Beyond politics, battle for Barmer is about honour

In 2009, Jaswant Singh —foreign, defence and finance minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government, founder member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and member of the highest body in the party, the Parliamentary Board — was stripped of the primary membership of the BJP (only to be reinducted a year later).

The proximate reason for the expulsion was Singh’s evaluation of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, considered the father of Pakistan, in a book authored by him. The book was termed ‘adulatory’ of a hate object of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and was slammed by large sections of the BJP, most specifically, Narendra Modi, then Gujarat chief minister.

However, as Jaswant said during a press conference hours after his expulsion, it was unlikely that any top leader had read his book. So a complex of other reasons worked against him. One was the role he played in Rajasthan’s politics as a vociferous critic of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he contested as an Independent from Barmer and lost to BJP candidate Sonaram Chaudhary. While Jaswant was expelled from the BJP for the revolt, his son, Manvendra, was suspended from the BJP's primary membership for campaigning in support of his father and against the party’s candidate.

Once again, all the feelings of hurt, rage and pride have come bubbling up. Jaswant has been ill and tended lovingly by his family, especially Manvendra. In his village, Jasol, people have not forgotten how ceremonial opium tasting, an important Rajput ritual, was used as an opportunity by the Vasundhara Raje government to slap charges under the Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act against J as want and the clan leaders who attended the ceremony.

Sheo, an assembly constituency in the Barmer Lok Sabha constituency, is currently represented by Manvendra, who was elected to the Rajasthan assembly in 2013 amid a BJP wave. He has now quit the BJP, citing the insults to his father and clan by the BJP’s leadership and is preparing to contest the Barmer Lok Sabha constituency.

In a recent interview, he was asked why he had resigned from a party that he and his family had been associated with for more than four decades. He said: “First, the way my father had been illtreated by the party leadership from 2014. He was denied the Lok Sabha ticket despite the fact that he was a four-time Lok Sabha MP (and five-time Rajya Sabha member). Despite dedicating his entire life to the party, he was sidelined in the most derogatory manner.

“Second, I wasn’t given the Lok Sabha ticket from Barmer.

“Third, my supporters and I have been continuously targeted and hounded by the state BJP unit. My house (in Barmer) was surrounded by a section of BJP workers and, ruckus was created.”

Barmer, on the edge of the Thar desert, shares part of the border with Pakistan. The Muslims in the area look up to Jaswant, especially after his efforts to open the Khokhrapar and Munabao rail link between India and Pakistan that serve to unite separated families. Little wonder that issues like the lynching of Muslim men and repeated assertions that Indian Muslims must prove they are nationalists are incomprehensible to leaders like Jaswant and Manvendra. Barmer is developing rapidly because of hydrocarbon discoveries. It is now prized real estate and a business opportunity for land sharks.

The battle for Barmer is not going to be easy. Although Manvendra’s is not the lone voice raised in criticism of the BJP government in the state, the caste complexion in the region is such that the Jats and the Rajputs, the two dominant communities, are usually at odds with each other. In 2014, Jaswant had lost to Chaudhry, a Jat, who crossed the floor to the Congress but returned to the BJP before the 2014 election. But this time around, the state government is facing criticism from both the Rajputs and the Jats for a variety of reasons. Barmer could throw up a surprise in May 2019.

Manvendra has quit the BJP citing insults to his father and clan by the BJP’s leadership, and is preparing for the Lok Sabha polls from Barmer