BJP in retrograde

Though the BJP leadership was visibly falling apart even during the course of elections,it was only the poll debacle that brought out prominently its ugly face in full public view.Without serving any show cause notice ,Jaswant Singh having thirty years of association with the party was expelled from the organization for launching his book Jinnnah:India-partition-Independence.Sensing himself next in the line of fire, Arun Shourie lost no time in making the most damaging diatribe against the entire top brass of the party,simultaneously describing the party as ‘Kati Patang’ that had lost all sense of direction and calling upon the RSS to virtually take over BJP for an overhaul of its leadership.The party was accused of fostering a group of mutually projected and mutually protected individuals who had no following worth the name with the masses.At the heart of all this was an ongoing struggle between leaders who provided council to Vajpayee during his tenure as PM for giving a shape and direction to the foreign policy,matters of economic sense as well as chart India’s place in the world order against such leaders who had wrested control of the organization supported by well entrenched factions statedly linked to certain quarters in the RSS.It was in view of this drift that Advani was upped by his supporters as “Lau Purush” presumably in the context of Kandahar episode for his having not concurred in the handing over of terrorists.Though this is now contested by other members of the party.The sidelining of said leaders in the poll process was quite conspicuous .Though this in a way dented the liberal and moderate image acquired during the Vajpayee era and eventually dented the poll prospects of the party to some extent.But soon the party was drifting back to a more hardline approach .Kalyan Singh having a backward class following in Uttar Pradesh was eased out of the party during the course of elections..Varun Gandhi’s most offensive utterances that could inflame communal tensions were not checked.Narendra Modi with a controversial image was projected as future Prime Minister for 2014.In the context of congress then desparately trying to wrest its spacefrom its regional allies and left parties moving away.to the third front,the BJP grew arrogant and snapped its time -tested poll alliance with the Biju Janta Dal that cost it heavily in the poll results.In a sort of power struggle within the party,difficulties were created at organization level for their own Chief ministers in the poll process.Eventually a ‘sure’poll victory gave way to a stunning defeat and the prestige of the leaders suffered.The fiasco could have been avoided if the party had not abandoned internal democracy and issues had been settled through internal debate.After the poll defeat,the sidelined leaders were naturally clamouring for causes of poll defeat and protested that defaulters were being rewarded with plum positions in the organization.The party would therefore have to turn over a new leaf and undergo a change in view of changing global scenario where jobs are going global,businesses are run by multinational companies and world problems are sorted out through diplomacy.With fifty percent of Indian population coming under the age group of below 25 years of age it may not be possible to hold back the people to an old fossilized mind-set.The party may manage to come to power in some states by setting a matrix of castes,groups and communities peculiar to specific states but coming to power at the centre would not be possible with outdated ideas or concepts.It may no longer be possible to win elections by resorting to ‘Rathyatras’, ‘Hindutva’ and ‘Ram Mandir’ which might have once propelled it to power at the centre.The happenings in the party are not so far indicative of any change with regard to its work-culture or policy approach to various problems facing the country and the people may yet only be watching the superficial twists and turns within the organization.