Age Debate: Chanakya or chela

The Bharatiya Janata Party is a party which thrives on the hard labour of its leaders. Unlike its major political rivals, the party leadership has always risen from the ranks. The re-election of Amit Shah as party president endorses this tradition. Like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Shah too started his political journey as an ordinary party worker. During his first inning he gave enough indications that despite donning the mantle of party president he continued to be an ordinary worker at heart, keen to sweat it out for the party.

In his endeavour to strengthen and expand the party, Mr Shah travelled nearly 300,000 km during his first tenure. This helped him establish direct contact with party officials, workers and supporters of party’s ideology and programmes and give momentum to party’s mega membership drive. This ambitious push helped the BJP increase its membership from mere 2.5 crore to over 11 crore, thus making it the world’s largest political party.

During this drive, Mr Shah exhibited the quality of taking on challenges head on. Special attention was paid to Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Kerala, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal, where the BJP has been traditionally weak.

What was most commendable about this membership drive was that it was done in a transparent manner — addresses and phone numbers of new members were collated against their names. The membership campaign was driven by optimum use of information technology and fake members were weeded out. This has helped the party gain strength at the grassroots level.

It is necessary to mention these points as Mr Shah has been targeted in the media for the party’s defeat in the Assembly polls of Delhi and Bihar. However, for somebody like me who has been a party worker for more than a quarter of a century, the efforts to strengthen the party at the grassroots level far outweigh two electoral defeats. One should not forget that victories in Assembly elections under the stewardship of Mr Shah outnumber the defeats by a huge margin.

Mr Shah has his task cut out for his second inning. He has rebuilt the party at the grassroots level and the team is now ready to take on the electoral battles that lie ahead. He starts his second inning with deep knowledge about the party, its power structures and the strengths and weaknesses of its workers. With this team he will take on far more domineering opponents in the states of Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the next few months.

Mr Shah has always delivered beyond expectations in adverse situations. The party campaign has already started to gain momentum. The mood in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, two politically significant states, is to punish the incapable governments. Team BJP under Mr Shah’s leadership is all ready to capitalise on the loss of popularity of their political opponents. Its huge cadre is ready to carry far and wide the message of good governance provided by BJP governments in the states where they rule. There is no way the party’s fortunes can recede under Mr Shah’s leadership over the next three years; it will only rise higher and higher.

Ashish Sood is Delhi BJP general secretary

$Two defeats do not matter

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Amit Shah has been re-elected as the national president of the world’s largest party, the Bharatiya Janata Party. There’s nothing surprising in it. It was known to every Indian that he is a trusted sepoy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is going to be awarded for his loyalty.

It sounds even more melodious that he has been elected unopposed. But to what extent Mr Shah was elected unopposed can be guaged by the absence of two pillars of the party: Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. Their absence was noticed not only by the media and the Opposition, but also became a topic of gossip among party officials. Many questioned the uncaring attitude of the Shah brigade.

Senior party members who were kept away from the ceremonial function had also opposed Mr Shah’s appointment as president for the first term.

Of course, his initial tenure witnessed a clear and vast majority of the saffron party, but the brightness got clouded with time. In other words, the 2014 Lok Sabha big win was not a result of Mr Shah’s organisational capability, but an outcome of the Modi wave across the country. The Centre, Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir got National Democratic Alliance-led governments. After these successive wins, Mr Shah’s political expertise was talked about a lot.

Securing 73 out of 80 constituency seats in Uttar Pradesh catapulted him to the status of “Chanakya” for the media, but he was not questioned for the BJP’s demolition in the capital. Media did not question his unconstitutional coalition with the People’s Democratic Party.

Another reason for the BJP’s success at the Centre and states was the promises made by Mr Modi. But the government has refrained from fulfilling even a single promise made during the campaign. After failing on black money, controlling price hike, creating job opportunities and addressing farmers’ problems, the criticism of the Modi government has started. Public annoyance can be seen in Bihar where Mr Shah could not utilise his “Chanakyagiri”. The BJP could not even maintain its old stature and came down to 50s out of 243 seats.

Thus, the scenario has changed and the honeymoon period for the BJP is now over.

It is not less than a challenge for the ruling party to maintain cordial relations between the government and the organisation. Mr Shah’s first term was not an ideal one. He was embroiled in controversy for his inflammatory speeches and not being available to party workers.

This year is going to witness elections in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. Except in Assam, Mr Shah’s party stands nowhere in the race.

In 2017, elections are scheduled in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. In most of these states the party will be struggling. Overall, Mr Shah has to face elections in almost 18 states during his second term.

The real test of Mr Shah’s political proficiency is yet to start.

K.C. Tyagi is national general secretary, Janata Dal (United)

$The real test is yet to start

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