BJP ... On its way down?

Wed Jun 8 2005, 8:30 pm

Have received various comments about my post on Lalu Land. Some said don’t write about politics but how long can you keep the topic away from someone whose destiny (read janampatri) reads nothing but politics!

Been in bed all day battling a bout of severe infection. And to keep me company was Mr. L.K. Advani, President, Bhartiya Janta Party (no electricity here so don’t know whether his resignation has been accepted formally). Every channel I switched to all I could see was India’s high profile politician being coaxed into withdrawing his resignation and talks of the future of the BJP, the only party if at all which provided some sort of competition to the Nehru Gandhi clan, the Congress.

Lets just go through the sequence of events that led to this turmoil.

The Trigger:

Advani (moved to India from Pakistan post ’47) goes on a week long visit to Pakistan. He visited his school too amongst other places. He must have felt the same way I did when I went to Vincents last week. Is asked to inaugurate the restoration work of ancient temples. During the speech he quotes Jinnah verbatim in which Jinnah envisioned Pakistan being a secular state. Mind you this was not Advani’s remark. It was a quote.

What got reported:

Indian media goes all out saying Advani calls Jinnah secular. Pro Hindu outfits like the Sangh Parivar and the VHP go in a frenzy. Mass protests mark Indian streets with effigies being burnt all around.

The Reaction:

Advani returns after 3 days and resigns from the post of the President of the BJP. No questions asked. All he said was his statements were quoted out of context.

The BJP all of a sudden has now realized that it is without any person whom they can look upto as a leader.

What next? BJP leaders make a beeline outside Advani’s residence asking him to reconsider. All of a sudden, Advani finds himself in the midst of people who claim that he did not say anything wrong. Frantic calls are being made to Vajpayee and other senior leaders. But where were all these people when Advani was in Pakistan and there were all round protests back home in India? Did it take a resignation for them to show their support and solidarity towards the senior most man in the party after Vajpayee.

Meanwhile, the BJP’s troubles have worsened. Its an irony that they are actually supposed to be celebrating their 25^th year! The humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha last year and in almost every subsequent assembly election the BJP badly needed to get its act together. And this is not what the doctor ordered.

This could read good news for the party’s second rung of leaders (Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Pramod Mahajan and the likes) who have been trying to break into the top leadership of the party for many years now. But none of them command the same amount of respect and stature as that of Advani or Vajpayee. With Bihar elections looming large the party is desperate to have Advani back.

The party also needs to get its ideological position right. The BJP has always been looked upon as a pro Hindu party and that’s how it will always be. Any attempts to portray themselves as secular or pro minority are simply a waste of time. As a result the BJP has strained relations with old time supporters as well like the RSS, Shiv Sena and the VHP without having gained much ground on the secular front either.

Could this be the downturn of the BJP, the party that in my opinion actually put India on the road to progress … you never know. Meanwhile the Congress which underwent similar turmoils before Sonia Gandhi stepped in is enjoying every bit of it. This is politics, and in India it’s a little bit more.

-S