Washing Dirty Linen in Public
Friday, 12. June 2009 - 2:01 AM
Sudheendra Kulkarni’s essay on the BJP’s dismal electoral performance has been met with much discussion, debate and in several cases, outright fury. It’s a few days old and I largely chose to ignore it. On second thoughts, it deserves a little more probing if only to showcase it as a shining roadsign of the things that are horribly wrong with the BJP today.
The first roadsign is the article itself. The contrast cannot be starker: a top gun, a very close confidant of the failed Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP “introspects” in a paper whose blood is made of billions of virulent anti-BJP RBCs. Even the staunchest Sudheendra Kulkarni (SK) fans will find it hard to pass this article off as “strategy.” SK’s long-wided apologia is really a symptom of a deeper malaise that’s pervasive in the BJP: a historical tendency to wash its dirty linen in public. Whatever the media support for the Congress party, no Congress party member has ever done something this monumental.
All articles, blogs, and posts have condemned SK’s essay as reprehensible on the grounds that SK is an ex-Communist. That doesn’t make for sound logical sense. Ever since he joined the BJP and occupied his present position, SK has largely spoken in the BJP’s favour. So let’s grant him that and proceed purely on the “merits” of his piece. Interestingly, Tehelka’s byline for the piece neatly sums up his position.
In a deeply introspective essay, LK Advani’s key aide says that if the BJP wants to win, it needs to rethink its approach to Muslims, Hindutva, the poor, the RSS, and itself.
Which is absolutely right. The problem with SK is that he’s your average “modern” Hindu in the sense of the English-educated Hindu. He has no–as far as I know–grassroots background like the one that characterizes hundreds of thousands of RSS workers. Additionally, he lacks the intellectual vigour of an Arun Shourie, who despite being English-educated, articulates the Hindu position with superb clarity, honesty, and force. That leaves us with a born-again “modern” Hindu upon whom a position of eminence was thrust suddenly. It is only natural he has “introspected” the way he has. I could find only this much to say in his favour. The rest of my post weighs on what works against him.
Most of his article sounds like an extended version of a poorly-written piece that can be rightly termed An apology for Advani or In Defence of LK Advani. His subtle attempt at painting Narendra Modi and Varun Gandhi as the fall guys are good examples of this. When he dwells on the causes for the BJP’s steady loss of allies, he mentions the Gujarat riots. That’s pretty farfetched because we all know that electoral alliances are purely opportunistic where everybody sides with the biggest guy: had the BJP bagged 200 plus seats, would he still write this way?
The real reason the BJP lost was because it repeatedly screwed itself up at multiple levels like I wrote earlier. Accepting this plain truth without resorting to obsessive denial, blame-games, and whining is the best introspection. Face it: for five years, the Left proved to be a better Opposition than the actual Opposition party.
The other, deeper disease that has steadily eaten into the BJP is the power-mongering and lamb-to-the-slaughter tactics. Ever since it tasted blood in the jungle of politics, the “top” leaders of the BJP systematically sidelined and kicked out the really committed people. Govindacharya (does anybody remember him now?) immediately comes to the mind. He was the strategist, the actual brain that directed the whole Ayodhya movement. Guess who is now known as the architect of the Ayodhya movement? This isn’t to malign Advani’s role but an attempt to showcase the consequences of sacrificing ideology at the altar of individual whims and ambitions.
Besides, you cannot rest solely on the strength of your past good deeds. I need to know exactly one accomplishment of Advani in the past five years as leader of the Opposition, or his prowess in leading the 2009 campaign. He mostly outsourced the campaign to Sudheendra Kulkarni who comprehensively botched it. On the contrary, the Congress party successfully whitewashed five years of ignominy upon ignominy by skilful manipulation, silence, strategem, PR, and media support.
