Stupefied BJP

by Manish Anand

A stupefied Bhartiya Janta Party unrolled itself at its Mumbai national executive. Dramatis galore, the sheen of the incumbant BJP president Rajnath Singh was stolen by the Vajpayesque of Pramod Mahajan as the designated mascot of the party. Rajnath shouldn't be sulking either as he is the plant of Mahajan for the time being as per the reading goes on.

Bolt for the party was the controversy of Mahajan favouring Reliance and benefiting by proxy by more than Rs 1,000-crore coming in the media. How could sanity in the top BJP leadership decide the future baton of BJP to be passed on to a man with such a battered image. Clash of personalities has always been the undoing of the party. An alternative in the making to Congress is definitely now under question mark.

Interestingly, Mahajan represents the true face of BJP. His organisational skills, raising funds for the party have always been appreciated except for the way the funds were raised. And the party heavily depended on his skills all these years. Remember, the India Shining jaggernaute that BJP unleashed and the man behind the whole exercise.

LK Advani finds it very easy to ascribe the garbage in the party (men caught for cash-for-query scam or sex scandal) to the Congress culture. This is the most simplistic way of washing one's hand off the mess. Advani is now too weak and old to take responsibility for the stink that the party has gathered in its backyard.

The signals coming from Bihar where BJP along with JD(U) has come into power also indicates the compulsiveness of BJP to make goods with the power that it finds itself in. A senior BJP leader and who was tipped to be the deputy chief minister in Bihar twisted officials of his department (he is a minister) for filling up of his vehicles with oil while he along with his family members was on a private trip to Varanasi to pay obeisance to Lord Shiva after he bacame a minister.

Old habits die hard, someone had said. Power trap is too irresistable for BJP to come clean out of it.

Worse is the poverty of idea at the level of top leaders. Probably, they are no more leaders but followers of their folks.

Under these contexts it becomes imperative for Mr Rajnath Singh to be a man of the occassion. Stand up to the challenge and weed out rooten eggs in the basket. Pretty challenging the task is, but must be taken up as he stands at a moment where BJP can either mar its prospects or come stronger in character and commitment.

Early signs do not seem encouraging. Congress must be thanking its stars for being bleassed with its main Opposition party in utter disarray.