The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s own flagship right wing party and I am loath to call it the Hindu Right Wing Party (since they know precious little about the Hindu way of life or its unique but subtle power of assimilation) has since the 2004 general elections, lost much of its sheen, steam and gloss.
If we thought nothing could defeat the BJP in 2004, who were riding high on the urban popularity rating chart and an entire election campaign epitomised by the India Shining Campaign, little did we, urban rats, housed in glass encased towers, hermitically sealed off from the real India, realise the power of the rural populace. The BJP got a historic thumbs down – a shock from which they have been unable to recover till date. Their predicament has been compounded by the sad loss of Pramod Mahajan, their master strategist, who not only made up the moderate face of the party but was responsible for micro-managing each local and state election that the BJP fought while they were in power with, on an average, very satisfactory results.
The current think tank at the BJP is not only woefully short of ideas but at times fatally fails to judge people’s emotions. Take the case of the Mumbai terror attacks – in their haste to show the UPA government in poor light, the whole of the BJP top brass led by Advani and closely followed by Modi landed when blood was still freely following. It left a very bad taste in the people’s mouth and I guess this was one of the major reasons why their rhetoric on terror and its risks never paid off, even if what was mouthed was largely true. Another instance of insanity running riot in the BJP camp was the Quixote (and an extremely ill-advised) attack on Manmohan Singh. He may be whatever else but no one can grudge his academic and intellectual credentials or his honesty and faithfulness to his country and office. Calling such an erudite person ‘nikkamma’ or a good-for-nothing was not done at all, and the country did not buy an iota of this grand Advani dictum.
The BJP, moreover, inspite of having the example of Narendra Modi – who has proved again and again that performance pays – did nothing to assure either the rural or the urban voters about the development agenda of the NDA government. Their constant harping on terror and the myth of a week Prime Minister ended up in not only eroding their voter base but landing with a much lower number of seats in the lower house.
Performance Mr. Advani, performance. That’s the order of the day. Please take a cue from your own chief ministers or your NDA ally Nitish Kumar. They will, I bet, vouch for it. No longer will complicated caste-religion combinations sway the masses as it once did. See the jolt that the detestable Mayawati received!
If we thought nothing could defeat the BJP in 2004, who were riding high on the urban popularity rating chart and an entire election campaign epitomised by the India Shining Campaign, little did we, urban rats, housed in glass encased towers, hermitically sealed off from the real India, realise the power of the rural populace. The BJP got a historic thumbs down – a shock from which they have been unable to recover till date. Their predicament has been compounded by the sad loss of Pramod Mahajan, their master strategist, who not only made up the moderate face of the party but was responsible for micro-managing each local and state election that the BJP fought while they were in power with, on an average, very satisfactory results.
The current think tank at the BJP is not only woefully short of ideas but at times fatally fails to judge people’s emotions. Take the case of the Mumbai terror attacks – in their haste to show the UPA government in poor light, the whole of the BJP top brass led by Advani and closely followed by Modi landed when blood was still freely following. It left a very bad taste in the people’s mouth and I guess this was one of the major reasons why their rhetoric on terror and its risks never paid off, even if what was mouthed was largely true. Another instance of insanity running riot in the BJP camp was the Quixote (and an extremely ill-advised) attack on Manmohan Singh. He may be whatever else but no one can grudge his academic and intellectual credentials or his honesty and faithfulness to his country and office. Calling such an erudite person ‘nikkamma’ or a good-for-nothing was not done at all, and the country did not buy an iota of this grand Advani dictum.
The BJP, moreover, inspite of having the example of Narendra Modi – who has proved again and again that performance pays – did nothing to assure either the rural or the urban voters about the development agenda of the NDA government. Their constant harping on terror and the myth of a week Prime Minister ended up in not only eroding their voter base but landing with a much lower number of seats in the lower house.
Performance Mr. Advani, performance. That’s the order of the day. Please take a cue from your own chief ministers or your NDA ally Nitish Kumar. They will, I bet, vouch for it. No longer will complicated caste-religion combinations sway the masses as it once did. See the jolt that the detestable Mayawati received!
2 comments:
Mr.Narendra Modi was always over confident in his stle of electoring. He produce himself as a Icon of Hindutya which failed in other States except in Gujarat.
Modi was sent back in 2007 UP elections from Kanpur over night due to security reasopons.In the night Modi was shifted from Kanpur.
No BJP candidate from Muslims dominated area of UP wanted that Modi should be allowed in his constituency.
This was a lesson for the BJP in UP election. In 2009 Parliament elections Modi failed in UP.
Modi is a Poster Boy of Gujarat only. Modi wins Gujarat due to fear psychosis of Hindus from Muslims. Hindus think that Modi is only given them protections from Muslims.
Muslims are now well organised and again going in the fold of Congress Party. Modi should never be sent by BJP for electoring where Muslims are in Majority and there is good co-ordination between Hindus and Muslims.
Modi is a poster boy spending lot of Govt. money in his propoganda in Gujarat with out any check on him.
Politics just got interesting.. dont u think?
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