India's Deputy PM gains more power

All senior appointments in the bureaucracy, traditionally a carefully preserved prerogative of the prime minister (r), will in future go through Advani's (l) office

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is handing over more and more responsibility to his newly appointed deputy, Lal Krishan Advani.

The appointment of Advani -- a hard-liner in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- is part of a drive to recover from recent electoral setbacks and revive the party's Hindu Nationalist agenda.

The strategy will have its first test in elections of the assembly of the Western state of Gujarat, where there were allegations that the BJP government deliberately allowed Hindu attacks on Muslims earlier this year.

Almost every day there is an announcement that the deputy prime minister has taken over yet another responsibility from the prime minister.

All senior appointments in the bureaucracy, traditionally a carefully preserved prerogative of the prime minister, will in future go through Advani's office.

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He will strengthen his hold over the parliamentary party too by meeting MP's to discuss public opinion about the government in their constituencies. The prime minister has conducted these meetings in the past.

When the BJP first came to power in 1997 at the head of the National Democratic Alliance, it chose Vajpayee as prime minister because he was moderate in his ideology and would not alarm the other members of the coalition with Hindu nationalist policies or attitudes.

At the same time, he was known to be an emollient politician who would be able to sooth the prickly egos of the leaders of smaller parties in his coalition, most of whom are committed to a secular India.

That Vajpayee has certainly done, recovering from the collapse of one coalition to win an election and hold this government together for three years, but the BJP now appears to think the time has come for a tougher line.

In a speech to the BJP Council National Council, Advani reviewed the party's history and indicated that the phase of "Vajpayee's undisputed leadership" was over and another had started in which the party was going to give "a government with a difference."

Although Advani later interrupted the meeting to correct himself and say the Vajpayee phase was continuing, even that "slip of the tongue" didn't prompt the prime minister to counteract the impression in the party and the press that he has surrendered much of his power to his deputy.

According to the BJP's version of history, it was Advani who revived the party's fortunes in the late eighties by leading the campaign to destroy a mosque in Ayodhya and build a temple on the site claimed to be the birthplace of the God Rama.

RSS support

Advani is also known to enjoy the support of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a militant Hindu sect whose ideology underpins the hard-core of the BJP.

The RSS believes that Vajpayee, by failing to implement the party's Hindu agenda so as not to upset his allies, has alienated BJP voters resulting in a poor performance in recent elections to state assemblies.

Inevitably the powerful position Advani now occupies has given the impression that the BJP will be less sensitive to its allies and try to implement Hindutva, as the hard-line Hindu agenda of the RSS is known.

The decision to dissolve the BJP government in Gujarat and hold elections there as soon as possible shows that the party believes the attacks on Muslims earlier this year will be deemed acceptable by voters and that Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has shown little or no sign of regret for those attacks, is a vote-winner.

Advani seems to believe that it was bad governance, not failure to pursue the Hindu agenda, which led to the party's setbacks.

Since becoming deputy prime minister he has spoken time and time again about the need for good governance and he knows that his party has not so far provided that.

Good governance

Hindu nationalism leads to communal tension and the breakdown of law and order. Its relevance to good governance has yet to be demonstrated.

Advani is also aware that the coalition allies in this government cannot be taken for granted, that they have to preserve their independence, and most of them can only go so far down the Hindutva road without hopelessly compromising their secular credentials.

They remain crucial to Advani, just as they have been to Vajpayee, in this government. They will be crucial in the next election, and in the parliament that follows it too.

So Advani may be more emollient and less Hindu nationalist than recent changes in the BJP suggest.

What does seem to be clear is that it is he not Vajpayee, who will now decide what the balance between the Hindutva of the RSS and the demands of the real world of politics should be.