BJP – A Sinking Ship?

An insight into the causes and the possibilities for the sinking ship of BJP

Just as it was trying to recover from the wounds of its debacle in the 15th Lok Sabha, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) was struck by yet another crisis and this time of an even bigger magnitude. The controversy of the Jaswant Singh’s book titled – “Jinnah: India-partition, Independence” proved a Pandora’s Box for BJP, as it exposed the enormous amount of differences existing within the party, it re-opened the forgotten issues of the past, the Kandahar-hijack issue, and the BJP top-notch, L. K. Advani saying that he was ignorant of the same, questioned the credibility of his leadership. These developments are giving scepticism as to whether BJP is failing to continue as a powerful opposition in India’s political scene. The “party with a difference” now seems to be becoming a “party with differences”.

The Crisis
It all started with Jaswant Singh being expelled out of BJP because of his comments on Jinnah, and moreover about Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel being held equally responsible for the partition, in his book. Gujrat’s BJP CM, Narendra Modi imposed a ban on the book, soon followed by Jaswant Singh’s expulsion from the party. A senior leader who had served the party for more then 30 years was expelled with his 30-year old dedicated service forgotten in no time.

Post-expulsion, the party saw a series of allegations, pointing of fingers and blame games, which deepened and exposed the already existing cracks within the party leaderships. The already forgotten Kandahar-issue was raised again by the media. Jaswant was questioned and he obviously expressed his disgrace on his expulsion. Jaswant Singh maintained the Advani knew each and everything about Kandahar. Jaswant even went on to say that he lied for “Advaniji”. And now, the serious question of whether the “aspiring PM of BJP” lied to the people, kept the nation wondering.

Then there was Arun Shourie’s outburst on the BJP leadership. His famous comments referring the leadership as “Humpty-Dumpty” and “Alice in the Blunderland” made waves in the media. He urged the RSS leader Bhagwat, that RSS should take over BJP and carry out the repair-work for the party. There was yet another war of words between Shorie and BJP President, Rajnath Singh.

Amidst the ongoing Jaswant controversy and its post-events, there was another growing in parallel. Vasundhara Raje, being asked to quit as the leader of opposition in Rajastan, citing her failure to lead the party in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections. Defiant Raje, staged a rally with all her supporting MLAs against Rajnath in the state capital. Advani, in whose camp Raje was believed to be in, also snubbed her by refusing to meet her supporters. This showed yet another difference of opinion between the party leaderships.

The party is now has certainly pressed the panic button. The challenges before the party today are:

1. Going ahead with L. K. Advani as their Prime Ministerial candidate from now on, will always be a difficult proposition, with Advani weakening his character as a leader when he maintains his stand that he was ignorant about Kandahar. This remains a big blot on his image as a leader. Being a deputy-PM and claiming to be ignorant speaks questions about his leadership qualities. And if Jaswant Singh’s claims that Advani knew about the events are anywhere close to true, then the fact that did Advani lie to the public, comes to the fore.

2. Growing differences between the senior party leaderships. The Jaitley – Rajnath spat was well known. Now there are many more like Shourie – Rajnath, Raje – Rajnath, and perhaps many more behind the curtains.

3. Extensive repair work, with many key decisions to be made like change in leaderships, strategies so that it comes out well to project itself as one unit, and win the hearts and faith of majority of Indian voters, at the national level.

Hindutva V/s Secularism

The two major parties of Democratic India are separated by two major schools of thoughts, namely the Secularism and the Hindutva. However there is a considerable amount of doubt as to whether either of these parties have been able to follow their ideologies, true to its meaning.

What is Secularism?

The term secularism was created in 1846, by an English leader, George Jacob Holyoake. He explicitly described the term as:

“Secularism is that which seeks the development of the physical, moral, and intellectual nature of man to the highest possible point, as the immediate duty of life — which inculcates the practical sufficiency of natural morality apart from Atheism, Theism or the Bible — which selects as its methods of procedure the promotion of human improvement by material means, and proposes these positive agreements as the common bond of union, to all who would regulate life by reason and ennoble it by service."

The concept of secularism sees no mention anywhere the absence of religion. The idea was developed as a non-religious philosophy focused upon the needs and concerns of humanity.

Today, congress in the name of secularism, look to garner the minority votes, primarily, the Muslim. In the name of secularism, the congress offers extra sops, exemptions, reservations and privileges to minority communities. In course of doing this, the interests of the majority religion are far forgotten. The question to be asked here is, is this secularism in its true sense?

What is Hindutva?

Hindutva, is a term coined by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar or Veer Savarkar, in 1923. Hindutva is a term used to describe movements advocating the Hindu Nationalism.

Hindu Nationalism or Hindutva is referred to as expression of social and political thought, based on native spiritual and cultural traditions of India. The word “Hindu” here refers more to the “Nativity” of India, rather then the “Religion”. Hindutva, as some scholars argue, is better described as Hindu Polity.

The Hindutva holds a substantial relevance in the Indian history, when it helped form a distinctive identity, and provided a basis of questioning colonialism. It inspired the freedom movements against British rule based on armed struggle, coercive politics as well as non-violent protests. It also influenced social reforms and economic thinking of India.

Has BJP been able to follow or project itself as the follower of Hindutva in its true sense? BJP has never been able to clear its stand on Hindutva. It has not been able to explain the concept of Hindutva to the people of India, thus keeping the citizen of India confused about Hindutva. BJP should first be clear on its Hindutva stand, and its visions with Hindutva, and then come to open to the people of India. BJP’s success lies in whether and how they are able to explain the term Hindutva, and how it will (or rather how the BJP will take forward the idea of Hindutva) help the politics of India, which has along with Hindus, many other religions and diverse cultures.

