BJP, the party with indiscipline

66

Tweet

It's back to the basics for the BJP. No, we are not talking about Hindutva here, but that simple thing called " indiscipline". A quick glance at the recent history of the BJP will convince you that the very basis of this party is actually indiscipline. Now, what you and I may call indiscipline might be referred to as a fight against injustice by some within the party. Right from the seventies when doyens like Vajpayee and Advani left the Jan Sangh on the question of dual membership, it was called indiscipline even then by some, but the Atal-Advani duo then were fighting for a cause. Cut to the present era, from Uma Bharti who famously strode out of the partyhead quarters in front of live TV cameras to Vasundhara Raje who is hell bent on going the Uma Bharti way, the pattern is the same. Party bosses crying "indiscipline. indiscipline" and the main characters shouting "injustice, injustice."

So why is the BJP in a state of crisis? I am sure many of you would have read reams of newsprint giving all sorts of gyan on how the party is caught in a battle of identity, ideology and what not. I have a straightforward answer to that. The entire blame of creating this mess begins and ends with L K Advani. Make no mistake about it and let there be no illusions about it. In the nineties, L K Advani , the Ram Bhakt, rode the rath to catapult the BJP to the point where it reached towards the end of that decade. But in the process he also created a long-term conflict for the party. It just lost the ability to modify itself. It got so closely associated with a brand of Hindutva that was hard, aggressive and convinced the middle classes that they were the victims and victims of years of so-called appeasement of minorities by the Congress. Advani successfully managed to manifest the anger, somewhat justifiable then, into votes for the BJP. But once the anger went away, the party had no vision in sight. Ask yourself, why is it that the BJP has done very well in state elections since 2002, but has lost the Lok Sabha elections? If the party is good for governance at the state level, what goes wrong at the centre? Herein lies the answer to the BJP's woes.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee never consciously tried to create a legacy. So he did manage to leave one behind. Advani is going ballistic in trying to create one. But only that he is not succeeding. In 2004 it was Advani who became the face of the development that India had apparently witnessed. Development that was stock market induced and one that had no solid fundamentals. So he became the Bharat Uday Yaatri. Advani failed then too. In 2009, Advani became the mazboot neta, the man who was capable of bombing Pakistan and ridding India of all its security concerns. He talked about a muscular foreign policy if the BJP got voted to power. His friends and guides likes Sudheendra Kulkarni created such a cocoon around him that the Ram Bhakt turned Uday Yaatri turned Mazboot Neta forgot what was actually happening on the ground. He failed this time too. Now once again, he is hell bent on repeating the same mistakes and creating more trouble for the very party that he co-founded. Why should LK Advani say that he wants to be the leader of opposition for five yrs? BJP was considered as the natural party of opposition once. Is Advani pitching himself as the natural leader of opposition? At his age of 82 yrs, he could have ensured that he become a pitamah of sorts. Unlike Vajpayee who is now no more an active politician, Advani could have become a mentor of sorts for his party. But perhaps the fear of disappearing into oblivion was too scary for him. What else can explain his decision of going back on his retirement plans? Is he worried that if he were to give up his post, then his party members wont listen to him or give him the credit which he actually deserves for building the party?

In 2004 when the NDA lost the election, there was a certain vibrancy that was witnessed in Parliament. The issue of tainted ministers within the UPA was raised effectively up to a point that someone like a Shibu Soren was actually sent to jail in a murder case. In 2009 though, it's a totally different story. The oil minister is being accused of favouring an industrialist, the PM is being charged of compromising India's strategic concerns, a former commerce minister is being suspected of having received kickbacks through scams, but the BJP is busy trying to hit itself in its foot. Almost as if on cue, the day Parliament session ended, the party was back to its public squabbles. And once again it all started with Advani getting his protege Sushma Swaraj to say that he was going nowhere. Politicians find it difficult to retire! It may be true, Arjun Singh still wanted to contest elections though he spent the better part of the last year on bed, Sisram Ola could not even attend office as he was so sick, AR Antulay could barely manage it through official meetings but they all wanted to hold on. Advani's case is a little different as he wants to leave a legacy where he is heralded as the man who built the BJP. Much like in cinema, where the camera guys lost out in the glamour and credit race to the stars. Do you all remember who did the camera for Amitabh Bachchan blockbusters? Advani was always an excellent nuts and bolts man, the organiser, the cinematographer. It was Vajpayee who was the performer. From the time Advani started attempting to change that image, things just started falling apart.

Now as he braces himself for another face off with the RSS, it's again the legacy question that's haunting him. What will Advani be remembered for? Creating the BJP? Bringing right wing politics within an acceptable realm? Or will he go down as a man who was pushed aside by those who he himself had built up. There in lies the tragedy of being LK Advani.