Squirming in the abyss

Manish Anand

Flogging a dead horse is the favourite time pass for many and particularly for Indians. The BJP rather its leadership appears to be the proverbial dead horse. The media ordeal for the party which began since June this year is nowhere at its end. It is to the credit of the party that the media have spent reams of papers and hours and hours of TV flogging the party.

What if the party had not lost the Lok Sabha polls. The Jaswant Singhs, Sudheendra Kulkarnis and Arun Shouri would have continued enjoying the comforts of the power. Experts are giving their advices for revival of the party, while Mr Shouri has taken inspiration from Mao Zedong (Just bombard the headquarter and bring competent leaders from the state). The saga will continue for now, as some powerful satraps are orchestrating it from inside.

Just wonder if the people could ever see the same level of mud-slinging on the top leadership of the Congress from the within. Never. So, at least we can concede that the BJP is much more democratic than any family run political enterprises.

The BJP will rise to the challenges both from the within and outside, as the party has millions of cadres. The purge has to reach to its logical conclusion. The party has just to get rid of the "fixers". The second largest political party is a dead horse now due to the "fixers" getting regularly awarded with Lok Sabha tickets, ministerships and lot more. The Congress too suffers from the fixers but this party does not make them "leaders".

The BJP had nothing to gain from the likes of Jaswant Singh, Kulkarnis and Shouris, as the folks of their likes will come with no wastage of time if the party makes a roaring comeback. But the party will suffer and has suffered due to the disconnect with the mass, who do not largely read the English newspapers or watch English news channels.

The BJP is a party which romanticises Indian Nationalism, as the cadres that it draws have the figure of mother India imprinted. The RSS as its father figure is blessed with sharp minds drawn from all walks of life, which has been a much lenient parent. It will do a much greater service to Indian polity if it becomes more proactive, which it could just to do by purging the fixers.

As the BJP squirms in its abyss, few within the party sitting on the fence must be wondering at the fate of the party, which is now reduced to the dull media getting breather at its expense. A big party like the BJP is not going to die but it is to be seen what it does while languishing in the abyss.