The Rahul Gandhi Factor.

One of the major factors that led the UPA government to such a clear mandate in the recently held Lok Sabha elections was the Rahul Gandhi factor. This son of late congress leader and ex-Prime Minister of our country Rajiv Gandhi, was written off by political experts and opposition leaders as a novice in late nineties.

This dark horse, in 2009, emerged as the architect of the UPA’s victory in the lok sabha elections. He targeted the state of UP, as he knew wisely that winning UP should help the party to make up the numbers. He campaigned tirelessly in various streets of numerous villages across the state of UP. He reached out to the masses and the poor, came in direct contact with them, and showed them better future, without fragmenting them on the basis of caste and creed.

Rahul also went speaking to the youth, and about their aspirations. He showed his belief in many of the young leaders, and gave opportunity to various young leaders like Jitin Prasada, Ashok Tanwar, Bhanwar Jitendra, Shailendra Singh and many more.

While L. K. Advani was busy lashing out at Manmohan Singh as a weak Prime Minister, and Narendra Modi was hitting hard at Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka trio, Rahul was lauding the good developmental works by Nitish Kumar, despite him being a member of the opposition. Crediting the achievements of the opposition was something that was seen the first time in the history of Indian politics.

The effect of Rahul Gandhi saw the voters of UP boot out some of the dreaded gangsters. The youth was inspired to vote, and that helped UPA to come back to power. For majority of youth, it is the development that matters, which Rahul Gandhi did speak of.

When Rahul Gandhi was offered the prestigious position of the Prime Minister, he refused it saying that he wants to work for his party, and mainly against making politics a better place for the youngsters of India. He said that bridging the rich-poor gap too was more important to him then becoming a PM. This gave clear indications of his long-term vision for India and Indian Politics. In Rahul Gandhi, the youth and the people of India began to see a ray of hope and an emerging leader looking to clean all the debris of the Indian politics.

This however may be brushed away by the opposition as a political gimmick, but it certainly did the trick for UPA. Combating the Rahul Gandhi factor is a major challenge for the BJP, in its quest to regain its status in Indian politics.

BJP – The Road Ahead

BJP should kick off the repair work sooner or later, and sooner the better. What should the BJP be looking to do in order to come out strong from this present crisis, and emerge as a tough force to reckon with?

Leadership
Certainly, as the speculations are on, BJP will see a change of leadership soon. With the recent controversies and developments, projecting and continuing with L. K. Advani as the Prime Ministerial candidate may not gain much returns. The party has to look for its next Prime Ministerial candidate soon. The Prime Ministerial candidate should show a promise and vision for India. Prime focus of the leader should be to give the people a better India, with development of infrastructure, economy and national security as priorities.

The Gujrat CM, Narendra Modi may be considered as the next PM candidate, as he has shown a calibre to carry out substantial development in his state. He is one leader who always has an open arm for industrialists for setting their business in Gujrat. He can boast of many developmental works that he has triggered in Gujrat, which a lot of other CMs cannot.

BJP should also have a change in strategy of how the leadership present their campaigns. Narendra Modi’s campaigns speak more about “How Bad the Congress is”, or hitting out directly with harsh words against the Gandhi-trio. This sends a wrong message that BJP is apprehensive about the Gandhi-trio, and does more harm to BJP then good. Instead the campaign should be more visionary, with focus on BJP’s past achievements and its plan for the future.

Along with the change in the PM candidate, there is also a need in the change of Party leadership. The President-ship of the party should be given to someone who is a strategist, who can save the sinking Titanic of BJP back to the shore.

Bench-strength
BJP should build a bench-strength for the future. The party should show faith and make way to its younger leaders. Remember congress was in a similar mess that BJP now is, during the late nineties, with lot of differences within the party. But Rahul Gandhi built a bench-strength of youngsters that looked to be a promising and brought a fresh air in the party.

BJP should work on to nurture young leaders from various states in different aspects of Indian politics. Majority of the Indian voters today are in the age group of 25-40. For this age group development of India matters more, rather then Ram-Mandir and Ram-sethu. BJP should change with times and go with the winds.

Clearance on the Stand of Hindutva
BJP should come out clear on its stand on Hindutva, and cease to seem confused. The party has always maintained that it will stick to its policy and ideology of Hindutva. But time and again, it also resorts to secularism, claiming that BJP is also a secular party.

Also, as mentioned earlier, BJP’s success will lie into projecting the true idea of Hindutva, and its approach to carry forward Hindutva for the benefit of India. It should be able to explain to the people of India how Hindutva or Hindu polity will help run the nation. Because Hindutva forms the very basis of the ideology on which BJP is built. It should come clear on the same, and make the people of India too, clear about it.

A Vision for India
Last but not the least BJP should come out as a party with a vision. The BJP-led NDA government elected Dr. Abdul Kalam as the President of India, who in himself is a great visionary. This also proved to be in the favour of the NDA government, as it boosted its visionary image leaps and bounds.

When Rahul Gandhi spoke of “Making politics a better place for youngsters” and “Bridging the rich-poor gap”, he too showed the qualities of a vision for India. Instead of brushing off, BJP should take a lesson or two from this emerging leader.



We certainly cannot count off the party with over 100 seats in Lok Sabha, and which is in power in about 5 states of the country. To continue as force to reckon with, it will be interesting to see how BJP manages to come out of this crisis, which has hit real bad to the party itself, and also to the Indian politics. It needs to be seen how BJP now faces the challenge of salvaging this sinking ship of BJP, and then win the hearts and faith of the country again, and emerge as an option of good governance for India.