Bihar loss & image woes

It is more than 10 days since the Bihar Assembly election results were declared, but the Bharatiya Janata Party continues to be in ferment. The humiliating defeat suffered by the party remains the subject of animated discussion among the BJP rank and file while voices of dissension refuse to be silenced. There is still no word on a formal introspection to pinpoint the reasons for the party’s rout, but BJP members have been lining up before their ideological mentor — the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh — to give their side of the story and detail the reasons for their loss.

There is total unanimity among them that the party paid a heavy price for the arrogance displayed by its senior leaders and ministers who completely ignored local workers. Angry members apparently told the RSS bosses that after the party’s unprecedented victory in the Lok Sabha elections, its ministers had deluded themselves into believing that they were in the same league as Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Taking a swipe at their seniors, they s aid, these ministers had even amended the popular election slogan “Har Har Modi, ghar ghar Modi” to “Har ghar Modi”. Bickering aside, few fingers are rising to point in the direction that the blame really lies.

Having come out in open support of Nitish Kumar months before the Bihar Assembly elections were called, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was the first to confirm that she would attend his swearing-in ceremony in Patna last week. Given the impressive line-up of leaders at the function, it was predictably dubbed as the beginning of a national anti-BJP front. However, the inner contradictions in the formation of such a front came to the fore in the run-up to the grand programme.

After giving her consent, Ms Banerjee apparently had second thoughts when she learnt that Mr Modi had also been invited. With West Bengal Assembly elections due next year, the Trinamul Congress leader was wary of being seen on the same platform as Mr Modi. Ms Banerjee was relieved when she was told that Mr Modi had declined Mr Kumar’s invitation. But she was soon beset with doubts when she realised that her Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury and Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar will attend the function . Trinamul Congress insiders maintain that Ms Banerjee kept everybody guessing about her trip as she was constantly changing her mind. Eventually, the chief minister cancelled an important programme in Purulia in order to attend Mr Kumar’s oath-taking ceremony.

The newly-elected Congress legislators from Bihar recently discovered that despite his gentle and soft demeanour, veteran party leader and AICC treasurer Motilal Vora is no push-over. The Bihar MLAs had assembled in Delhi a day before Mr Kumar’s swearing-in ceremony last week for a meeting with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. Since they were keen to get back to Patna the next day, in time to attend the grand oath-taking, they requested Mr Vora that the party pay for their air tickets as they could not afford the high fare. But they had not bargained for the party senior’s tough stand.

An unmoved Mr Vora told them that there was no reason why the party should pay their airfare now that they had won the election and some of them could even become ministers.

The Bihar legislators were taken aback, clearly unaware that it is extremely difficult to persuade Mr Vora to part with money. With the party facing a serious resource crunch over the past two years, the Congress treasurer has become extra careful with party funds. He has introduced several austerity measures and has even asked party members and state units to hike their contributions to the party kitty.

The otherwise-voluble human resource and development minister Smriti Irani is known to be inaccessible to journalists. But for somebody who shuns press persons, the minister keeps a close tab on what the media is writing about her and her ministry. In fact, her staff has been given the onerous task of scanning every newspaper and television channel for reports and news item on her, however innocuous they might be. Not only does the minister go through the reports diligently, but she also shoots off denials and refutations to the newspapers and channels on a regular basis if she does not agree with the reports. For instance, if a two-para news item from Amethi says that Ms Irani failed to turn up for a particular programme, the minister’s office is quick to send a rejoinder that the said function was not included in her schedule. With bureaucrats entrusted with handling her publicity reduced to sending off denials, it is little wonder that Ms Irani has had a high turnover of officers.

The writer is a Delhi-based journalist