The Hindu : National : Need to establish party’s credibility: Rajnath

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Tuesday, Jun 26, 2007
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Need to establish party’s credibility: Rajnath

Neena Vyas

Says party workers will have to sacrifice their personal egos in the larger interest of the organisation

NEW DELHI: It was a frank admission by Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh — the BJP is no longer a party with a difference.

It must be realised whether the party is in power or in the opposition, its expansion cannot happen at the expense of declining moral values. This was the message of Mr. Singh in his inaugural address at the party’s two-day national executive committee meeting that began here on Monday.

Katara issue

While Mr. Singh did not directly speak about the recent incident in which a party MP from Gujarat, Babubhai Patel, was caught in a human trafficking case (and 18 months ago ,six party MPs were disqualified in the cash-for-questions scandal), those who were there said the reference was obvious. The BJP could do without such incidents, especially if it wanted to project itself as a party with a difference.

The need was to establish the party’s credibility, trustworthiness and magnanimity while working in harmony and emphasising collective decision making, Mr. Singh said.

The BJP president did not mince words when he spoke about the party and its leaders and workers becoming unnecessarily embroiled in controversies as a result of their craze for media publicity.

“We need not become instruments of the competitive struggle of the media,” he said, referring to the race for TRP ratings and exclusive or sensational stories intended to catch a wider audience. He also cautioned party leaders to share problems “internally” with the leadership, rather than airing them through the media – a reference to private “off-the-record” briefings by leaders.

Another issue on which he looked critically was that of discipline. If the party suffered an electoral defeat it was usually because of its own shortcomings, not because it was worsted by a better party or strategy.

He said party workers have to “sacrifice their personal egos” and “be willing to bear personal displeasure” in the larger interest of the organisation.

A day ahead of the meeting he had said that he would not compromise with indiscipline no matter whether a senior leader was involved or the humblest worker. Again, although he did not spell out the context, it was obvious he was referring to the public statements by several MLAs in Gujarat and Rajasthan against their respective chief ministers.

He wanted the party organisation to be present at every polling booth, and to make this happen the party would announce a programme shortly.

Assembly polls

In the afternoon, the executive discussed the recent Assembly elections in Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Goa and the Municipal elections in Delhi. There were some defeats and some victories, he noted, playing down the drubbing the party got in Uttar Pradesh.

Instead of being weighed down by disappointment and despair, the party should see the defeat in U.P. as an “opportunity” to put its house in order and make the party more alert and stable, he said.

The rest of Mr. Singh’s 12-page address dwelt on what he describes as the “failures” of the United Progressive Alliance government.

Issues raised by the BJP repeatedly over the last 18 months – price rise, continuing incidents of suicides by farmers, growth that excludes the poor, policies designed to “appease” the minorities (to use the BJP’s phrase), fear that the Prime Minister would not stick to promises given to Parliament on the Indo-United States nuclear cooperation agreement, the Quattrocchi extradition issue related to the Bofors case, among others – were mentioned by Mr. Singh in criticism of the UPA, even as he lavished praise on the NDA’s record of governance under Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

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