Bangalore Literature Fest: The old BJP was more civil, says Saba Naqvi

Bengaluru: Journalist-turned-author Saba Naqvi has seen politics up close as a reporter. “There has always been ups and downs in the relationship between the government and the media, but the times we are living in now have turned it into a life-threatening exercise,” she said during a panel discussion on the comparison between the present BJP government and that of Atal Behari Vajpayee’s, at the Bangalore Literature Fest on Sunday.

Agreeing that journalists, after working and covering politics for a while, choose their sides and that she has encountered some who resonate with Congress and others who believe in BJP, she said, “but the strong polarisation like now is unprecedented”.

There are two kinds of BJP, the old BJP with Vajpayee in power when she was very active in journalism and then there is the present new BJP with Narendra Modi in power. “The new BJP is ruthless even within itself, because there are no multiple power centres like the old BJP which had Vajpayee, (Pramod) Mahajan and (Lal Krishna) Advani. Today, it has one Modi and that ends the story. My press card gives me access to almost everywhere. Earlier, the PMO was easily accessible, but now no journalist can walk into the Prime Minister’s Office, for Modi leads a very private life,” she said.

Giving an example of the civility of the old BJP, she said that when Robert Vadhra papers came out, the saffron party was in a dilemma, for they saw it had nothing to do with a politician’s professional life and was clearly a family matter. It was only when the AAP took up the issue that the BJP seconded it, she said.

Coming back to the present BJP, she said that the RSS has benefitted a lot from Modi and even if he diverges from them, they still don’t question him.