With furious in-fighting and lack of much talent in the second rung of the organisational hierarchy, the opposition Bharatitya Janata Party seems seized with a death wish.
IT WASN’T very long ago that the right-wing, pro-Hindu Bharatitya Janata Party used to pride itself for being “a party with a difference”.
Now, it is a party with differences.
Such is the disarray in the affairs of the main opposition party, and so open the schisms between various leaders, that its critics have rushed to write its obituary.
Following its surprise defeat in the May parliamentary poll, there seems to be no end to BJP’s troubles, with party leaders washing dirty linen in public, much to the delight of the ruling Congress Party.
The feuding leaders, completely unmindful of the counsel of the mother organisation, Rashtriya Sawayamsevak Sangh (RSS), are now publicly tearing one another’s reputation to shreds.
Arun Shourie, a former editor and now a prominent member of the party in the Rajya Sabha (House of States), has called party president Rajanth Singh “Humpty-Dumpty”, “Alice in Blunderland”, and the BJP a Kati Patang ( a kite adrift in the sky).
While Shourie is still at it, questioning the leadership of Singh and L.K. Advani, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha (House of the People) and the BJP prime ministerial candidate in the May poll, several other senior leaders too have defied the party president.
The trigger for the current round of hostilities came from senior leader Jaswant Singh.
The former foreign minister in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government, in his new book on the founder of Pakistan, virtually exonerated Mohammed Ali Jinnah for the partition of the Indian sub-continent.
He blamed iconic Congress leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel for the vivisection of a united India.
The BJP hardliners considered Jaswant’s defence of Jinnah as apostasy and promptly sought his expulsion.
Senior leaders in Shimla, the capital of the hill state of Himachal Pradesh, for the Chintan Baithak (Introspection Session) on the future course of the party, decided to expel Jaswant on the first morning of the three-day session.
His expulsion only encouraged him and others to openly challenge the BJP leadership.
It was Shourie who really tore the reputations of senior BJP colleagues to shreds.
An erudite scholar, the former newspaper editor, in a series of television interviews and by-lined articles, poured scorn on Rajanth Singh, Advani and Arun Jatitley, the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.
While ridiculing his senior BJP colleagues, Shourie was, however, careful to shower praise on the leaders of RSS.
The trick seemed to have worked thus far – the BJP has merely asked Shourie to explain his remarks instead of expelling him for his vicious assault on their credibility.
But he may have already done damage to the incumbent party leadership.
Thanks to Shourie’s defiance, senior BJP leader B.C. Khanduri felt emboldened to question the earlier decision to remove him as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand following the May parliamentary poll.
The BJP had lost all the five Lok Sabha seats in the state. In a stinging letter to the party president, Khanduri blamed the rout in Uttarakhand on the party dissidents.
By all accounts, the troubles of the BJP, the only other national party aside from the ruling Congress Party, stem from a crisis of leadership.
Since its founding in 1980 – in its previous avatar it was called the Jana Sangh – the BJP has been led by former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his number two and former deputy prime minister Advani.
Vajpayee, 86, is now too ill and remains confined to his home.
The 81-year-old Advani has his mental and physical faculties in order, but following the surprise poll defeat in the last parliamentary poll he seems to have lost his moral authority to lead the party.
He had stepped down as the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha soon after the poll defeat and a few days later withdrew the resignation, saying he was persuaded by party colleagues.
And he shows no inclination to fade into the sunset any time soon.
Advani would be 86 in 2014 when the next parliamentary poll becomes due. BJP can field him as its prime ministerial candidate at its own peril.
The rival Congress’s most likely candidate, Rahul Gandhi, will then be about 43.
With three-fourths of the electorate below the age 35, it is obvious that the BJP needs a younger leader.
Despite polite suggestions from RSS leaders that he should now play the role of an elder statesman, Advani seems to have dug in his heels.
Adding to the woes of the party is the lack of much talent in the second rungs of the organisational hierarchy.
Barring Arun Jaitlely, leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, and Sushma Swaraj, deputy leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, there is hardly anyone who can step into the rather large shoes of Vajpayee.
Despite the anti-minority image of the BJP, it was the eclectic personality of Vajpayee that had attracted a huge number of unattached voters to the party.
A liberal, modern-minded man cast in the Nehruvian mould, Vajpayee was a reconciler of differences.
Advani, on the other hand, was all along a Hindutva hard-liner, though after Vajpayee he tried to soften his image but in vain.
The BJP’s leadership crisis is compounded further by an identity crisis.
The party is confused over its core ideology.
There is no gainsaying that the country needs a truly right-of-the-centre liberal, democratic party as a foil to the left-of-the-centre and often authoritarian Congress, but it seems BJP is seized with a death wish.
Its incumbent president, Rajnath Singh, lacks the stature and requisite leadership qualities.
His term is due to end in December. Unless the party elects someone younger with promise as its president, its troubles can only grow further.
As the main opposition party with 115 members in the Lok Sabha, BJP’s well-being is crucial for the health of the national polity.
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