145;BJP must return to RSS ideology146;

Now is the time for all BJP men to return to the RSS ideology.8217;8217; That was the message conveyed through the editorial in RSS mouthp...

Now is the time for all BJP men to return to the RSS ideology.8217;8217; That was the message conveyed through the editorial in RSS mouthpiece Organiser today and will be elaborated at length during the two-day 8216;8216;brainstorming session8217;8217;, beginning tomorrow in Jaipur, of leaders and intellecutals belonging to the BJP and the RSS.

With the RSS succeeding in executing a regime change in the BJP, it is now bent on ensuring the party8217;s 8216;8216;course correction8217;8217; under the new leadership. Therefore, while most of the 8216;8216;Generation Next8217;8217; leaders will be present at the meeting, the erstwhile reigning trio of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and Jaswant Singh will be conspicuous by their absence.

The closed-door session will be attended by RSS sarsanghchalak K S Sudarshan and general secretary Mohan Bhagwat among others. And new BJP president Rajnath Singh is making a point to be there. Other invitees include Venkaiah Naidu, Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Bal Apte.

The theme of the discussions will be 8216;8216;Ethics and Politics8217;8217; and sub-themes include 8216;8216;Ideology and Governance8217;8217; and 8216;8216;Election Funding and Spending8217;8217;. The last one assumes significance in wake of the cash-for-questions scam in which six BJP MPs were expelled from Parliament. The RSS is believed to be unhappy with the lack of clarity within the BJP on how to deal with the corruption issue. The BJP took different stands on the question of expelling the MPs in both Houses of Parliament. While in the Rajya Sabha, the party endorsed the collective stand, Advani came close to defending the MPs and preferred to stage a walkout rather than back the resolution to expel the MPs in the Lok Sabha.

From the RSS8217;s long-term viewpoint, the discussion on 8216;8216;Ideology and Governance8217;8217; is far more crucial. Ever since the NDA lost power, the RSS has been of the view that the main reason for the defeat was the BJP8217;s 8216;8216;dilution8217;8217; of ideology in the name of 8216;8216;good governance8217;8217;.

The editorial said as much today, underlining that 8216;8216;the BJP cannot hope to become another Congress and carry the cadre along8217;8217;. Admitting that 8216;8216;six years in power has diluted some of the basic characteristics of the party8217;8217;, it said that in cadre-based parties 8216;8216;normally ideologies take precedence over political convenience8217;8217;.

Praising the BJP for having 8216;8216;stood as a solid bloc8217;8217; in the last two decades, the editorial also said that this had happened 8216;8216;on the strength of its ideology, nursing the core constituency and calibrating its work with the wider Sangh family8217;8217;.

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In an indirect criticism of Advani8217;s remarks while in power that 8216;8216;idealism8217;8217; and 8216;8216;governance8217;8217; were more important than ideology to run a government, it said: 8216;8216;Performance is rated good or satisfactory on account of its commitment to core issue or issues that affect its core constituency. The depth of this commitment is what makes a party with a difference.8217;8217;

That ideological commitment and policies aimed at one8217;s 8216;8216;core constituency8217;8217; is more important than governance per se is likely to be discussed at length in the meet, sources said.

That the post-Advani BJP is set to echo the RSS8217;s views was evident from another article in the Organiser by Pramod Mahajan. In what could be construed as an attack on Advani, Mahajan wrote: 8216;8216;No leader is God; everybody has feet of clay. No power is permanent; many times it vanishes before you feel it.8217;8217; But members of an ideologically-driven party 8216;8216;neither go into the sunset with their tall leader nor are they bothered by the going or coming out of power because they are inspired by ideology8217;8217;.

The 8216;8216;chariot of the BJP8217;s dharmaraj has touched the ground8217;8217; but people have not lost hope in the party and 8216;8216;the BJP should not lose faith in itself8217;8217;, Mahajan wrote, as though in preparation for the Jaipur session.