No war? Blame the BJP

While the blogs and the mood on the street might be all for India going to war with Pakistan for what some of its ‘non-state’ actors did to Mumbai on November 26, the real reason why India isn’t going to war is –let me offer you this studied guess- the BJP.
That’s right. The Bharatiya Janata Party is the real reason why India is in no mood to go smashing the face of the next Pakistani they see.
Just think about it. The economy is not doing well. The Congress lost in Madhya Pradesh, it scraped through in Rajasthan, lost big in Chattisgarh and won Delhi but that just has a small row of seats in Parliament.
Its minister’s are not getting any younger- think Pranab and Arjun ‘walking stick’ Singh- and its star campaigners are the likes of Rahul Gandhi whose idea of a good man to man talk with Britain’s Miliband is to show him the stark poverty Amethi is caught up in despite he and his father having represented the constituency for almost three decades now between them. And about P Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh, election rallies are not exactly Economic Times Award ceremonies.
A war- a short quick armed surgery- with Pakistan over the terror camps could see the Congress and Rahul Gandhi on the hot seat faster than you can say Sonia.
So why don’t they want to go for it?
The BJP of course.
Because even if the Congress does worse than what it already has, even if Rahul Gandhi is caught on tape making fun of the Mumbai attacks and even if Digvijay Singh says November 26 was done by Hindu right-wingers to give Muslims a bad name, there is no flying duck of a chance that they would lose the next election as long as the main opposition party responds to the name of Bharatiya Janata Party.
Just when the BJP had silenced Murli Manohar Joshi in submission to accept Advani as PM, the nation’s oldest political fossil Bhairon Singh Shekhawat throws his hat in the ring saying ‘why can’t I be PM. I’m young enough’.
In Delhi, its intra-party feuds cost the BJP a shot at governance despite Sheila Dikshit’s two-term lackluster performance and despite the odds of incumbency stacked against the old lady.
In Uttar Pradesh, with Kalyan Singh walking out on the party and giving his muscles to Mulayam Singh, the party is all but over in Uttar Pradesh.
In Bihar the chaps in the party don’t like Sushil Kumar Modi anymore, and the government of Nitish Kumar has promised more delivered less. Lalu- fresh from all his kudos in the railways- is rearing to be back.
In Rajasthan, its game over. In Punjab ditto.
In Madhya Pradesh the party might get a few seats but not good enough to be at least ten miles of the seat of governance in Parliament.
In Karnataka, the trouble over the Marathis in Belgaum has begun. That fire is going to screw the saffron alliance in Maharashtra as well. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu the party doesn’t count anyway.
So why should the Congress be afraid of it anymore. Probably Lalu did go to some good astrologer when he grandly remarked that Advani’s horoscope does not show any scope for being PM.
So the two best economic brains in the country- Manmohan and Chidambaram- might have decided a war is way too costly to win an election already in the bag. The army’s top brass might have agreed. So they have just decided to let loose Paranabda on the country’s television channels and his job has been earmarked as giving one sound byte a day on the issue which should end with ‘bhee bhill take streectest of akshan aghaynst Phakeestaan’. Gilani back in Pakistan is laughing his guts out because he has come to love Pranabda on TV.
The public is happy because war isn’t funny anyway. Rahul Gandhi is already practicing how to look less goofy when he takes oath for Prime Ministership.
The only man who isn’t thrilled one bit is LK Advani. But can you blame him?