Congressification of BJP

Swapan Dasgupta in his latest op-ed hits the nail on the head.

Pramod Mahajan might have his good points, but it was beyond ridiculous on part of BJP to project him as soul of BJP.But this incident taken in context with directionless posturing of BJP after loss in election is symptotic of malaise far greater than current mess up.

In simple words, BJP has simply lost it. As I have said earlier, the rot has set in earlier when it came to occupy power at centre but the glamour of crown helped in embellishing the decreptitude. BJP followed and embraced the same culture of nepotism and endowments that it accused Congress of.

It is a kind of double whammy, BJP squandered the godsend opportunity to occupy the place for centre/ right.

While being a part of coalition meant that it couldn't push through its core ideologies,
it did not make a concerted effort to evolve either. A firm line on security, pragmatic approach to foreign policy and commitment to economic reform would have provided not only a coherent ideological platform but also a resonance with post reform middle class.While during the period it ruled, it did take tentative steps towards reorientation, they fell far short of what was required.

The other shortcoming was the failure to recognize its transformation from a cadre based to mass based organisation and grasp the underlying dynamics.Failure to address both the issues coupled with clash of egos and lure of power essentially hollowed out the core and vitality of the party.

It would not have got any notice but for 2004 defeat, in this sense it was fortunate that NDA lost the elections (thanks to hare brained campaigning and hubris).

What is not fortunate however is that BJP refuses to get a clue.It is still stumbling along the new way, making idols out of Pramod Mahajan and warrior out of his son. Most unfortunate is pathetic attempt of A. B. Vajpayee to brush off the incident as folly of youth. I take serious objection to this attempt at whitewashing.

The way out of this for BJP is not to go back to RSS (which as I noted earlier is woefully out of date), but to go ahead and formalize it position as right of centre political formulation.*

* Unlike majority I do support Ayudhya movement (for mainly emotional reasons), however it can wait. What is more important is to foil the attempts of intellectual (seduced by songs of west) to fragment India into mutually hostile or indifferent demographic segments.

PS M J Akbar writes on culture of money in Indian politics.