The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : Tasks before the BJP national executive in Mumbai

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Monday, Jun 14, 2004

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Tasks before the BJP national executive in Mumbai

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, JUNE 13. The three-day Bharatiya Janata Party national executive committee meeting in Mumbai from June 22 has a major task before it — analysing the recent general election results in detail, coming to grips with the main reasons why it lost and taking corrective action.

Hindutva and the aftermath of the Gujarat riots, including the fate of the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, are two related issues expected to be dealt with. For the first time since the riots, the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has admitted that the riots damaged the party's image in the rest of the country (though the Assembly elections in the State were won), and that there were some in the party, including himself, who had been in favour of removing Mr. Modi from his post.

Mr. Vajpayee's remarks in Manali during a short interview to a television news channel are bound to encourage those forces in Gujarat which have already been working overtime for a change in the State leadership. The party will also have to consider the indictment of the Gujarat Government by the Supreme Court in the Best Bakery case during the run-up to the general election. There is a view in the party that it will be better for the leadership to drop Mr. Modi and bring a new Chief Minister rather than wait for any step that the Central Government may take.

Apart from the fact that the BJP lost the election, there is also the additional worry that the Congress has regained its position as the number one political party. Some of the BJP's allies in the National Democratic Alliance are also of the view that the Gujarat riots cost them the minority vote as well as the vote of the liberal Hindus, who viewed the riots as a firm proof of the BJP's "hidden" anti-minority and even fascist agenda.

It is not a secret that there are some top leaders in the party who want the BJP to revert to its hard Hindutva line. In fact, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliates have openly charged that the BJP lost as badly as it did because it had moved away from its Hindutva ideology. A senior party leader recently hinted that some more "RSS pracharaks" could be inducted into the BJP for full-time work at various levels. This could mean that the RSS will keep a more watchful eye on the BJP, and to some extent, determine its agenda.

The party has already decided that after the Mumbai meeting it will organise a "chintan baithak" (brainstorming session), which is usually attended by RSS leaders as well. Given the fact that the executive committee is a large body of over 100 members and special invitees, it is more likely that the Mumbai meeting will lay the ground for a more thorough introspection at the "chintan baithak" where some hard decisions could be taken.

The BJP could look at other factors: the party lost not only among the poor but also in urban centres. It must surely also come to the conclusion that sound bytes to television channels and "managing the media" do not change the ground realities or the voters' perception.

At the party's first meeting of the new office-bearers here recently, the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, made the point that strengthening the organisation and introducing the "accountability principle" at all levels was an urgent task.

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