"BJP leadership in disarray", says Advani's key aide

S.A.T.A

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"BJP leadership in disarray", says Advani's key aide

7 Jun 2009, 2004 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: The BJP was "enfeebled" by so much "disarray" at the top never before witnessed in its history and its prime ministerial candidate L K Advani himself "failed" to assert his leadership at "crucial points", says a key party strategist while analyzing its poll debacle.

Sudheendra Kulkarni, who is also a close aide of Advani, while giving an insight into the factors behind BJP's defeat in the Lok Sabha elections cited confusion about Hindutva, failure to overcome the party's limited social base, negativism in its campaign and a leadership in disarray.

Writing in news magazine, Kulkarni said the BJP needed to rethink its approach to Muslims, Hindutva, the poor, the RSS and itself.

The BJP's failure to convince the people on the need for a change was rooted in a combination of structural, political, ideological, organisational and campaign-related reasons.

"On the top of all these, we had the Varun Gandhi episode in the middle of the election campaign , which , along with other factors, clearly led to the consolidation of Muslim votes in favour of the Congress in UP."

Kulkarni also said the cropping up of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's name in the middle of the campaign did not help at all.

"Never in the history of the Jana Sangh or the BJP was the party enfeebled by so much disarray at the top. The disorder at the centre and also in several states like Rajasthan, UP and Delhi demoralized the disunited party workers down the line with disastrous results," he said.

"It is also true that Advani himself failed to assert his leadership at crucial points before and during the campaign," he added

"Look at the irony. Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul made an essentially weak Prime Minister like Dr Manmohan Singh look strong by backing him solidly," Kulkarni said, adding, "In contrast, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar made a strong leader like Advani, whose contribution to the growth of the party is enormous, look weak, helpless and not fully in command."

Saddened by this, Kulkarni said many dedicated party workers bemoaned, "Atalji succeeded in becoming Prime Minister because he had Advaniji working for him faithfully and determinedly. Unfortunately this time, there was no Advaniji working similarly for Advaniji."

On BJP's future, he said the BJP can indeed bounce back. "But it can do so only if it first renews and empowers itself comprehensively -- in its ideology, its geographical--social spread, its own political strength, its mass activity, its alliance-building, its cadre-based organizational network, and its leadership."

Kulkarni said he also carried his share of responsibility for the party's defeat.

"As one who was closely associated with the party's election campaign, specifically the campaign of L K Advani, our prime ministerial candidate, I too committed mistakes, he said.

To be meaningful, productive and curative, collective introspection in the party must begin with each one individually, Kulkarni said.

Collective responsibility is a laudable principle, but it can often become a mask for persons in key positions at the central and state levels to evade their individual responsibility, Kulkarni said, adding, "This has often happened in the BJP."
 

Yusuf

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I had seen quite a few of Kukarnis interviews and debates. He used to deny all that he is accepting right now.
Like I have said before in another thread, the BJP was overconfident in it's performance last time, And this time in the percieved non performance if the UPA.
If only the BJP has campaigned positively on what it intended to do rather than get into personal attacks, it could have done better.
 

S.A.T.A

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Kulkarni,a key member of the Advani circle,is merely expressing sentiments that L K Advani himself cannot express in public,This is as close as it can come from the horse's mouth.Kulkarni has merely expressed an opinion which is held bya significant section of the BJP pracharks,esp those who dissent the RSS influence.

RSS has tried to undermine Advani's leadership ever since the BJP lost the elections in 2004.Advani/Vajpayye camp has blamed the RSS interference for the 2004 debacle.In the aftermath of the 2002 riots in Gujarat,it was RSS which torpedoed a more tough stance against the Gujarat leadership,by the Vajpayee govt.

RSS thinks Advani has been actively pursuing policies which are directed at undermining the RSS influence in the BJP,Advani has been accused of building up the BJP cadre which is independent of the RSS and also kept key RSS people away from key post in the central leadership(Like Modi)

There is no doubt that the party leadership is in disarray,the tug of war between the BJP and the RSS is on and the question is can the BJP cut itself loose from the RSS without having to appear to have compromised on its core ideology.
 

Yusuf

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I think Advani is close to the RSS, at least he was.
Its the new breed that want to move on and get rid of being a political wing of the RSS.
 

