The Hollywood mogul, Howard Hawkes, had a very simple formula when he was in doubt about the popular potential of a film. He would shout, “Bring on the dancing girls.” He claimed that the formula never failed. The Bharatiya Janata Party seems to have taken a leaf out of Hawkes’s book. In a crisis, when its popularity is under the shadow of a cloud, the BJP brings on Mr Narendra Modi. The results of the exit polls have set the cat among the pigeons and created a flurry of panic within the BJP and its allies. The results suggest that the National Democratic Alliance may not secure a majority in the 14th Lok Sabha or it might just scrape through with a wafer-thin majority. Suddenly, the BJP spin doctors have woken up to the reality that India is not shining and the so-called feel good factor is non-existent. These results and their extrapolation have left the BJP leadership in some kind of despair. The NDA’s campaign was led by the prime minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, himself. The deputy prime minister, Mr L.K. Advani, traversed the country on his motorized rath to rouse support. But these efforts have not fetched the desired results if the exit polls are to be believed, as the BJP obviously does.

Faced with what it sees as an electoral debacle, the BJP has called in Mr Modi to carry out an eleventh-hour rescue act in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state. Mr Modi’s track record is written in blood. He and his regime are both implicated in the Gujarat pogrom, but he also masterminded a massive electoral triumph in Gujarat after the violence. Many have linked Mr Modi’s electoral success to the violence. This record has made Mr Modi India’s number one Muslim-hater. He is seen as the extremist face of the BJP whose advocacy of violence for political ends is in sharp contrast to Mr Vajpayee’s moderate views. It will not be unfair to suggest that Mr Modi will play the anti-Muslim card in UP; it is, after all, the only card he has. The BJP has thus fallen back on what it sees as a winning formula. By summoning Mr Modi to campaign in UP, the BJP has brought back Hindutva, which in Mr Vajpayee’s utterances and policy statements had been relegated to a position far below those assigned to development and governance.

The importance thrust upon Mr Modi is fraught with significance. It means the end of moderation and modernization within the BJP. It signifies the return of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to a position of critical influence on the BJP. It suggests the return to religion and communalism on the agenda of the BJP. Mr Vajpayee represented an experiment within the BJP: to break away from the RSS, to represent India and not just Hindus, to tailor politics towards furthering economic reforms and good governance. Mr Modi’s success in UP will spell the end of this experiment. Mr Modi’s presence in UP as a key campaigner shows that the BJP has not abandoned its saffron robes for an attire more suited to a modern and liberal world. The BJP believes that its core ideology of Hindutva is not only its ideological pivot but also its best vote-catcher. The election results of UP will determine not just the composition of the Lok Sabha but also the future direction of the BJP.