Click to play videoThe Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been caught in a series of problems for the past few months. Following the loss in Lok Sabha elections earlier in the year many senior BJP leaders have targeted the top leadership demanding action against those responsible for the poll debacle. Even as the rebellion gathered storm, former Union minister Jaswant Singh came out with an explosive book praising Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
The BJP leadership expelled Jaswant Singh without giving the Darjeeling MP any chance to defend himself. Now the party has asked another senior leader Arun Shourie to clarify why he publicly attacked the BJP leadership. Shourie has called BJP President Rajnath Singh as ‘Alice in Blunderland’, ‘Humpty Dumpty’, ‘Tarzan’ and called the party kati patang.
There are reports that the party has been more careful with Shourie than it was with Jaswant because Shourie has the backing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and there is an acceptance within the party that expelling Jaswant was an overreaction.
Meanwhile, the RSS on Tuesday said that Jinnah was a hate figure for the Sangh, much like Mohammad Ghori, Mohammad Ghaznavi, Babar and Aurangzeb.
With the principal Opposition party of India standing divided, CNN-IBN show Face the Nation debated: Is the BJP living in wonderland?
The panels of experts included senior journalist Swapan Dasgupta, political analyst and columnist Meghnad Desai and BJP member and senior lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani.
Shourie seems to have escaped strong action with the BJP asking him to only clarify the spirit behind the attack whereas Jaswant was expelled in a jiffy.
“The charitable explanation is that some of it was lost in translation. The uncharitable explanation is that there exists one law for Jaswant Singh and another law… the unintended intention of the move is that they have projected the RSS as a faction within the BJP. So whether this has done any service to the RSS is to my mind very, very doubtful. It is like the Congress where you can get away by criticising Manmohan Singh and praising Sonia Gandhi. Now it is the same with the BJP as long as you make some ritual genuflection before the RSS,” said Swapan Dasgupta.
There are many who say that BJP must become a modern Right wing party while others want it to return to Hindutva and remain a cadre-based party.
Meghnad Desai cautioned against returning to the Hindutva fold.
“If it goes back to a Hindu nationalist party then the future is very bleak. Be in touch with reality and modernism. There is not enough core Hindu votes to get elected. So you have to become a swatantra party and a Vajpayee-BJP. If they could become that combination… there is a huge gap on the Right. There is no pro-business party in India,” said Desai.
Dasgupta agreed with Desai and hoped that the BJP would embrace modern ideas.
“BJP has a choice. Either it remains Right wing and gets 80 odd seats in Parliament or it tries and it is capable of getting 200+ seats in Parliament. Are you in politics because it is a very noble idea or are you in politics because you want to change society because you want to change the society through exchange of power? To my mind it is very important that this pragmatic decision is taken. If Indian is changing and the RSS has already said that it is open to change, in that case the BJP has the duty to uphold modernity keeping in mind some of the basic fundamentals,” hoped Dasgupta.
Desai claimed that the BJP was not in tune with the aspirations of young India.
“About three quarters of Indian voters were born after Emergency. They don’t know about Pakistan as part of Akhand Bharat. They only know India as it is. They want to get on with life, they are tech savvy, they have their career and aspirations. As a party it is not speaking to them,” he said.
“No party is static. The Indian national Congress meant something in 1950s and today it means something else. All over the world political parties are not what they were at the time of their formation. They evolve and they change. There is mismatch at present. But who do you appeal to – the cadre or the voter?” Dasgupta concurred.
Mahesh Jethmalani, too, appeared very disturbed by the recent upheavals in the party.
“What has happened is very disturbing. But I would not say I am a misfit. I think the BJP needs to realise that India is a heterogeneous society and has different shades of opinion. It is time to have a debate about the real soul of the BJP and for that you require elements belonging to every faction,” said Jethmalani, who unsuccessfully contested the recent Lok Sabha election as BJP candidate from North-Central Mumbai constituency.
“Former prime minister and BJP patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee represented modernity in a traditional idiom. Success in politics lies in how you are able to communicate the idea. At one time Advaniji also managed to communicate an idea. Now those ideas need further revision,” said Dasgupta.
Desai suggested a complete overhaul of the party leadership.
“I will suggest a drastic plan. BJP must adopt the Kamaraj Plan. Let all the top people retire and a complete new leadership come up,” he said.
But should the BJP split with leaders with modern outlook forming a pro-business party and letting the others to be part of the old cadre-based party?
Jethmalani did not agree with Desai’s idea of splitting the party. He claimed that unlike the Congress, the BJP believed in building institutions.
“That would be a colossal mistake. If there is a split then party’s strength would deplete. The BJP has two traditions and you have to marry that successfully. The first is the old Jan Sangh, pro-Hindutva tradition and the second is the tradition born out of fighting Emergency and is about strengthening the institutions of this country. Congress has done everything to subvert the institutions in this country and nothing has changed since the Emergency,” he said.
But if there is no Hindu impulse within the BJP then what distinguishes it from the Congress?
“Congress is eventually a statist party. Congress cannot live being outside office and has never been openly pro-business. There is nobody pro-business; there is nobody to really reflect the aspirations of the young people. BJP needs to stop the xenophobia and stop behaving like the pale version of CPI-M,” said Desai.
Dasgupta argued that not all was rotten within the BJP and that the party just needed to repackage its ideas.
“The basic tenets that BJP stood for has nationalism… then there is deregulation, decentralisation and there is belief that the creative impulses of a nation come from the society and not from the state. The question is of packaging. There is a Hindu civilisational underpinning to the Indian civilisation and there is nothing wrong,” said the veteran journalist.
“There is a wrong belief that BJP is the B-team of Congress. We are against dynasty. Anyone in the BJP who has the capability can become the prime minister. On economic policies we believe in liberalisation. The Congress is a reluctant liberaliser. They only did it in 1991 when we were almost bankrupt. On getting the money back from Swiss Bank we are much more vocal and serious. The Congress is only shadow boxing on it. We are not for talks with Pakistan unless they dismantle terror infrastructure. The Prime Minister has done just the reverse,” said Jethmalani.
Desai once again repeated his views that the BJP must become an inclusive party.
“There was song when I was young – Hindi hai him. Don’t say Hindu, say Hindi and you are out of this mess,” he said.
Dasgupta concluded the debate by saying, “The links with RSS need not be broken. RSS is a stakeholder in the BJP. It is not the only input into the BJP.”
Final Web/SMS poll result: Is the BJP living in wonderland?
Yes: 82 per cent
No: 18 per cent.
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