Apr 20, 2024
Apr 20, 2024
Never has a government appeared more vulnerable. From business to politics to sport, entire society is tainted with corruption. There is no accountability. There is no institution working with requisite competence. The public is yearning for change. The situation is a godsend to the opposition.
But the main opposition party seems paralyzed and incapable of cashing in on its opportunity. One does not know why this paralysis. One does not know the truth. But one is aware of the popular perception fed to the public by informed journalists. And in politics it is perception that counts.
What is the popular perception about the BJP?
The perception is that the BJP is immersed in the problem of deciding who should be the next prime Minister even as no assessment offers the party a prospect of obtaining single party parliamentary majority. Every BJP leader seems busy pursuing an agenda to decide the next PM. Every leader seems busy pursuing a personal plot for success.
Mr. Narendra Modi seems to be on an overdrive to get anointed next PM. He is touring state capitals, conferring with leaders and addressing groups of citizens. If the BJP is to get a respectable tally in the polls it must perform well in India ’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh. BJP President Mr. Rajnath Singh is from that state. He forged a formidable caste alliance for his party by enticing OBC leader Mr. Kalyan Singh back to the BJP. The BJP’s best performance of obtaining over 50 Lok Sabha seats in UP was accomplished when there was a Thakur-Kurmi alliance led by Mr. Rajnath Singh and Mr. Kalyan Singh earlier. But it seems Mr. Modi has successfully plotted to prevent credit for a repeat success to go to any UP leader. His confidant from Gujarat Mr. Amit Shah has been foisted as general secretary in charge of UP. If that happens it will ensure that all credit for success in UP will go to Mr. Modi and nobody else. Whether such generosity occurs from Mr. Rajnath Singh’s faith in Mr. Modi’s leadership, in extreme naiveté or through some hidden pressure is open to speculation. At the same time the BJP is contemplating appointment of Mr. Modi as the head of the election campaign committee. These are huge steps forward for Mr. Modi to realize his ambition. But it seems there is no unanimity within his own party to make him PM. It seems that Mr. LK Advani is pursuing his own plot for success.
It seems that Mr. Advani is rooting for Mr. Nitin Gadkari to be appointed head of the panel to oversee the forthcoming state assembly elections, in which the BJP is expected to fare well, to pre-empt Mr. Modi. If BJP wins in several state assembly elections will not Mr. Gadkari be perceived as the natural choice to head the election campaign committee for 2014? It will be of course the same Mr. Gadkari who was ousted from continuing as the party president by the strenuous exertions of Mr. Advani and his loyalists. According to popular perception Mrs. Sushma Swaraj, Mr. Yashwant Sinha and Mr. Anantha Kumar are Mr. Advani’s loyalists. Mr. Arun Jaitley and Mr. Venkaiyah Naidu are perceived as Mr. Modi’s supporters.
Mr.Jaitley’s perceived support for Mr. Modi makes sound political sense. It is an open secret that leaders of regional parties who are potential allies of the BJP have privately indicated to RSS interlocutors support for Mr. Jaitley as the BJP candidate for Prime Minister. Therefore in case the BJP does not get single party majority Mr. Modi will surely extend support to Mr. Jaitley over either Mr. Advani or Mrs. Sushma Swaraj as the compromise choice from the rival camp. Since chances of obtaining a single party majority for the BJP are remote the prospects for Mr. Jaitley appear bright. But there is of course a catch.
Mr. Jaitley is not without his opponents within the party. Recently BJP MP Mr. Kirti Azad lashed out at Mr. Jaitley for his failure to stop corruption in the IPL Cricket League. Apart from being President of the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) Mr. Jaitley also heads the disciplinary body of the BCCI. Mr. Azad is an old critic of Mr. Jaitley and the DDCA. But the timing of his present outburst is intriguing. Mr. Azad told TV channels that responsibility for corruption in the IPL was shared equally by the NDA and UPA and both were partners in covering up the sleaze. He criticized Mr. Jaitley for not acting against cricketer Harbhajan Singh after the latter slapped fellow cricketer Sreesanth in public. He demanded that the National Investigative Agency (NIA) probe the conduct of BCCI and IPL officials.
The DDCA hit back at Mr. Azad. It demanded a lifetime ban on Kirti Azad for attempting to tarnish the image of DDCA and its president Mr. Arun Jaitley and accused him of indulging in dirty politics in the “garb of criticizing” the IPL. “We demand Mr. Kirti Azad's immediate suspension along with other such cricketers from BCCI and DDCA, and institution of an immediate independent inquiry to their accusations so that if found guilty, lifetime ban on them could be imposed,” Mr. Vinod Tihara, Convenor Sports Committee if DDCA said: Strangely enough, while discipline is being invoked in cricketing circles there is not a murmur from within the BJP about Mr. Azad’s allegations against Mr. Jaitley in public that mock party discipline. Not surprisingly there is wide perception that powerful elements within the BJP opposed to Mr. Jaitley are tacitly encouraging Mr. Azad.
This, then, is how the BJP is being perceived by the public. As things appear there is little prospect of a BJP Prime Minister emerging after 2014 polls. All this is based of course on perceptions propagated by the media and it may have little relevance to reality. Most BJP leaders are perceived to be busily plotting away to further individual agendas. But despite so much plotting under way the BJP itself, sad to say, seems to have lost the plot.
