The Hindu Business Line : Why the BJP must get its act together

EVERYBODY loves a winner. Whether in the world of sports, politics, the entertainment industry, or the equity market, losers are not only looked upon with a certain disdain, but also punished severely. More so in politics than anywhere else.

The exit last week of two BJP stalwarts, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mr L. K. Advani — the first from active politics, and the second from the party's presidentship — reinforced this yet again.

Mr Vajpyaee, in characteristic fashion, bowled a googly while announcing that he was retiring from electoral politics, adding in the next breath that the party's future leadership was safe in the hands of a new Ram and Lakshman jodi (combination), like the one he and Mr Advani had earlier represented. By anointing his close confidante, Mr Pramod Mahajan, the new `Lakshman' of the party, Mr Advani having graduated to the position of `Ram', Mr Vajpayee set the cat among the pigeons.

With several second-level leaders such as Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley also in the fray for the No. 2 position in the party, which will get the official seal when the Party President's post falls vacant for a three-year term in 2007, Mr Vajpayee's statement raised hackles. It was sad to see the derision with which BJP leaders responded to his statement, even as Mr Mahajan could barely hide his glee.

But the knives were out the next morning. Venkaiah Naidu not only dismissed this analogy but also made fun of it, claiming there were "many Lakshmans in the BJP", while comparing himself to Hanuman.

Ms Swaraj made light of it by pointing to Mr S. S. Ahluwalia, who was standing next to her when a reporter sought her reaction on the Lakshman comment, saying: "He is my Lakshman".

The derision with which Mr Vajpayee's remark was received revealed many aspects of the beleaguered and undisciplined entity that the BJP has become.

Ever since the party lost its position as the head of a coalition government at the Centre during the 2004 General Election, Mr Vajpayee has been relegated to the background. Of course, all the BJP netas have paid lip-service to his value and vision for the party. But this is only on public platforms. Since April 2004, Mr Vajpayee has been humiliated, directly and indirectly, and by all segments of the Parivar, including the RSS.

When a man who had handled the Foreign Ministry with both aplomb and maturity as India's foreign minister in the Janata regime post-Emergency, and dextrously steered the NDA government as prime minister through some tough and tricky times, says, when asked to comment on the BJP's resolution condemning the UPA government's handling of foreign policy: "What can I say? I do not understand foreign policy affairs", it is the silent protest of a leader who has been neglected or sidelined.

What is happening to Mr Vajpayee within the BJP is reminiscent of what happened to P. V. Narasimha Rao after the Congress got a drubbing in the 1996 General Elections.

He was hounded and humiliated and virtually forced to quit as Congress(I) president later that year. That Sitaram Kesri, the man who succeeded him in that post, faced a worse fate is another story.

Rao faced corruption charges and Congressmen were only too keen to keep away from him as they sang hosannas to the new star of the party, Ms Sonia Gandhi. The man who had ushered in the era of economic reforms, the payoff for which the country is enjoying now, died a lonely and unsung hero in December 2004.

It was left to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an extremely decent human being and not the typical politician this country has seen, to hail Rao as the "father of India's economic reforms". Describing his passing away as a "personal loss", he added: "Whatever I could do as finance minister was because of his unstinting support."

It looks as though Mr Vajpayee, too, is being abandoned by the BJP's leaders as one who has outlived his utility to the party, even as second-level leaders eye the party president's full-term slot.

Mr Advani, who was virtually forced to step down as party chief following his Jinnah-is-secular comment in Pakistan, should also be smarting at the humiliation he has recently been subjected to at the hands of some BJP leaders.

But even as the RSS-blessed Mr Rajnath Singh takes over the leadership of the party, amid continued machinations by some to capture the post, there is little doubt that if for some reason the UPA government were to be toppled — after all, it is a coalition government backed by the Left's outside support and stranger things have happened to coalition governments — it is Mr Advani who will, willy-nilly, emerge as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.

There are just too many power centres and ambitions in the party's underbelly to zero down on a `Lakshman' (or his female counterpart) through consensus.

Even as Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani had their low moments at the recent BJP conclave in Mumbai, an encouraging aspect was that the party, without blaming X, Y or Z for the cash-for questions sting operation, was able to bring on board the issue of corruption and the unprecedented shame their expelled six MPs had brought the BJP.

In stark contrast to the RSS, which had tried to hold a brief for the trapped MPs, the BJP gathering condemned the act without exception and offered no excuses for the shameful behaviour of the MPs who readily and greedily accepted whatever they were offered for merely raising a query in Parliament.

Mr Advani hit the nail on the head when he said that though the previous "25 weeks" have been extremely painful for the party, it would be mistake for anybody to write off the BJP.

If the faction-riddled party and its ambitious second-rung leaders can put aside their personal ambitions and petty rivalries and learn to work together, the BJP can present a formidable opposition to the UPA.

If there is a problem of plenty when it comes to second-line leaders in the BJP, it is a story of a virtual famine in the Congress, where only the most foolish in this line can harbour ambitions of heading the party!

The most chilling thought, though, is that the one BJP leader who is watching the power tussle within his party from a distance, while he makes a pretty decent job of governing his State of Gujarat — Narendra Modi — might pip the rest to the post of not only BJP President but also its prime ministerial candidate in the next General Election.

He might not get all-round support, and some of you might not agree with his communal politics, but he will certainly have the blessing of the entire Sangh Parivar, particularly the RSS.

(Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in)