BJP vs BJP
By Poonam I Kaushish
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. This truism has come to haunt the ‘Party with a difference’ aka ‘Party with differences’ as never before. Whereby, it hit a self goal from being a mascot for anti-corruption to a talisman for the corrupt resulting in BJP vs. BJP. The tragedy is that it has none but itself to blame!
How else should one explain the rationale behind the BJP inducting Mayawati-Ministerial discard Babu Singh Kushwaha indicted in the Rs 4000 crore National Rural Health Mission scam in UP. Which has torn asunder the Party’s anti-sleaze plank and is threatening to mar its poll campaign in the State with senior leaders from Advani, Jaitely, Swaraj, Uma Bharti et al verbally beating President Gadkari to a pulp for allowing parking slots to corrupt leaders and turncoats.
True, one can argue that in UP’s high electoral stakes with the Congress and BJP jostling for the number three and four slot, the Party desperately needed to shore up its caste combinations and Kushwaha who represents the Most Backward Castes (Mauryas and Koeris) fitted the bill.
Yet it only exposed the BJP’s desperation to stand up and be counted. Given that the upper castes are beginning to get disillusioned and are even thinking of going back to the Congress. Heightening the Saffron cadres disquiet is the direction-less and disillusioned Party in complete disarray. The confusion at the top has percolated down to the rank and file. In most States the Party’s organizational abilities are in doldrums. Factionalism and personal allegiance to various leaders is the touchstone of today’s BJP. Gone are the days of Brand BJP—collective leadership as opposed to individual control.
Part of the BJP’s quandary is its fallacy of what it stands for. What is the core of the Party? Is it Hindutva or being an all-inclusive right centrist Party? No one knows. Not the leaders, nor its cadres. Ironically, a Party which carried forward the reform process today resembles a moribund and regressive organization.
Look at its opposition to economic reforms like FDI in retail and in foreign policy vis-à-vis Indo-US ties. Forgetting that its Prime Minister Vajpayee brought about a thaw in relations with Washington during his reign. Today the Party accuses the ruling Congress of playing into the hands of the US Administration. In Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has taken two steps backwards by banning selling and eating of beef (buffalo meat) in the State. Those caught will have to face a 7-year jail term. Worse, in its eight years of rule the State’s growth rate is lower than Bihar, West Bengal and UP with laws like this. Any wonder that it has failed to attract investments and create jobs.
This is not to say that the BJP does not have modern leaders. Some of the best examples of governance and reform emit from its ruled State. Two of its Chief Ministers Chhattisgarh’s Raman Singh and Gujarat’s Modi’s are lauded by even their arch rivals. In Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh is running a food subsidy scheme which has earned accolades from even Maoists and their sympathizers.
Modi has been consistently numero uno on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s best Chief Ministers list since 2004. Not only is he the most economically progressive leader with the State boasting 24-hour electricity, agricultural growth sans subsidy, but is connected 24×7 to all his district collectors. Significantly, he has become the role model for ally Janata Dal (U) Nitish Kumar in Bihar and surprisingly Mayawati in UP.
Sadly, despite this the Party has not been able to brand and sell itself to the intellectuals and the well-heeled, continuing to be more in sync with the trader community. What is more worrying is that the BJP has acquired the debilitating features of the “Congress culture”. Internal rivalries, lack of organizational abilities, local resistance to sitting legislators and its overdependence on “negative vote” emotionally secured. Today, both Parties have come to be perceived as ‘aik hi thali ke chatet batte.” Confessed a leader, “Unfortunately, na to Congress ke pas danav hai, na hamare pas devta.”
What of the future? Undoubtedly, testing times lie ahead for the BJP. Time for it to ask whether it can afford to make the big leap by being all things to all people. How does it continue to be a cadre based party and yet widen its support base? Balance the RSS inflexibility and authoritarian ideology when real politik demands flexibility in ideas and winning the confidence of divergent social groups?
The confusion is evident. One section is of the opinion that the Party needs to revive its ties with the RSS and the Sangh Parivar which enabled it to reach the pinnacle of power. Without its active support, this section feels the BJP can never hope to fare well. Yet for Gen Next leaders harking back to Hindutva is anathema. Resulting in aspirational maelstrom.
With elections to five State Assemblies looming large the task of rebuilding and rejuvenating is all the more challenging. Not only its credibility but also grappling with a loss of seats and vote share, even in States considered to be its strongholds. Thus, to redeem itself the BJP needs to stop pussy-footing and build the morale of its disillusioned cadres.
As a senior leader analysed: “We have no doubt come to stay as an alternative. Even so, the stakes are very high. If the Congress loses, it loses nothing. However, if we lose humara to bhatta hi baith jayega. Pura safaya ho jayega”.
All in all, the BJP desperately needs to reinvent itself and recast its Hindutva moorings into a modern right-of-centre internationally liberal-minded grouping along-with a USP to market itself to regain credibility and behave as a responsible and effective Opposition. It has to desist from taking short cuts for its survival and embark on a new reform road with an inclusive agenda. Perhaps, evoking Vajpayee’s leadership seen as one of India’s tall leaders might help add a few seats but it is no substitute for a national new-vision agenda. (INFA)