25-May-2013
More by : Dr. Rajinder Puri
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BJP is going to loose until it follows right policy. Most of population stays in villages, nearly 75 percent . Look Gandhji, Sardar Patel, worked in villages, even Vinoba Bhave. BJP should send most of its workers to villages and towns. Congress has won by distributing money in kind in villages. BJP should be aware of this. Congress has won even by giving false promises. But BJP should stand on work done in villages, towns and cities. .PARTY IS GREATER THAN ITS LEADERS...BJP SHOULD REMEMBER THIS, IF IT IS TO WIN. Forget the past, look for future. Internal bikkering is non productive, work for the party. Azad, Jaitly even Modi do not count, they should look for the party to win. |
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I agree with Mr Bohre.BJP bandicoots have very little sense that they are on the cusp of changing the whole dynamics of politics from the congis crooked strategy of appeasing the muslims/christians/dalits and OBCs and riding on the money power of the crooked industrial houses starting from reliance/birlas and the tatas.But the problem of BJP bandicoots is that they think by holding on to same crooked industrialists and using the slogan of hindutva, they will come to power.That will not definitely happen because these bandicoots cannot even win in their own constituency.They are like the mani shankars/rameshes/diggydogs who cannot even get their deposits without the support of the gandu family.Rightfully Modi should take over BJP,kickout the bandicoots and careful not being too pally with the likes of ambanis.Modi has the power of the votes from the people like Indira did, he can kickout all the pretenders/ crooked money bags and instill himself with a team of his choice.Has he got the cajones to do this? I think he has. |
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With the example given in earlier comment below, it is clear that politicians in the ruling party are strong enough to suppress or raise any issue any time through media, a big attack can be done through media without coming into picture and unfavorable news items can be sidelined within no time using tactics such as mentioned in the example. I am sure the BJP leaders, having suffered blow during UPA-1 tenure and then in the result of 2009 Loksabha elections BECAUSE of this kind of media manipulation, are aware about the danger of escalating matters in public in formidable and irrefutable manner. Further, it seems, there are hidden secretes against the BJP leaders - at least some of them (and leaders of other parties) accumulated by the ruling group to counter attack on opposition should such a maneuver is taken by the opposition. Added to this is the competency and skill of the top BJP leaders, who are good at vocal skills but poor at tactfully engaging masses in indirect manner, that lead masses to believe on something they would like to believe, this is evident from various incidents, such as during initial exposure of 2G scam, the BJP leaders wanted to repeat a BOFORS scandal situation, where there would be a JPC committee, where they would walk out of the parliament, where they would raise direct allegations and public would get angry and agitated against the ruling group. They failed to understand that in 1988 the BOFORS exposure merely ignited the fuel that was accumulating since decades, and they needed something else this time to agitate people against these scandals. Further, I believe that the politicians prone to get tainted (because they did something wrong, something illegal in the past) tend to favour their ruling counterparts in order to settle their tiny scandals as compared to massive ones on the other side. The BJP leaders must have found this comfort zone sometime between 1998-2003 because they did not take necessary actions on domestic political issues of strategic importance. However, Mr. Modi clearly belongs to a different class, who would tactfully handle his opponents to control them. Look at the recent happenings, the top BJP leaders were busy demanding PM's resignation (after CBI director's statement in SC that CBI was asked to change report in COALGATE scam), the media successfully portrayed the BJP leaders as merely a few barking dogs, while Modi addressed NRIs and openly said that the country needs strong and bold leaders and that the faith of public in leaders needed to be re-established. Thus, without directly attacking the ruling politicians he told masses that the ruling politicians are worth dumping to a dustbin. Until and unless BJP brings right leadership, it would not create a strong wave in public, the current leaders lack the ticks and skills to move public opinion in their favor and against the ruling politicians. I agree to the article 100% |
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First, let me put a running commentary which is distantly related to this topic: more than 7 days have passed since IPL scandal got exposed (got exposed OR was exposed ?), I see interestingly that big TV channels and biggest TV channels are only and only telecasting debates, analysis and 'breaking news' about this IPL scandal and nothing else. WHY ? One can guess this is because Cricket is passion of India and interests vast mass, but I am afrais the reason is not that. If that was the reason, the IPL scandal might be the main news and debate item without consuming all the time of the show. If that is the case, is IPL scandal used to cover up the recent three gib issues that otherwise would be discussed naturally on TV channels - (1) Rail Minister's kin bribe case which was the no. one debate item till a day before IPL scandal got exposed (2) India-China strategic path when Chinese PM visted India (3) Sheela Dixit got indicted by Delhi Lokayukta for misuse of govt funds (remember similar indictment of Karnataka CM by Karnataka Lokayukta made the CM out and the BJP out of power, the debate continued for weeks in that case) With all this background, let me continue in next comment which will keep the topic of discussion of this article as the main point. |
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Advani and vajpayee were considered the bulwarks for BJP.Both these old men failed to do the right thing when NDA was in power.They allowed sonia to get back to power by conferring on her citizenship and also not pursuing Bofors.By all means, the NDA government did take India in the right path after 53 years of nehruvian idiocy but then some of the important aspects like article 370,uniform civil code,hold of crooked business houses in interfering in governance,criminal justice system,deep rooted corruption they hardly done anything to change course.Without proper rule of law,transparancy in governance and the power to lock the crooks in Tihar, India will continue to be a rogue state.Advani now is a spent force still clinging to his imaginary world.He will be pushed aside with a new set in BJP and it is not too difficult to foresee that Modi will take charge.Unlike Advani, he will stamp his authority on the party and he will bring in the right kind of leaders to take this party forward.2014 may not give BJP immediate power to change things but it will set in motion a process where the dubious gandu family will be history.That alone will be a good start. |
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Just today it crossed my mind too that BJP's action is very questionable. On one hand everybody is saying that Congress is corrupt & on the other nobody really seems to want to rule the country responsibly either. Either they have some behind the scenes friendship with the culprits or they are so incompetent that other than infighting, they are not capable of more. It is indeed sad news for the country. |
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Competition is source of improvement of not only individual but also the party. This should be constructively taken. The matter in this article should be understood this way. |