S.A.T.A

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BJP and RSS share the same ideological space and the respective leadership converge on wide ranging of issues.Its unlikely there will ever be any complete snapping of ideological ties.In the late 80's and the 90's RSS allowed the BJP leadership broad freedom to shape its political policies in tandem with the realities of the post congress dominated era.

This broad understanding was a result of the influence Vajpayye and Advani has within the RSS,this allowed the BJP to forge alliances with regional,but secular parties without having to risk criticism from other sangh allies.

This arrangement came to an end with the elevation of K S Sudarshan as the RSS chief,Sudarshan was not only an hardliner but also would not concede any political ground to the BJP leadership.Sudarshan immediately launched a series of stinging attack against the BJP and he BJP leadership.

Vajpayyee and Advani did not like this intrusion into their political space and also the fact that Sudarshan had increasingly distanced the RSS from the BJP.BJP's defeat in the 2004 election was emphatically aided by the RSS' refusal to actively campaign for the BJP,unless BJP toed the RSS line on key ideological issues(read Ram janambhoomi)

The successive defeats in the last two elections have clearly indicated to the RSS that feud between the Sangh and the BJP with only cost the later more loss of political and ideological space.The question is how is the BJP reading this.

For all the above reasons BJP under Advani will be unacceptable to the RSS.
 

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I hope this result promotes a political culture that moves away from nonsensical partisan populism toward a more comprehensive growth and development based one. I'm not saying that the congress will necessarily excel at this, nor am I a congress supporter or anything like that.

I just think its extremely counterproductive to have political parties like the BJP or the multiple ultra leftist ones that are built on foundations of insecurity and subsequent bigotry.
 

johnee

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Frankly, if BJP moves away from its ideological space in its quest for power, then it would do more harm than good to it. It would lose a dedicated vote bank without gaining any significant other political gain. It would become just another Congress, and that would be its fatal mistake.
BJP's loss is mostly due to its lack of presence in key states of India like Andhara Pradesh, Tamilnadu.......etc. Also, it didnt have credible allies there. So, it lost. But if the party interprets it as a dejection of its ideology and dumps it, then I think effectively BJP would have reversed all its gains in past few years.
 

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Frankly, if BJP moves away from its ideological space in its quest for power, then it would do more harm than good to it. It would lose a dedicated vote bank without gaining any significant other political gain. It would become just another Congress, and that would be its fatal mistake.
BJP's loss is mostly due to its lack of presence in key states of India like Andhara Pradesh, Tamilnadu.......etc. Also, it didnt have credible allies there. So, it lost. But if the party interprets it as a dejection of its ideology and dumps it, then I think effectively BJP would have reversed all its gains in past few years.
People of India have thoroughly rejected Hindutva or the core ideology of BJP.
 

luckyy

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People of India have thoroughly rejected Hindutva or the core ideology of BJP.
i don't think so , ................
this time people votes for stabilty then anything alse......the way left parties behave last time makes the people vote for stabilty........BJP just decline by 10 odd seats from it's tally from last time...whereas left almost lost halfed of their seats...
 

johnee

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People of India have thoroughly rejected Hindutva or the core ideology of BJP.
Congress won the seats by defeating the 'third front' led by Left. BJP mostly retained its share inspite of anti-incumbency. Rest of the places, they didnt have good allies.
BTW, I was wondering if Congress had lost, would you say that people of India have thoroughly rejected secularism?!?:wink: :blum3:
 

S.A.T.A

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BJP's future lies in reinventing itself as a party that occupies the right of the center of the Indian political landscape.This was the path Mr Vajpayee envisaged for the party before the landmark 1996 verdict,that would have been the set course hadn't Godhra happened,which seriously undermined Vajpayee's leadership within the Party and loss of credibility across the political spectrum,unable to set the future course for the party anymore,Vajpayee quit.

BJP's best hopes lie in furthering the Vajpayee experiment,rather than the Gujarat experiment.BJP's core ideology,which is shared by others in the sangh parivar,has a support base,but that support base can only get the party so far and no more.
 

luckyy

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This was the path Mr Vajpayee envisaged for the party before the landmark 1996 verdict,that would have been the set course hadn't Godhra happened.
what happened in godhra ?........the 58 people in the train was not burned by the BJP.

and roits can happened in any state , has such incident happened anywhere alse....
 

