A way forward for BJP

As all losers are bound to, BJP is in for a major introspection of “what went wrong?” after Elections 2009. One hopes that the party will undertake this exercise like adults. The primary requirement of psychotherapy is total honesty with oneself. This did not happen in 2004. For fear of offending or insulting Vajpayee/Advani duo, the party glossed over its glaring failures – failure to expand its sphere of influence, disastrous loss of ground in UP, wrong choice of allies etc. The single digit difference between its tally and the Congress tally provided a false statistical comfort. It created an impression that Congress did not win the election but BJP lost it. However a political party is in the business of winning elections; not to be comforted on the rival’s near equal performance. Somehow this lesson was lost.

Here are some prescriptions: It must shed its “leader cult” which was once alien to it that it wears so naturally now. In that sense, the party must rediscover its collective yet corporal personality. It is one of the parties in India that can discard its ‘holy cows’ and start anew. It must use this chance to come out of the Vajpayee/Advani era. RSS must let this happen untrammeled by watchful ‘pracharaks’ guarding the ideological line from inside or running commentaries from the outside. A great remedy would be observing a TV News Channel Silence for the next 3 months. Upvaas cleanses the soul and focuses the mind. As it is none of the channels care 2 hoots about the BJP and the teen-ager competition in spurting out sound bites is not a conducive environment for any therapy.

While victory has many fathers, but it is also true that failure too is fobbed off to many fathers. Among the myriad causes thrown around a keen focus and political sense is required to discard false diagnoses; However there are two main strands of thought that prevail when it comes to the future- to return to a ideologically pure Hindutva mobilization or to become more moderate in outlook and policy prescriptions to capture the vast “center-right wing” political space. There might be intense pressure from RSS to not disown the Hindutva line, but it is unlikely that RSS would want the BJP to pursue it with renewed vigour. Though there may be few causes here and there near and dear to the Hindutva faithful, by and large, the national environment is palpably indifferent to those tunes. The sub-continental environment is supremely unsuitable to say the least.

Here is a hidden truth. Everybody knows BJP is a “hindu-friendly” party. Nobody doubts that. Those who think it is not sufficiently “hindu-friendly” are in the sub-numeral fringes. There is no need for the BJP to reactively grab every "hindutva" cause in its grasp to prove itself to its own ideological base.  However there is a large body of voters that think it is too “hindu-centric” for responsible governance. Those that advance the mobilization option should prove 2 things, that there exists a sufficient “Hindutva” space yet unclaimed and BJP’s efforts in the future can claim that successfully. It is a very hard case to make. That leaves the “center-right” option.

What does this “center-right” mean? Didn’t General Beck say that catch phrases are for those that can’t think for themselves? Unless BJP understands what that means it should not declare itself to be a “center-right” party. Here is what it generally means – an informed national security perspective, a vigorous pursuit of national interests above all considerations, greater reliance on muscular foreign policy, a hard-line internal security policy against separatists and naxals, liberal economic policies, a fundamental belief in private entrepreneurship driven growth, free trade and open markets. Though BJP can check the boxes on most of these, when it comes to economics, it cannot let the entire “non-right wing” space to Congress. There are genuine considerations that are prevalent in India which makes classical neo-liberal right-wing economics unsuitable in practice and hence unrewarding in political competition. A Modi here or a Naveen there can win elections statewide, but Congress will clean its clock every time in such a scenario. Most of the pundits that prescribe this space for the BJP are its known detractors.
 
Though in general there is some level of consensus on economic reforms the BJP would be better advised to concentrate its brand differentiation in the mechanics of its implementation. Here are huge opportunities vis-à-vis the Congress.The so-called “Youth Revolution 2009” is mostly a nepotistic extension. Sachin Pilot, Jitin Prasad, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Navin Jindal won’t have a chance to be where they are without their famous last names. BJP has not done well in doing its own bit of advancing Anurags, Raghavendras, Manavendras and Dhushyants. Here is where it can stand out as a truly democratic party that rewards competence and integrity.

Another is the scope for empowerment of the middle India. This India does not live in Bangalore, New Delhi or Mumbai. This is the India of Ratlams, Tonks, Jabalpurs, Mahbubnagars and Madurais, where the intense yearning for upward mobility stymied because of infrastructural bottlenecks- both hard and soft. This India lacks educational institutions, has uneven preparatory ground in terms of primary, secondary education and uneven employment opportunities, in short "poor connectivity". By the way this India turns up at the polling booths. What the Congress has offered is this oft repeated catch phrase called “NREGA”. BJP should expose the sham that it is - a sop thrown around so that the Muniyammas and Karuppais can get on a bus to a neighbouring town and lug soil on their head for minimum wage while the guilt-free Government comfortably pursues big-business friendly “reforms” in search of 9% growth. The fact that Muniyammas' and Karuppais' children are wasted in sub-standard schools (if they are not working alongside vide) and destined for NREGA II, III should be the concern of BJP.
 
Finally a word on leadership tussle: For all its so-called “parivar” values the naked ambition and horse race for even inconsequential posts like Leader of Opposition does raise a stink. It would be best advised to not talk about who is the next PM candidate any time soon. But to choose a party leader for the next 5 years would make some headway in providing a long term focus and direction to the party.

Ironies of 2009 : Tamil nationalist Vaiko defeated in Virudhunagar, TN which comprises Thirumangalam from where he made his “POTA” winning speech, in the midst of a grave Srilankan Tamil situation by a guy called Manick Tagore! An eight term, 81 year old Hindi Enthusiast BJP MP Dr. Laxmi Narayan Pandey defeated by a Tamil-origin Meenakshi Natarajan in Mandsaur, MP.