The BJP’s poor showing in the 2009 elections after all the televised thigh-slapping, moustache-twirling, eyeball-flaring and chest-thumping has seen senior functionaries and factotums of the party wash their khaki cheddis in public.
Clearly much of this is post-facto rationalisation on the part of the “dissenters”, intended at positioning themselves, undercutting potential rivals, and carving out their own turf before the change of guard at the top, i.e. Lalchand Kishinchand Advani‘s exit.
In other words, rank opportunism.
But what if the BJP had won the elections and the NDA had formed the government? What tunes would these wise old men have been humming?
***
# “There is a growing tendency among party leaders becoming too self-centered to serve the public cause,” says former defence minister Jaswant Singh.
# “It appears as if some people in the party are determined to ensure that the principle of accountability does not prevail so that their own little perch is not disturbed,” says former finance ministerYashwant Sinha.
# “Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul made an essentially weak Prime Minister like Dr Manmohan Singh look strong by backing him solidly. In contrast, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar made a strong leader like Advani look weak, helpless and not fully in command,” says Advani aide Sudheendra Kulkarni.
# “BJP hasn’t been able to impress on peoples’ mind the purport of Hindutva because they found it narrow-minded or did not find it useful in ascending the throne of power” says RSS ideologue M.G. Vaidya.
# “Varun Gandhi’s speech in Pilibhit caused the greatest amount of damage to BJP,” says former national security advisor Brajesh Mishra.
Cartoon: courtesy E.P. Unny/ The Indian Express
Also read: The only person to blame for BJP defeat is L.K. Advani’
Tola hallakke biddare aaligondu kallu.. He he he..
excellent summary, churumuri.
bjp leaders have never needed krishna more than they do now. particularly these words from saankhya yoga (gita, chapter 2:38):
“sukha-duhkhe same krtva labhalabhau jayajayau tato yuddhaya yujyasva naivam papam avapsyasi.”
translation: “you cannot lose (or sin) if you fight for righteousness without considering comfort or sorrow, profit or loss, victory or loss.”
(it is a quick jhalak of karma yoga, found later in the gita.)
the bjp needs to fight for dharma, which is is really not a function of religion at all.
vote bank politics — whether or not a response to past injustices of muslim invaders — must be abandoned to found a truly inclusive “akhand bharat” for the 21st century.
i look forward to the bjp’s resurgence in 2014!
Mysore Pehwa Saab!
Wah wah bahut quoob!
But BJP indulged in ‘retail’ Nationalism instead of UPA’s ‘wholesale’ Nationalism when it came to Nuclear Deal and other matters. With OddVani refusing to go, you may have to try a different shloka. This one perhaps!
“Sathyam brooyath priyam brooyath na brooyath sathyam apriyam,
Priyam cha na anritham brooyath esha Dharma sanatanaha.”
Go OddVani Go!
It would be interesting to see if then , the BJP would have given the whole credit to Varun just as some people are trying to foist the entire defeat on his young , albeit, broad shoulders.
BJP is in introspection now. Hope for the best.