:: Govind Talwalkar

BJP: Dissent within, leadership amiss

Govind Talwalkar

June.24 : A month after the results of the Lok Sabha elections were declared, most of the Opposition parties are in search of a leader. So far, both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) have avoided any discussion on the causes of the electoral setback and have continued with the leadership which no longer enjoys the full support of the party that they head.

The dissention within the BJP, which is the main Opposition party, has now come into the open. Even before the elections, a section of the party was openly supporting the leadership of Narendra Modi against Lal Krishna Advani. After the poll debacle, BJP leaders Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha found out that the BJP neither has internal democracy nor does it accept the principle of accountability. Incidentally, Mr Jaswant Singh was not elected as the Leader of Opposition of Rajya Sabha in 2004 by a vote in the parliamentary committee.

The tirade seems to be against the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, and deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj. But it is essentially aimed at Mr Advani and party president Rajnath Singh. Mr Jaswant Singh wants the party to engage itself in the present day problems and not be obsessed with the past. Now he says he does not know what Hindutva is.

Now that some BJP spokespersons have expressed doubts about adopting the Hindutva plank, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) wants the BJP to decide once and for all whether it wants to embrace Hindutva as its ideology or use it as a convenient peg, thus creating an ideological crisis. Schism, therefore, in the BJP is deep and cannot be wished away.

It is a fact that the BJP leadership was responsible for the defeat in both 2009 as well as in 2004 general elections. In 2004, the "India Shining" claim did not work and this year too "Kushal Neta, Nirnayak Sarkaar" (Able leader, decisive government) slogan, projecting Mr Advani as the party’s prime ministerial candidate, proved childish. Mr Modi too was unable to reach out to voters outside his state.

The Congress did not get a majority in 2004 elections but under the leadership of party president Sonia Gandhi, it could muster support of several parties to form an alliance. Jyoti Basu and Harkishan Singh Surjit had cast aside the theory of a non-Congress alliance and promised support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government from outside. The BJP failed to retain the support of parties which were constituents of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). In fact, Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and J. Jayalalithaa’s All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) parted company with the BJP before the elections.

In 2004, Mr Basu and Harkishan Singh Surjit had forged an alliance with the Congress with alacrity, but later on Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury undermined it. They dreamt of a Third Front by aligning with all sorts of regional parties. They were confident that their strategy would marginalise the Congress. But the bomb which they thought would prove deadly for the Congress blew in their face. It seems that their historical role is to bring the CPI(M) to ruins.

That the CPI(M) in Kerala could not celebrate the birth centenary of socialist and Marxist theorist E.M.S. Namboodiripad on a united platform speaks for the so-called revolutionary leadership of Mr Karat. He and Mr Advani have driven their parties not to splendid isolation but to an ignoble one. It is obvious that workers and cadres of both the parties are searching for a new leader but the alternative is not in sight.

For the parties led by Ms Jayalalithaa, Mr Naidu, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav, a search for a leader is futile as they are nothing but one-man/one-woman shows. And as things stand, they have practically no future. If such parties, driven by personal egos and ambitions, become extinct, nobody would miss them.

The problem facing the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is about the purpose of its individual existence. It shares power with the Congress in Maharashtra and also at the Centre. It has almost no presence outside the state of Maharashtra.

Their unexpected performance in the Lok Sabha elections might have enthused the Congress, but in several states it is in poor state. One of them is Maharashtra. Hence, the talk of contesting the Maharashtra Assembly elections alone will prove futile. If the Congress and the NCP do not forge an alliance, they would meet the same fate as that of the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

Navin Patnaik in Orissa and Nitish Kumar in Bihar have shown that some visible achievements can bring in the votes. The Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra cannot claim such achievements. They seem to be undercutting each other all the time.

The Congress, on the national stage, does not have to search for a leadership. It is in a happy position as Dr Manmohan Singh is the Prime Minister and Mrs Gandhi the Congress president, but more so because Rahul Gandhi has come to the fore. His moves in states like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and even Gujarat, have yielded results. It is commendable that Mr Gandhi is devoting himself to the party.

It is reported that Mr Gandhi would concentrate on states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. But the states which would go to the polls in few months need to be given priority. If he goes by the advice of those who have developed swollen heads because of the recent gains in the Lok Sabha elections, then he would come in for a rude shock. The success in the recent elections was due to various factors: Voters’ disillusionment with the negative and destructive politics of both the Right and the Left; Faith in the decency and efficiency of the Dr Singh and the resolute leadership of Mrs Gandhi; Disillusionment with marginal parties and massive investment in rural areas also helped. One cannot say that these factors would sway voters in state elections.

People in Maharashtra have seen that the Shiv Sena and the MNS are only adept in bluff and bluster. Both the parties are nothing but family fiefdoms promoting a pernicious doctrine. The BJP on its own would not be able to get power. It is demoralised by the recent defeat and by dissentions at the national level. The party is not united in the state as well.

The voters in Maharashtra are helpless as majority of them do not want the BJP-Sena to rule. Also they are unhappy with the Congress-NCP government. If the Congress succeeds in putting up fresh and young candidates it can hope to win.