But Sudheendra Kulkarni is right when he says there’s confusion in the way the BJP articulates Hindutva. The BJP and the Sangh Parivar has continually persisted in a defiant stubbornness to tone down its angry and mindless rhetoric. Anger is good strategy if it is backed by confident articulation, and the ability to induce instant guilt. The Sangh Parivar’s anger is both impotent and inconsequential, and provides great fodder for the media. Additionally, it lacks media management. The amazing commitment of the RSS workers towards nation building and selfless social service is invisible to the newspaper-reading and news-channel watching middle class India. The only face this audience sees is the one where the RSS folks are on a rampage when they’re provoked. The BJP has done nothing to correct or counter this. Saintlike people like Dr. Sudharshan who continues to better the lives of Adivasis in the forests of B.R.Hills are unknown. How many of us know that the proceeds from the sales of several local brands of pure Honey (not Dabur Honey) go to the bank accounts of these poor Adivasis, thanks to Dr. Sudharshan? The few who really articulate the Hindu position are again, sidelined. Here’s a pretty apt observation about the issues that over-zealous Hindutva guys face:
The parivar folks have a simple shakha-drill mindset. They do not focus enough on developing and transmitting ideas and ideology (even though they profess to). Advani exemplifies this ideological timidity. His only goal in life has been to simply be accepted into the charmed circle of the ‘secularists’. He has looked at them for approval – for stamping and certifying his every move…they have to start being the ideation engine in India to guide their technocrats – but given that the great unwashed do not vote for ideas anyways – you need a popular leader to get the votes – and then hand it over to the technocrats to get the job done….the most hand-off-to-technocrats approach in his ministry was external affairs (read Talbot’s book on how Jaswant started with a track-2 channel and took over the ministry) and disinvestment (remember the Maruti offer?). The most parivar minded-ministries were home (Advani) and HRD (MM Joshi) – and look where that got you. No police reform, no strong arming of terrorists (only tall talk), no crushing of Naxal violence, no liberalisation of higher education.
SK then bares his barely-concealed secular-speak when he elaborates on the BJP’s “need” to be Muslim-friendly. Incidentally, the whole point about the BJP being anti-Muslim is blown out of proportion by the Grand Axis of Communists, media, the Congress party and the towering intellectual giants at our universities. The real issue is not whether to “include” Muslims in the BJP’s scheme of things or no. Do all parties agree that Muslims are as much Indians as the rest of us? I assume they do. So why do they need to be “included” again? The Congress party at least has a disgusting excuse to “include” Muslims. What’s the BJP’s excuse? SK writes:
In five long years after 2004, the BJP did not come up with a single worthwhile initiative which Muslims could welcome. Take the example of the Sachar Committee report. No doubt, the Congress party, guided by its votebank politics, tried to appease the Muslim community with some dangerous and thoroughly condemnable pronouncements — reservation for Muslims on religious grounds…But was everything about the Sachar Committee report or its recommendations objectionable? After all, by highlighting widespread socio-economic backwardness within the Muslim community, the report laid bare the successive Congress governments’ own failures and betrayals towards a community that has been its most loyal supporter. Sadly, the BJP rejected the Sachar report completely and unreservedly. The party could have responded to its findings and recommendations in a more nuanced manner by presenting some alternative proposals for addressing poverty and backwardness among Muslims. It didn’t do so because, as I have mentioned earlier, the party’s collective mind is suffering from a prolonged confusion about how to deal with issues relating to Indian Muslims. Those leaders who want to think and act innovatively know that they are prone to be quickly accused of following a “Muslim- appeasement” policy.