S.A.T.A

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what happened in godhra ?........the 58 people in the train was not burned by the BJP.

and roits can happened in any state , has such incident happened anywhere alse....
BJP pretended nothing happened in Godhra and is yet to come to terms with it.

If you are genuinely not aware,and not merely pretend to be so,there is already plenty of literature available on the Godhra and its aftermath.
 

johnee

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BJP pretended nothing happened in Godhra and is yet to come to terms with it.

If you are genuinely not aware,and not merely pretend to be so,there is already plenty of literature available on the Godhra and its aftermath.
SATA,
there is absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind that lot of worse things(some sections tried to make it look a lot worse than it actually was) happened in Godhra(2 compartments full of innocent ppl were burnt) and subsequently in Gujarat riots(800 odd muslims and 200 odd hindus lost their lives). But SATA, why is their hypocrisy in media and political circles about the riots in Gujarat? Didnt riots happen previously in India? Didnt more lives and more ppl were injured in those riots than Gujarat? I am not justifying Gujarat riots or Godhra, I am just trying to put the things in perspective.
 

F-14

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SATA what happened at godhra was horrific to say the least but what drives me crazy is the Total Hipocrsy that is shown by the so called "seculerist " and the congress why is'nt the Marad incident bought up to the same standard of scrutainy ??? or why isnt the Riots of 84 why because it was seculer why do the minorites all ways harp about the Babari masjid havnt we lost many more temples then that are'nt the majority been targeted by the Psy Ops India should acommadate both the Left wing and Right wing parties but that is not happened so far ony the Left is accoamdated but not the Right if yo are with any of the Hindu right wing parties then you called Neo nazi s Saffron terrorist
so on and so forth i many countries i have seen that the majority is respected but not in india here the Minorties rule the majority and treat them like dogs
 

luckyy

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SATA,
there is absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind that lot of worse things(some sections tried to make it look a lot worse than it actually was) happened in Godhra(2 compartments full of innocent ppl were burnt) and subsequently in Gujarat riots(800 odd muslims and 200 odd hindus lost their lives). But SATA, why is their hypocrisy in media and political circles about the riots in Gujarat? Didnt riots happen previously in India? Didnt more lives and more ppl were injured in those riots than Gujarat? I am not justifying Gujarat riots or Godhra, I am just trying to put the things in perspective.
could anybody explain me the mantality of those people who burned those passangers alive in the train.............don't they knows this act can leads to roits....
 

S.A.T.A

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SATA,
there is absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind that lot of worse things(some sections tried to make it look a lot worse than it actually was) happened in Godhra(2 compartments full of innocent ppl were burnt) and subsequently in Gujarat riots(800 odd muslims and 200 odd hindus lost their lives). But SATA, why is their hypocrisy in media and political circles about the riots in Gujarat? Didnt riots happen previously in India? Didnt more lives and more ppl were injured in those riots than Gujarat? I am not justifying Gujarat riots or Godhra, I am just trying to put the things in perspective.
SATA what happened at godhra was horrific to say the least but what drives me crazy is the Total Hipocrsy that is shown by the so called "seculerist " and the congress why is'nt the Marad incident bought up to the same standard of scrutainy ??? or why isnt the Riots of 84 why because it was seculer why do the minorites all ways harp about the Babari masjid havnt we lost many more temples then that are'nt the majority been targeted by the Psy Ops India should acommadate both the Left wing and Right wing parties but that is not happened so far ony the Left is accoamdated but not the Right if yo are with any of the Hindu right wing parties then you called Neo nazi s Saffron terrorist
so on and so forth i many countries i have seen that the majority is respected but not in india here the Minorties rule the majority and treat them like dogs
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When BJP called itself a party with a difference,little did it think about the irony in it that would come to haunt in the years to come.One must ask how different BJP is from the rest of the parties,it derisively called as Pseudo secular,when in 2002 BJP dishing out the same excuses Congress had dished out in the aftermath of the anti-Sikh riots.

I think given its political background,rooted in Hindutva politics and its affiliation with some of the more hardcore elements of the parivar who have been accused of orchestrating the Gujarat riots,its no surprise that the BJP came under close scrutiny for its role in the riots,if not through active participation,then because of its passive association and a tardy administrative response.That the state govt may have somehow deliberately facilitated the mayhem was one of the reason why the Supreme court recently ordered a probe into the role op of Chief Minister Modi and members of his government in the riots.

