Who is the real leader?-
Even though Sushma Swaraj is going to lead
the party in the Lok Sabha & Arun Jaitley
in the Rajya Sabha, there is still confusion
as to who is the undisputed leader of the
BJP. With the low profile Nitin Gadkari
taking over as the BJP president; party
workers are a bit disillusioned about the
real leadership. The RSS handpicked Gadkari
faces even more difficulties. He has been
handpicked to implement the RSS agenda within
the party, but with the Swaraj- Jaitley
combine trying to adopt the moderate line
of thought, infighting is bound to continue.
The past 6 years have clearly shown that
BJP has failed to work as a collective unit.
The success they tasted in the 90’s
was because they were led by a strong and
commanding leader- A.B.Vajpayee. Vajpayee
was the undisputed leader of the party.
Of course he was never authoritative in
his conduct and always took decisions after
consulting Advani and other senior leaders.
But the hierarchy was very clearly laid
out, eliminating any sort of differences
within the party. But with the current crop,
there are no signs of any unity or cohesiveness.
The ideology issue- After
suffering two back to back defeats in Lok
Sabha elections, the very basic dilemma
the party faces is the ideology issue. The
party rode to power in the 90’s on
the back of right wing Hindutva issue. But
due to a huge coalition, the party was never
able to deliver on that agenda. The Hindutva
story was embraced to an extent in the 90’s.
But the new millennium had changed the mind
set of the Indian citizen. The staunch urban
voter that supported the party in the 90’s
now wanted development & infrastructure
instead of Mandir & uniform civil code.
The party failed to understand the pulse
of the middle class voters which had transformed
over the years. The new Indian voter was
more secular & moderate in its thinking.
And even now the party is confused which
route to adopt-the more inclusive approach,
one based on the development plank cutting
across religious lines or to go back to
the 90’s hindutva plank, which the
voter has already rejected. They cannot
afford to hang in between. They will have
to choose a more forward looking ideology
which is more inclusive in nature.
RSS: Liability or the Guiding force-
The party will have to emphatically decide
the role of the RSS in the new BJP. Will
the RSS continue to set the agenda and have
a say on all the major issues or is the
party now ready to break those shackles
and act on its own given that the party
now has firm roots. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat
has made his intention clears that he wants
the RSS to be the guiding force of the party.
He wants the party to go back to the hard
core Hindutva ideology to make a come back.
The new leadership’s immediate task
is to come out with a clear ideology. The
top leadership will have to be on the same
page if they are serious about reviving
the party. The party needs a complete revamp
both on the organizational & ideological
front. A clear hierarchy should be formed
and it should be made sure that it is followed
by all. The RSS has to be told that the
party wants to work as an autonomous unit.
If it fails to distance itself from the
RSS at least on the political front, it
would be really difficult for them to bounce
back. BJP will have to clearly spell out
the role of the RSS in the new BJP. These
are some tough questions that the leaders
will have to answer; otherwise the party
will fade away in the same fashion as the
Janta Dal party did in the 90’s. Time
for the new BJP to take some tough decision…
It’s now or never…
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