elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1990. She and husband Swaraj Kaushal were held aloft as the diehard Socialist couple from Haryana who rode the anti-establishment wave during the Emergency. She supported the JP movement and became a part of the Janata Party coalition in 1977.
Woman of substance
Sushma Swaraj has a liberal outlook while remaining steadfast to the party stand. When the Sri Ram Sena attacked pub-going women in Mangalore, she criticized the organization and said her lawyer daughter too visited pubs with her friends but abstained from alcohol. When the Godhra riots occurred, she agreed with Vajpayee that Chief Minister Narendra Modi should go. Yet, when the Opposition called for Modi’s sacking, she was firm that the BJP should not be pressured into it.
She has a facility for languages. When she contested the Bellary Parliamentary seat against Sonia Gandhi, she became fluent in Kannada. That was also how she became close to the Reddy brothers in Bellary. They left the Congress for the BJP. She goes once a year to Bellary to perform the Varalakshmi puja. Recently, she spoke in Oriya at a rally in Orissa. She played a role in resolving the differences between the Reddy brothers and Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa.
But Sushma can also indulge in histrionics. After the NDA lost the 2004 general election, she threatened to shave her head, wear a white saree, live on groundnuts and sleep on the floor in mourning for the nation if Sonia Gandhi became Prime Minister.