One might ask if BJP is anymore evil than congress given their role in previous riots,the difference however is how the parties have responded to the accusations,ideologically and politically.

Just take the recent events into consideration,when the Sikh journalist hurled his shoes at the home minister,congress preempted a possible political backlash,by keeping Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan kumar out of the poll fray and then compare BJP's response to Varun Gandhi's anti-Muslim hyperbole,BJP went about felicitating Varun.

This is why Sushma Swaraj went on record saying the party missed Vajpayee's presence,it was quite telling a statement.

BJP must realize that the passion,insecurity and siege mentality that was prevalent in the majority community across the length and breadth of the country during the 70's and the 80's,which helped the party make giant strides in the national political arena,has by and large dissipated.

The political strategies and philosophy that worked for it in the 80's(before the reforms) may not produce happy results in this period of time.BJP needs to look forward not backwards in time for political salvation.
 

F-14

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I personally think that the BJP Needs to modify a Lot
 

johnee

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When BJP called itself a party with a difference,little did it think about the irony in it that would come to haunt in the years to come.One must ask how different BJP is from the rest of the parties,it derisively called as Pseudo secular,when in 2002 BJP dishing out the same excuses Congress had dished out in the aftermath of the anti-Sikh riots.

I think given its political background,rooted in Hindutva politics and its affiliation with some of the more hardcore elements of the parivar who have been accused of orchestrating the Gujarat riots,its no surprise that the BJP came under close scrutiny for its role in the riots,if not through active participation,then because of its passive association and a tardy administrative response.That the state govt may have somehow deliberately facilitated the mayhem was one of the reason why the Supreme court recently ordered a probe into the role op of Chief Minister Modi and members of his government in the riots.

One might ask if BJP is anymore evil than congress given their role in previous riots,the difference however is how the parties have responded to the accusations,ideologically and politically.

Just take the recent events into consideration,when the Sikh journalist hurled his shoes at the home minister,congress preempted a possible political backlash,by keeping Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan kumar out of the poll fray and then compare BJP's response to Varun Gandhi's anti-Muslim hyperbole,BJP went about felicitating Varun.

This is why Sushma Swaraj went on record saying the party missed Vajpayee's presence,it was quite telling a statement.

BJP must realize that the passion,insecurity and siege mentality that was prevalent in the majority community across the length and breadth of the country during the 70's and the 80's,which helped the party make giant strides in the national political arena,has by and large dissipated.

The political strategies and philosophy that worked for it in the 80's(before the reforms) may not produce happy results in this period of time.BJP needs to look forward not backwards in time for political salvation.
I agree with what you have said mostly, except that today India cant be seen as one segment. But there are different parts of it, that have different needs. In places, like Bihar, UP...etc, the siege mentality still exists and it needs leaders like Varun to harness it, though he must be careful not to make such explosive statements. In urban and sub-urban place, BJP needs more sophisticated and young leaders who can connect with the young audience and provide BJP the fresh feel.
So, that means BJP needs to give a new look to its ideology and meet the cunningness of Congress in dealing with allies and opponents.
BJP shouldnt change its core ideology(changing the ideology would be a political death of BJP and a loss to Indian politics) but repackage it so that it can appeal to their current audience. But one thing that analysts must not miss is that, english media has been very hostile to BJP and it has hurt them. They need to somehow cultivate the media to be more friendly to them.
 

S.A.T.A

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With the exception of the period under Vajpayee, BJP has had difficulty forging meaningful alliances that give political value to it.Just like the term 'Hindu' does not represent a purely homogeneous entity,the 'Hindu' vote is not a homogeneous block.

In the coming days BJP's ability to manage its allies will be fully tested,In Maharashtra BJP has an alliance with Shivsena and in Bihar with JDU,BJP is itself by and large based in the Hindi heartland,in the coming days Shiv Sena,which has increasingly conceded the political space on the 'Maratha manoos',will try to reclaim lost ground and the usual first step is going to be the Hindi migrant issue,which had been put by it in the political freezer.

BJP also needs to rethink on some of its less than favorable alliances.The Sena in MAH and the Akalis in Punjab.
 

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