Begum Sonia mode cost BJP dear in elections, says Joshi

Earlier, when electioneering was still on, Joshi had wondered aloud if this negative approach — of vilifying Sonia Gandhi personally — would go down well with the electorate. At the time, he had told reporters in his constituency in Allahabad where he himself had to suffer defeat that he was himself against this kind of mud-slinging to garner votes.

Joshi was asked what he felt about Modi’s comments on Sonia, especially during the election campaign. He admitted that the language used was a ‘‘mistake’’. Modi had said in a dismissive manner that Sonia was not capable of finding herself a ‘‘clerk’s job’’. Joshi said: ‘‘People here don’t like this (kind of language) as this is the tradition of the country.’’

The former minister, who now stands in the dock for ‘‘saffronising’’ the country’s education, tried to balance his remarks against Modi by accusing Sonia of stooping low and mounting a lowly campaign against former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee.

He thought that the BJP had fared badly because it could not highlight its ideological moorings in a proper way during the campaign. He pointed out that the ‘‘BJP projected the development in these elections because we believed developmental and progressive work of the (Vajpayee) government will see us through’’. Joshi reasoned that the ideological framework which had repeatedly assured the growth of the party was not projected in the right manner.

‘‘Along with development, cultural heritage and cultural nationalism should also have been projected,’’ Joshi said. ‘‘Cultural nationalism did not become the main issue as we won in Assembly elections (in three states in December) on developmental issues,’’ he said.

Broadly he agreed with BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu that the party’s future strategy cannot be divorced from the political line followed by the allies. Joshi said: ‘‘Till BJP is a part of NDA, our approach cannot be contradictory to its.’’