This is proof for why I said Kulkarni was neither a grassroots level Hindu nor the modern Hindu of the Arun Shourie stain. The appropriate question to ask was this: was the Sachar Committee necessary to set up in the first place? So does this mean that the 85% of Hindu population is living on a daily diet of milk and honey? Besides, what’s the attitude of the Muslim leadership for repeated calls to integrate into the mainstream without feeling marginalized/vicitimized, without demanding special privileges, without taking offence at every sneeze, without demanding separate laws….? When Abdul Kalam became President, a man who Manmohan Singh described as “a true patriot” wrote thus:
Dr Zakaria wrote in The Asian Age that presidential nominee A P J Abdul Kalam cannot be considered a Muslim because he a) does not involve himself in the affairs of the community and b) he does not follow Islamic tenets like fasting during Ramzaan, saying namaaz five times a day. Worse, Dr Zakaria wrote, Kalam’s favourite scripture was the Bhagvad Gita, and favourite deity was Krishna. But for the fact that he was born with a Muslim name, there was nothing Muslim about Kalam, ran the tenor of the piece. Dr Zakaria also left himself an escape route: he wrote that Kalam will not make a Muslim President on the lines of Dr Zakir Hussain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed…
SK is partially right when he commends the Congress party’s strategy of exerting complete support for Manmohan Singh because he also says:
Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul made an essentially weak Prime Minister like Dr Manmohan Singh look strong by backing him solidly. 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.
That’s because they knew that Advani had already scored a self-goal by inviting Manmohan Singh for an American-style TV debate. What percentage of the voters whose votes really matter know about an American-style TV debate? And even those of us who know, how do we really care? But Advani just didn’t stop there. His invitation metamorphosed into a taunt and then into full-blown aggression when he began railing words like weak, and coward. But SK really stretches things too far when he calls Advani a “strong” leader. Recall what I said: you cannot rest on your past laurels. Advani was a strong leader 10-20 years ago but he wasn’t a contender for the Prime Ministerial position then. Between then and now, a new generation of voters has found its way to the ballot box. Did Advani ensure that he was acceptable to this generation? He obviously didn’t and he lost his last chance.
It doesn’t need me to say this: in politics as in showbiz, perception is more important than reality. The Congress projected this perception quite well in the voters’ minds. More importantly, like I said in my earlier post, the Congress party did not win at the expense of the BJP.
The BJP’s chances of a comeback lies in first getting out of denial mode followed by a massive cleanup of lazy, inept, and half-baked people. That list also includes gatecrashers.
Tags: 15th Lok Sabha Elections, Advani, BJP, Commentary, Communists, Congress, Elections 2009, Ex-Communists, India, Indian Media, Indian Politics, Lal Krishna Advani, LK Advani, Lok Sabha Elections, Lok Sabha Elections 2009, Manmohan Singh, Media Watch, Politics, Pseudosecularism, Secular Media, Secularism, Society & Culture, Sonia Gandhi, Tehelka, UPA
12. June 2009 - 6:52 AM
Great job Sandeep – as always you find a way to express what I deeply feel, but am unable to articulate. The one other suggestion would be for them to rely less on allies and build their own organization. Either that – or swallow-up parties whole. As Kanchan Gupta has written on his blog, everywhere they ally – they lose long-term. Of course – this would mean not being in power for some time, which is good. It will mean that the hangers-on will walk away
12. June 2009 - 11:16 AM
i thnk that clean-up list shuld also include advani and kulkarni.
12. June 2009 - 11:43 AM
San,
Hats off to you.
I quote you,” The BJP’s chances of a comeback lies in first getting out of denial mode followed by a massive cleanup of lazy, inept, and half-baked people. That list also includes gatecrashers.”
Hope they (BJP) heed to it and address it- sooner the better. But first if they start realizing this too, that ‘Media’ played an equally important role if not the really important role- and this victory is much of Padam Shri/ Bhushan Didis and Bhayias of MSM than of Matta Balidaan Murti or ‘Dignity Personified MMS’.
PI
12. June 2009 - 12:47 PM
can you also please list out the lazy,inept and half-baked people? It will be good to get them identified. I suspect that some of the people that have a ‘star’ status in some circles will fit in aptly in this list.
The criticism on Varun and Modi, and blaming them for everything including losing allies, is now beyond stupid. Please think about TN – Jayalalitha kept the option open until the day Rajasthan/Delhi assembly results came out. When BJP lost those two states, she took the right political decision of dumping the BJP. Even when Jaitley croaks post-elections on TV that she also lost, she proved that her calling on the BJP’s fate was absolutely spot on.
