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Journalism of Courage
NASHIK, MAY 15: The message in the BJP’s state convention, which concluded here on Sunday, was loud and clear: party workers have to become offensive on issues like conversions by Christian missionaries and in exposing lapses of the Vilasrao Deshmukh government, simultanously strengthening the party’s roots in village and ward levels to gain absolute majority on its own in the next assembly polls to come to power.
The architect of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in Maharashtra, Pramod Mahajan, while asking party functionaries to ensure that the BJP came to power without any "crutches", took care not to antagonise its ally-the Shiv Sena. He even stated that the BJP’s alliance with Sena would continue. However, he predicted a political void in the state in the next three years and asked party workers to prepare themselves for taking advantage of the situation. Probably, he assumed that in the next three years the BJP could attract a sizable chunk of activists from other parties, including the Sena and the NCP into its fold. The ageing of Sena chief Bal Thackeray and the growth of several ambitious leaders in the Sena might be one of the reasons.
The mood in the convention was that of jubiliance over the victory of the BJP in the recent Aurangabad municipal polls, with delegates demanding that the formula be replicated across the state. The BJP had contested the elections on its own (even against its old partner-the Shiv Sena) and emerged the winner. A "victory torch" was carried from Aurangabad to Nashik by BJP activists to stress the significance of the party’s victory on its own. Mahajan told partymen that the ultimate aim was to realise the dream achieved in Gujarat and Rajasthan, where the BJP captured power on the basis of absolute majority.
To realise the dream the party leadership seems to have developed a two-prong strategy; to make the younger generation within its ranks more committed (through training programmes revealing the sacrifices made by the older generation right from the Jana Sangh days to the period of emergency); and to make the party’s rank and file more aggressive (by undertaking an offensive against Christian missionaries and organising agitations at local levels against the State government by involving local residents).
Party members cribbing for benefits or positions came in for heavy criticism from leaders like L K Advani, Mahajan and the newly elected state president Pandurang Phundkar, who all pointed out the sacrifices made by the party functionaries in the past, without expecting anything in return. The party workers were told to give priority to the nation and keep the "self" last.
The infighting in the party’s rank and file for benefits and positions during the BJP-Sena rule of four and a half years in the state was also discussed. Phundkar lamented that the taste of power had made party activists callous and selfish. He stressed the need for restoring the party worker of the pre-power days, pointing out that after losing power in the recent assembly polls, many party workers and office bearers had become so callous that they did not bother to participate in the agitations launched by the party in the state recently. Mahajan said that everyone in the party felt that injustice had been done and wanted some benefits or position. He said that the party was not a judicial body and that the senior office bearers of the party merely tried to "equalise injustice" among its members in the larger interests of the party.
At the same time, leaders like Mahajan openly said that though the constitution granted a fundamental right to profess any religion, conversion by force or through allurements should be opposed and while doing it a conflict was inevitable and justified. Party activists were told not to wait for permission from superiors for embarking on an agitation at the local level (at village or ward level) to expose the lapses of the Vilasrao Deshmukh government. However, they were cautioned against making the agitation only by office-bearers and workers. They were told to involve local residents to ensure that the people realised that the BJP was agitating on their behalf.
On countering the Congress, the party workers were asked to educate the masses on the issues of inflation, attacks on minorities and the constitution review committee. Special meetings at local levels were advocated in dalit localities to publicise that the BJP government had extended reservations by another decade and removed the 50 per cent limitations on quota for the benefit of dalits. A detailed programme has already been chalked out for the newly elected committees. A new tier of "Shakti Kendras" has been introduced between local committees and the mandal committees to boost organisational efficiency. Armed with a new organisational set up, a victory in Aurangabad and the prediction of a "political void" by Mahajan, the party intends to spread its wings at the grassroot levels and become aggressive on the streets to capture power in the state on its own.
