The ‘Bhartiya Janata Party’, the Nation’s principal opposition Party, faced yet another setback after it suffered a miserable defeat in all the three States that had gone to the Assembly polls recently. The Congress, despite its shoddy governance, won. So what exactly went wrong for the BJP?
The writing was clear on the wall during the last Parliamentary elections when the BJP plummeted to its worst tally since its meteoric rise about a decade back, but the bigwigs in the Party just refused to read. While the BJP moved from one crisis to another, Advani, the “Bhishma Pitamaha” of the Party, continued to hold sway to his throne, unwilling to resign on moral considerations. So much for being a politician with principles. Perhaps he will continue till the party disintegrates. Come to think how - just a few years back - the situations were reverse. The Congress were in the doldrums, caught in the bribery scam, the Telecom scam, the Power scam and scam after scams. The BJP thus became the next in thing, the “Fashion Statement” for the masses but how the tides change. The “Party- with- the- difference” failed to make a difference. On the one hand they gave the Nation riots, regression and violence and on the other hand they launched the “India Shining Campaign”. A cruel joke played on the Nation. Running with the hares on the one end and hunting with the hounds on the other. What an irony of sorts. Today, there is virtually a huge disconnect between the Youth and the BJP. Searching for young faces in the BJP who can capture the imaginations of the youth is akin to searching for a needle in a haystack. Contrast that with the Congress today who can boast of a plethora of youthful leaders. Young leaders like the Gandhi siblings Rahul & Priyanka, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, and so many others who are suave, dynamic articulate and intelligent, who the youth can look up to but who do the BJP have? Rahul Mahajan (yuck!)? While the World is surging ahead at a rapid pace, the BJP is still caught in its “Hindutva” ideology, an ideology that wishes to drag India back into the dark ages. Moreover, Hindutva for the BJP is synonymous with upper caste dominance. Apart from giving the backward leaders token representations in their party, the BJP has done virtually nothing to bridge the divide between the upper and the lower sections of the society. Little wonder then that the backwards hardly vote for the party. The BJP’s interpretation of “Hindutva” too is skewed. For the party, “Hindutva” is not about opening the temple doors to the backwards, it is not about eliminating the caste divisions in the society, it is not about giving the pride of place to the women in our society. “Hindutva” to the BJP is all about banning Films and books, smashing and vandalizing Art galleries, driving pioneer Artists like Hussain into exile, banning supposed vulgar forms of music, opposing minorities and their cultural practices, acting like the moral policemen on anything and everything under the sun, the list will go on. When Manmohan Singh spoke some time back how he was worried about the crisis in the Opposition ranks, the BJP instead of acknowledging the honorable Prime Minister’s noble gesture chose to snub him. The 3-0 defeat should serve as an eye-opener to them. The party badly need dynamic leaders who can deliver. Perhaps Manohar Parrikar at the top will be a good choice. While the Congress talks about ‘IT’ and ‘Chandrayaan’, the BJP are still talking about the “Rath yatras”. While the citizens want to talk of ‘Bijli’, ‘Sadak’ and ‘Paani’, the BJP are still talking about Advani. If the principal opposition party does not undergo a fundamental change in its approach, a paradigm shift in its ideology, even the “Phoenix” will rise from the ashes but not the Party. The choice before the Party is therefore pretty clear. Either it can grow by re-inventing itself on modern secular liberal principles or it must perish. There is no third alternative! Cheers Sandeep