Using one single guy as the reason for debacle in far away distant lands is another stupidity. I can argue that the BJP started losing in UP because it aligned with DMK in TN in 1999. DMK leader has had a life time of abusing Sri Ram so I argue that the voters in UP saw thru BJP’s hypocrisy. Now wont the strategists say ‘dont be stupid, there is no way the voter in UP is worried about what we did in TN’?
Slowly, after reading Kanchan, your post, and seeing for myself the behaviour in the last couple of years, I am losing respect for Advani.
One final point -regardless of any merits of SK’s views (there is none), being an insider, closest aide of PM candidate, and some call ‘campaign strategist’, SK has no right to ‘introspect’ openly like an outsider. This is as honest as congress leaders lamenting only 10 paise out of a rupee reaching the poor, after being in power for 50+ years. He probably wrote a commissioned article for a fee, as one last ‘service’ to his party.
12. June 2009 - 1:29 PM
Can you refer me to what SK had written?
Also, can you elaborate your ideas on what else could be the issues that made BJP to lose. Here , I understood that, you have concentrated more on Advani and SK.
But, why this failure of BJP did not happen uniformly across Bharat?
12. June 2009 - 1:40 PM
Sandeep,
I am an avid fan of your blog and have been reading it regularly for more than a year now. But this post has disappointed me totally.
You seem to have missed the Forrest for the trees. SK venting out in his article is just a symptom. The actual disease is the total lack of leadership from BJP. When the leader doesnt stand up and lead then it falls on the shoulders of others to come forward and fill the gap left by the absence of the leader. In this case when LK Advani didnt come up and make a statement, then it gives others an opportunity to come out and wag.
When the US election results were announced I was in the US and followed it closely. John McCain lost and he came out on the results night and gave an absolutely fantastic speech. He had the decency and courage to first congratulate Obama and then rally his party and workers to now work with the new President and give all necessary support. He was extremely graceful in conceding the election and moving on.
In contrast the complete lack of any sort of public acceptance of the verdict by Advani and his gang is very discouraging.
This would have been a golden opportunity to rubbish all the left wing media pundits who paint the BJP as a narrow minded party and show the graciousness in bowing to the final verdict of the people and would have been a good opportunity to kick start the introspection.
But we first saw LK saying that he would step down (which again is a completely wrong signal to send to the rank and file and the timing sucks) and then we saw him continue on. The sad excuse that he gave of the sangh persuading him to stay on is even worse (shows that others can influence you).
This again shows when the top leader is not strong then it gives all and sundry an opportunity to come out and wag and pretend to be the actual leaders.
What should have happened is that one of the senior BJP leaders should have actually handled the public relations part by putting out enough literature on the party’s performance and its aftermath. This would have then not given an opportunity to SK (a new comer to the party) to come out.
In all fairness you have to admit that SK did wait for a long time for BJP party elders to come out and talk. When that didnt happen SK did what he is meant to do.
I mean SK is after all a media animal. This was seen during the election. What else did you expect a man of SK’s caliber to do? Just sit quite and twiddle his thumbs?
12. June 2009 - 1:44 PM
ok. Mea culpa . When i opened the article only the first few paras loaded. But when i posted my comment the complete article loaded. Looks like my comment supports your line of thought.
12. June 2009 - 8:30 PM
Good post. BJP’s problem lies in gate crashers having more say than mass leaders in BJP. When AC room strategists like Kulkarni try to override a grass-root leader like NaMo, you know the coterie has grown too strong,
12. June 2009 - 9:58 PM
What is most disappointing thing is, BJP is using Hindutva as strategy and not an end goal, actually it should be other way. I need not have tell the audience what is Hindutva all about.
Now BJP will do lot introspection and finally conclude it needs a congress culture to get to seat of power.It will start luring minorities, they will try to become more secular than ‘Jinna’ the Father of secularism,and will dump Hindutva.
