Is BJP in need of surgery..?

There was climate change in India this summer, but not in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Its defeat in the assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh was a forgone conclusion.

Nothing was expected to change in the short span of five months since May when Manmohan Singh government was voted to power. The Congress and its allies have won the Assembly elections not because of any charismatic leadership, but because of the BJP’s lacklustre attitude, to the chagrin of its sympathizers.

After the Lok Sabha poll results, top brass of the BJP behaved perversely. Instead of making a bold attempt to share the damage jointly, they went haywire. Instead of damage-control measures, the beleaguered party indulged in witch-hunting and blame-game.

One fails to understand what went wrong with the BJP, once the only ‘party with a difference’. What was its rationale behind seeking explanations and resignation from stalwarts who had rendered a yeoman service to the party and held responsible positions?

They include former chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia. She was asked to resign as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly on flimsy grounds. In a similar vein, Maj Gen Khanduri was asked to make way for Ramesh Pokhriyal as Uttarakhand chief minister. Naturally, there was defiance. Some other senior leaders were reprimanded.

Those asked to ‘behave’ or ‘quit’ have contributed a lot in the development of their respective regions. Party President Rajnath Singh asked for trouble, for nothing. He should have stoutly faced the emerging situation. He should have been sagacious rather than dictate terms and conditions. Many party veterans were humbled. Essentially, there was no need to serve ‘memos’ and ‘explanatory’ notes, which had the tendency to demoralize the party cadre at the grass root level.

Such drastic and hasty decisions changed the political scenario in favour of the Congress, resulting in BJP’s waterloo. The situation after the poll debacle ought to have been handled with care. The outcome was a joint responsibility.

Vasundhara Raje raised a very pertinent point in her letter to Party President Rajnath Singh while ‘honouring’ his diktat that she should quit as leader of the opposition in Rajasthan assembly. She reminded him that the BJP has had crushing defeats in the Lok Sabha elections even in the past. ‘Was the leader of the Opposition changed’, she asked and wondered when it was never felt necessary previously to take action against the leader of the Opposition, ‘why now’?

Raje was constantly hunted down, leading to her defiance. The reasons for defeat in Rajasthan should have been discussed threadbare and lessons drawn. When the party was still grappling with the situation, on the heels of the Lok Sabha poll, such action against senior leaders was unjustified. Ostensibly as such, these avoidable actions affected the conduct of the October poll.

Conflict has been growing between the BJP and the RSS on the periphery of the internal squabbles in the BJP. Of late, the RSS Chief Mohan Baghwat has lamented that the “Party (BJP) is grappling with a life-threatening ailment” that needs nothing short of drastic surgery”. Even he has reportedly remarked ‘chemotherapy’ to prevent BJP’s ‘demise’. The on-again, off-again conflict between the RSS and the BJP is not a healthy sign. Obviously, Baghwat made these remarks following Raje’s letter to the BJP President, contents of which were made public through the media.

There is merit in Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa’s suggestion that the BJP High Command should espouse ‘youth-centric agenda and not lose sight of alliance politics in the country’. He was in fact referring to Haryana, where the BJP failed to hammer out an alliance with like-minded parties, and in fact walked out on long time ally, the Lok Dal of Om Prakash Chautala, which made the Congress run for its money in the assembly elections. But if these suggestions are taken as ‘defiance’ to Rajnath Singh’s so-called ‘gag order’, as he appears to have done, well it is high-handedness of worst order.

The wrangles at the top have affected the BJP- ruled states as well. In Madhya Pradesh, where Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan believes that ‘development alone is Hindutva’, the party failed to espouse the cause of farmers and the poor. These sections are not even aware of BJP’s symbol. The party needs to be in synch with the needs and aspirations of the masses and not a fringe that thrives on emotional and often retrograde issues.

The BJP has lost because it has failed to highlight the miss-governance of the ruling party, especially in Maharashtra, where it could have managed to stage a comeback. It could have easily exploited the differences between the Congress and its ally, NCP in the United Democratic Front government has ruled the state for a decade. The main opposition remained paralyzed and busy in resolving its own mess.

Raj Thackeray played his own game and spoiled the chances of the BJP-SS, which showed hardly any concern about rising prices of essential commodities. People living below the poverty line are the worst sufferers. They constitute nearly 38 per cent of the population because of the growing gap between the rich and the poor.

The Congress-NCP rule also saw lot of discontent among farmers, the nation’s backbone. Rampant corruption, unemployment, erratic power supply and various civic issues were crying for attention. Dry spell prevailing in Maharashtra has offered yet another talking point.

If there was Raj Thackeray to split the Sena votes, so there was the so-called third front, to the disadvantage of the Congress. There is no doubt the BJP suffered in the absence of Pramod Mahajan. More than anything else, the BJP was hit by the ongoing tussle between Raj and Uddhav Thackeray for opposition space in Mumbai. Regional politics has its limitations. The BJP as a national party cannot afford to give even lip-sympathy to chauvinistic politics, like Maharashtra for Maharashtrians.

For survival the BJP must come up with a dynamic leadership and make the best of its youth force.

- Asian Tribune -