BJP the unready: Disunity mar principal Opposition as UPA stays listless

BJP leader L K Advani raised a valid question at the Mumbai meeting of the BJP’s national executive: the ruling UPA is adrift, true, but is the BJP ready to offer an alternative? This call to introspect was not just a critique of the party’s current leadership but also a comment on the nation’s polity.

At a time of deepening global crisis that devolves greater responsibility on the country’s leadership, neither the government nor the Opposition demonstrates either a coherent vision to guide the nation or the will to act.

Some have seen in the BJP’s summary sacking of RSS point-man and Modi-baiter Sanjay Joshi from the national executive, the beginning of a process that would designate Narendra Modi as the party’s prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 general election.

This would be one possible reading of the events, but not the only one. Another scenario that fits all the facts is that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the mother organisation that provides ideological and organisational leadership to all outfits in the Sangh Parivar, including the BJP, does not want any note of dissent to mar acceptance by the BJP of its decision to amend the party constitution and give Nitin Gadkari a second term as party president, and so removed the obstacle to Modi’s attendance at the national executive. It is noteworthy that Gadkari’s term is being renewed well in advance of its due completion towards the end of the year. This puts Gadkari firmly in place to lead the party into the 2014 polls.

And Gadkari has never quite ruled himself out as a possible prime ministerial candidate of the BJP. Of course, it is impressive that the party has quite a lineup of potential prime ministers. The show of public pique that kept some of them away from the public rally following the national executive indicates that an abundance of potential prime ministers is not necessarily a blessing for the party.

If leadership choice can lead to dissension within the BJP itself, can it prevent this schism from spreading to the larger coalition it would necessarily have to forge in order to present itself as an alternative to the Congress? It means more rope for the UPA.