All that BJP needed was honesty and selfless service to nation,I don’t want congress in a new symbol. What’s worng with Hindutva? Why is there so much taboo on Hindutva among young?
New generation is ignorant and are infested with inferiority complex.There is no other civilization which promotes freedom of thought than our’s, these young minds are biased by media and they look down Hindutva as poisonous venom.
Create awareness among young, like “Left”, “Right” should have long term strategy,work for end goal, the Hindu nationalism, the vision of Krishna,Chanakya and Vidyaranya.
Let US root out ISLAM(not Muslims), Christianity(not Christians), communism form our land , if possible from this world. This is the duty of every Hindu and should be the end goal of any political party who stand by Hindu society.
BJP need(lack) patriots.
RSS need(lack) intellectuals.
Hindus need(lack) courage and selflessness.
Let truth prevail…
Very Unrealistic hhhhaa????
12. June 2009 - 10:05 PM
one can’t paint varun and modi with the same brush. varun’s an idiot, while modi is a visionary.
12. June 2009 - 11:29 PM
“perception is more important than reality. ”
This is true–the way you are perceived by the public is 90% of the game…the BJP needs better PR–it needs to respond adequately to the negative perceptions of it that are propagated by the media….I have also wondered why none of the honest, hard work of the RSS is showcased to the public by the BJP? This is its own failure.
If the media is against it, it has to takcle this problem in a clever fashion, not by arousing more negativity against it…this is politics after all. I mean look at how Congress portrays itself as being pro-poor and pro-minority without actually doing anything for them…
Moreover, since big business in India generally is pro-BJP it should have a very well articulated media campaign of its own through this support of those with $$$ to counter any negativity propagated by the Congress-friendly media.
13. June 2009 - 10:27 AM
well done sandeep
being an rss ideologue,i seriously feel that it’s time the bjp gets rid of people like sudheendra kulkarni,who though enjoy power but are not at all accountable.
here is a man who planned all the media campaign,lead from the front and now when his ideas have crushed leading to bjp’s defeat,instead of taking full responsibility,lo he is criticizing all and sundry but himself and his ilk.
secondly,more than a bjp worker,he is the “personal aide”of lk advani and so in his every article he can be seen to be defending lk advani and criticizing the party.
13. June 2009 - 1:17 PM
Sandeep,
Good write up. But you like so many others (offstumped, Kanchan etc) seem to dismiss any need to discuss Hindutva. Most people who don’t vote for BJP, cite Hindutva as the main reason. And no by Hindutva they don’t mean rabble rousing Ram Sene but BJP/RSS involvement in Gujarat Riots and Babri Masjid demolition.
Any analysis which doesn’t question Hindutva is just a hogwash. People like Kulkarni and Jaswant have the intellectual honesty to introspect and stand up to RSS which many others apparently lack.
13. June 2009 - 1:22 PM
Islam watch:
Would like to bring to your attention the large public billboards all across Bangalore which are using Obama’s recent speech to promote Islam.
Lines like : “What did Obama quote from the Quran? To know more contact …”
I believe they are giving away free Qurans etc.
Request Sandeep to do a write up if possible.
13. June 2009 - 2:02 PM
>>>”Ever since it tasted blood in the jungle of politics, the “top” leaders of the BJP systematically sidelined and kicked out the really committed people. Govindacharya (does anybody remember him now?) immediately comes to the mind.”
Govindacharya seems to be the right person to define ideology and policies. Modi to administer.
Shourie to take on intelligentsia, academics, ELM and other parties.
If these three get to decide on these spheres, future for India looks better; for next ten years or so.
They need to then hand over to younger lot having same rigour and dedication to principles.
13. June 2009 - 7:33 PM
Well spoken. Along with SK, Arun Jaitly is equally to blame for the party’s rout. Since he would have been first to take credit for any victory , he can hardly escape responsibility for this defeat. His poor media management is hugely to blame for the party’s poor showing in urban areas. Worse than ‘shrillness’, is whining, sulking and backbiting.
It is time for the BJP to shrug off its inferiority complex and emerge for the truly nationalistic force it set out to be.
14. June 2009 - 4:53 AM
Elections are fought every five years. It does not matter if you lose one or two of them. What matters is how do you deal with the losses. The BJP has certainly looked lost and confused. The BJP has a history for messing it up when the tide is in its favour. So to expect that it would do well when things are not so hunky dory is expecting a bit too much out of them. If BJP does not get its act together it will be wiped out. People who vote for BJP have very high expectations and hence get disillusioned very fast when they see no improvement in the functioning of the government or reduction in corruption. The BJP needs to revamp its organisation totally if it wants to challenge the Congress. If it wants to be a clone of Congress than people will prefer to vote for the real one.
14. June 2009 - 12:41 PM
Sorry for posting this totally unrelated stuff but you had raised this issue some time back in your blog
“http://expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=AP+tops+list+of+crimes+against+women&artid=W/bJNMff3C8=&SectionID=e7uPP4|pSiw=&MainSectionID=e7uPP4|pSiw=&SEO=Sri+Laxmi,+Lakshmi+Sujatha,+Ayesha+Meera,+Bhargavi&SectionName=EH8HilNJ2uYAot5nzqumeA==”
AP tops list of crimes against women
I think Indian Express is lying. How can this happen in the AP which was represented by great RENUKA CHOWDARY (of “talibanisation of Mangalore” fame), the ex-Women and Child Development minister of India.
And where is the Pink Chaddi group ….. Seems like they have gone into hibernation till the next election like the jerks of Rama Sena
14. June 2009 - 8:34 PM
Couldn’t agree more with you . The problem with the BJP is not current, The seeds were sown the first time the party touched 200 following Ayodhya.Over the last decade the BJP has been drifting around like a neurotic without identity.Look at all the speeches made inside and outside the parliament before the BJP came to power and after. My personal all time best is when Mr.Vajpayee jee started his reply to the confidence motion against the party with the anecdote of melons in winter.
With the next win the ever opportunistic ELM ran a sustained and strategic campaign of “dove’ Vajpayee vs “Hawk” Advani. While the accuracy of the descriptions can be questioned the BJP swallowed the line and made every possible effort to ingratiate itself with the media; So you had the handsome Mr. Mahajan transform from a RSS affliate to a goggled ,laptop carrying , bandgala wering socialite, and the media space occupied by the ‘dumb blonde” brigade of the BJP (Smooth talk, Sophisticated english and zero intellect)While the intellectual giants that had formulated the core ideology and had made it a party with difference were pushed to the backrooms of the party office.
The party must understand as any party should that you can’t please everyone. It is never going to win the support of the ELM and No Muslim is ever going to consider it a first option. There are people who have avisceral hatred for the BJP just as there are people with same feelings for the congress.It should stive for what it was originally intended to. A party with a difference. It would mean not always being politically correct but always patriotic and nationalist.
The party has allowed a lot of garbage to accumulate in its stables and the stink has driven some real good people out.
It’s high time the BJP cleaned the stables not in the gradual dithering way it has shown till now but in a radical overhaul .
That is the only way ahead
PS I share a visceral hatred for the Congress and the ELM. It is difficult for me to choose which I hate most.
15. June 2009 - 12:56 PM
Nice post. Sandeep is always good to read!
I would like to make one point which is that of the dharma. People uphold the dharma not because they need something in return. It is a selfless committment that you give to the society. It is this element that is totally missing in leaders of BJP.
Unless BJP leaders put dharma(service) above their personal ambitions, it will never be a strong force. Unfortunately BJP borrowed everything from RSS except this basic virtue.
LK Advani did all he did for one ruthless ambition of becoming a king. He is neither a hundutva leader nor a secularist. He painted himself as oneway or the other because it suited for his ambition.
15. June 2009 - 6:59 PM
The identity crisis of the BJP, so to speak, is the identity crisis of the Indian middle class Hindu voter who is steeped in political correctness and flinches even in the comfort of his home where politics is discussed. No matter how you define Hindutva, it has become a bad word to use, thanks to the Goebbelsian tactics used by the English media.
The Congress has also successfully dragged the BJP down to its own turf and set the rules for the contest. There is no way that a party like the BJP could match Congress tactic for dirty tactic and still expect to come out successful. In a sense, the disillusionment of the middle class with politics in general serves the Congress very well and so they use the media to perpetuate that myth that all politicans and political parties are equally bad and equally dirty. This conveniently sidesteps the whole “ideology” issue.
To say that the BJP is dying might be an overstatement. As a previous commenter has mentioned, this is only one election. There is plenty of time to regather and start from scratch.
To do that, the BJP needs to rethink its election strategy big time. And at the same time also tell the average Hindu voter in no uncertain terms that it intends to remain committed to its ideology no matter what pressures it faces while in power. Common people won’t vote for BJP unless they see it to their advantage that the Congress is voted out of power. There is always a slight tilt towards the Congress whenever they’re in power and the opposition has to work 10 times harder to win.
To be frank, I think that had this election occurred 6 months ago, the BJP would have ridden a wave of popular dissent against the government due to rising prices of essential commodities, cost of petrol/diesel. They might not have got an absolute majority, but still would have done enough to form a government on their own, comfortably.
15. June 2009 - 8:36 PM
“The party must understand as any party should that you can’t please everyone.”
This, exactly is the problem with the BJP. Merely pleasing fear-mongering Hindus is never going to bring this party to power. It’ll have to take people from every background along. India is a large country. Xenophobia would have worked were India a small country, but it is not. Instead of paying heed to the RSS loonies (I respect the Sangh, but there is slime everywhere) it should project itself as a national party.
Definitely not a Congress alternative, but an entity in itself. Right now it looks like a party of hooligans unsuccessfully pretending to be civil. The Congress, on the other hand is a party of worse hooligans and thugs but successfully pretends to be civil.
15. June 2009 - 10:25 PM
@Amrit Hallan:
“I respect the Sangh, but there is slime everywhere” – Dude, tell me a place in politics where there is any less slime?!
“Xenophobia would have worked were India a small country, but it is not. ” – When before ’62 Nehru was busy smoking peace-pipe of Hindi-Chini-bhai-bhai, someone may have alerted him of the dangers that India faced then. Your last statement sounds very much like the reply Nehru might have given. Alerting the populace of the dangers it is facing doesn’t amount to xenophobia. This scenario can successfully be expanded to many other threats India faces.
“Right now it looks like a party of hooligans unsuccessfully pretending to be civil.” – You might be pointing to Ram Sene, right? I don’t remember where else one could blame BJP for indulging in hooliganism – unless one is blinded by ELM malafide propaganda, which seems to be the case here.
16. June 2009 - 12:58 AM
I think Shri Amrit Hallan although speaking against fear mongers, is actually fearful of something himself. Fearful of owning up to his Hindu national identity.
How does one “eradicate” xenophobia? If I am afraid of the other, then will you address my source of fear or will you brush it under the politically correct carpet?
The truth is that the Congress does not really fight against such “xenophobia” in our people. It simply does not say anything for or against it. The Congress is not a Leftist party, it is a Left-Center-Right party. How does one fight against this animal and win when one is as thoroughly confused as the BJP is?
The Congress is like slime in a narrow bottle that cannot be removed easily. It must be forced out with a thud! That force can only be provided by a sharp ideological stance that is truly in line with our people and their manner of thinking.
Can the BJP learn a simple lesson? Hindus live all over this great country. Hindus are diverse all over this great country. Can the BJP adapt to local Hindu mores and manners? Can they exemplify such diverseness at the National level?
The sharp difference with the Congress will be that the BJP will not represent the Minorities as part of such diverseness. But it will represent Hindu diversity in its most fullness.
I have a test for the BJP and indeed for the RSS itself. I would like to see these organizations sacrifice an animal as part of their inauguration of sessions. Post that they may light a lamp. During recess, meat from the slaughtered animal will be distributed as prasada.
Can the BJP garner the strength to really connect with Hindu diversity in all its verities and make a promise that all of such diversity will flourish in Hindu India?
I do not wish to debate on the pros and cons of killing and non-killing. Frivolous trash! Hindus sacrifice animals in their Temples. These Hindus must find a voice too. Hindus of all shades must find a voice.
Can the VHP’s Dharma Sansad agree to such a course of action? Can they too be a great body of Hindu saints from all segments of our great society?
If we believe that Hindu diversity is real and Hindus are diverse because they follow paths that animate their particular mental faculties and that these paths are valid in their particular journeys, then we must agree that all these various paths must find their voices at the Hindu national level.
18. June 2009 - 7:20 PM
As usual-clear, crisp and very articulate. I only wish the BJP’s campaign message was also crisp and clear. The BJP seems to have its lost its way somewhere down the line after its debacle in the previous elections. I assumed it would come this election with some real firepower and with the big guns blazing–but I was rather disappointed to see LKA crying hoarse over the weak credentials of MMS. Obviously, the BJP has lost touch with the pulse of today’s generation. I do not believe that Hindutva needs to be dumped by the BJP. It can still stand its ground as far as that is concerned BUT its got to tell the people and say it articulately that Muslims arent untouchable to us but Hindutva isnt untouchable either–they have to tell middle class India that the Congress’s holier than thou attitude about secularism is a sham. But first its got to set its house in order–a divide house will only give more opps to the Congress to pretty much bull doze the Opposition. I beleiev the best way to do it would be to explain what it would have done differently on every legislation that the Congress passes–then you are actually connecting with middle class India and that record stays with you for the next 5 years.
18. June 2009 - 9:20 PM
Sorry again for the off-topic news but check this out
(I do not know how true this news is because it has “sources said sify”)
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?a=jgsp0qijgcf&title=No_Kargil_Divas_this_year&?vsv=TopHP1
Ten years after the Kargil conflict, the government wants us to forget it.
The government has reportedly issued a circular to the armed forces once again, saying it would not be officially celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Kargil war on July 26 this year.
Sources told Sify.com that the decision was purportedly taken to avoid `rubbing salt into Pakistan`s wounds` at a time when the peace process was once again being re-initiated.
20. June 2009 - 3:26 PM
S. Kulkarni is a communist mole that has been infiltrated into the BJP by the powers that be. He is doing a lot of damage to the party. His “veiws” are nothing but repackaged propaganda of the Congress against the BJP. The Congress accusses BJP of being anti-poor anti-Muslim and Hinutwawadi. And this Kulkarni idiot writes in a newspaper about BJP needing to rethink its approach to “poor, Muslims and Hindutwa.” It sure says a lot about the kind of “strategist” Advani is for having fallen for the trap. Leaders who are so easily fooled and outsmarted are not worth the mud they stand on.
1. July 2009 - 6:51 PM
It would be a shame indeed if Kargil martyrs are forgotten. Is that what a soldiers lives (and dies) for?
Those in power should really be forced to work in the forces to realize and ‘enjoy’ the life of a soldier – and understand the true meaning of patriotism.
It is time that politicians stopped using khadi – and flaunting it as a pseudo tokenism for being patriotic!
31. August 2009 - 6:12 AM
UPA believes in reciprocating in kind for services rendered, like the ‘God’ its chairperson believes in, who is supposed to do so by reserving a seat in ‘heaven’ for his believers.
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Sudheendra+Kulkarni+joins+Mamata&artid=4NB2t1mg6Ks=&SectionID=b7ziAYMenjw=&MainSectionID=b7ziAYMenjw=&SectionName=pWehHe7IsSU=&SEO=sudheendra%20kulkarni%20mamta%20banerjee%20BJP%20trinamool%20c