By Srinivasan K. Rangachary
Is Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) different for its inherent contradictions or a party with differences? This is plaguing the principal opposition party ever since installation of Nitin Gadkari as president ordained to rule by the RSS headquarters at Nagpur. It is misfortune of the Hindutva brigade that within its fold there is no Atal Behari Vajpayee, who could reconcile warring factions. Lal Krishna Advani, the senior most leader in its rank has been sidelined. Moreover, Advani is not a charismatic person to command loyalty of rank and file.
The “party with a difference” is mired in deep trouble on many counts. As the main opposition, it was expected to tear into a beleaguered Congress what with a plethora of scams and the price rise issue being presented to it on a platter. But alas, the party has failed to cash in on them.
The recently concluded BJP national executive in Mumbai, rather than offering people its programme as a credible opposition, turned out to be a public relations disaster with internal dissensions coming out in to the open. Overall, it all but showed the BJP’s continued inability to regroup itself and emerge as an effective alternative.
With the Lok Sabha elections just two years away and several state assembly polls — many ruled by the BJP — coming ever earlier, the party was expected to show a united face. What transpired at the national executive was the opposite.
Party workers and followers were shocked to find veteran leader L. K. Advani virtually boycotting the public rally held after the meet. Sushma Swaraj too stayed away from the rally, but offered an unconvincing explanation for her absence later. Also, Advani was conspicuously missing when the meeting endorsed Gadkari’s second term.
Their absence — party leaders found it hard to defend — was deemed to show their dissent at Nitin Gadkari getting another term as party president. They were also said to be “sulking” over the strong arm tactics of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who turned the national executive into his show the moment he arrived.
Modi — loved and hated in equal measure by as many people outside the party as inside for his go-getter image, egocentric style and lack of team spirit — virtually stormed the executive meeting. He received, according to a senior MP present at the meeting, a rock star-like welcome with several party chief ministers, MPs, MLAs making a beeline to receive him at the entrance.
The three-time Gujarat CM entered the scene only after he extracted his pound of flesh. Modi had virtually boycotted the event demanding resignation of his bete noire Sanjay Joshi as member of national executive. To save his own face, and desperate to secure another term as party chief, Gadkari succumbed, seeking the resignation of his confidante.
Over the last few years, the BJP national executives have made news — mostly for the wrong reasons. Modi himself had boycotted the one held in Delhi last year to protest Joshi being appointed party in-charge in the Uttar Pradesh elections. It was at the party’s silver jubilee celebration and national executive in Mumbai in 2005 that copies of a sex CD mysteriously made their way in, purportedly showing Joshi in compromising position with a woman (it was subsequently proved to be doctored). That led to resignation of Joshi from all party posts. He was rehabilitated in 2011 when Gadkari drafted him to the executive.
Advani had made no effort to clarify his absence at the Mumbai rally. However, his May 31 blog gave vent to his feelings: he talked of the “mood” within the party being not upbeat and some decisions like handling of Jharkhand (Rajya Sabha polls) and Karnataka (alleged corruption by B. S. Yeddyurappa) undermining the party’s campaign against corruption. People were disappointed with the BJP, he quipped, adding, “the situation calls for introspection.” Being a senior leader, Advani was making a rare criticism of his own party leadership.
As UPA’s troubles are mounting, the party which dreams of capturing power at the Centre should have been boasting of a strong central leadership. But the Mumbai fiasco and the happenings in recent weeks in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh, point to the contrary. In this respect, the BJP is clearly way behind Congress, where the decisions taken at 10-Janpath (residence of party chief Sonia Gandhi) remain unquestioned. Often, the BJP high command is found wanting when it comes to quelling rebellion in the states.
The pre-eminence that the party central leadership enjoyed through former prime minister A B Vajpayee — Advani combine till about 2004, is completely missing now.
The poor show in the recent assembly elections and some questionable decisions such as admitting scam-tainted former minister Babu Singh Kushawaha, who was thrown out by then ruling BSP into the party and making Uma Bharti as head of campaigning in UP, have not shown the leadership in good light. The party will now have to face elections in key states such as Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh this year and Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh (it is now ruling in all these states) and Delhi next year.
Can the BJP emerge as a credible alternative to the Congress? It does not appear so at the moment in the absence of a clearly defined programmes, the lack of ability to attract potential allies and paucity of a strong, inclusive leadership. The party has a long way to travel if it dreams of returning to power at the Centre. INAV