Opinion - Editorials   

Destructive path

The Bharatiya Janata Party went to Bhopal with a spring in its step, its manner that of a combatant assured of victory. But as it often happens with the principal opposition party, it found itself battling its own existential problems. The BJP intended the three-day national executive meet to focus on the failings of the Manmohan Singh government. Instead party leaders spent much of the time scotching speculation over who would lead the party in a ‘mid-term’ el ection they claimed to be wholly unavoidable — which, they insisted, would mark the triumphant return of Ram and Hindutva. Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s missive, delivered via party president Rajnath Singh, dominated the proceedings, what with the veteran virtually asking to be named the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. The differences between the former Prime Minister and his once second-in-command resurfaced for all to see. All this naturally dampened the high spirits observable during the run-up to the Bhopal meet. The party nevertheless pressed on — rallying and thundering over the Sethusamudram project, passing the usual resolutions on terrorism, minority appeasement, and what not.

For the first time since the BJP made the painful shift from the ruling to the opposition benches, proximate circumstances seemed to be congenial. In the party’s perception its principal rival, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, was in a first–rate crisis that allowed no escape from a 2008 general election. On the one hand, the UPA was engaged in a self-destructive war with the Left parties on the civil nuclear cooperation and deepening strategic relations with the United States. On the other was the official misstep on the Sethusamudram project: the BJP exulted that the Government of India’s affidavit in the Supreme Court refuting “the existence of the characters” in the Ramayana was just what it needed to revive its fortunes. But the problem is that by now it is widely known that the project was the brainchild of the Vajpayee regime, indeed that the clearance was given by Lal Krishna Advani as Home Minister. For the BJP to go on the offensive over a decision that can be traced to its own government is a patent absurdity that voters will see through. Worse, party leaders have allowed the most fanatical fringe elements such as the blood-thirsty, fatwa-issuing Ram Vilas Vedanti, a former BJP MP, to set the terms and the pace of their ‘Ram Sethu’ campaign. The BJP has played the religious card far too often for its own political credibility. It does appear that today’s politically savvy voters, or at least most of them, know better than to walk into that trap once again.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Destructive path
Republicans close ranks
The road home from Khalistan
How Flanders deals with its waste
Corrections and clarifications
Heir manifest
Bandh is no answer
Youth power
Darfur crisis: a view from the inside
India’s ‘rising profile’ in East Asia

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu