Doctor needles

At Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, Dr Manmohan Singh8217;s detour was striking indeed. Into the usual stuff of prime ministerial musings 8212; matters of high policy, from domestic poverty to foreign affairs 8212; the prime minister imported a rare political barb: the BJP is too busy quarrelling with itself, he suggested, to fight the Congress. Does this signal an avowedly apolitical prime minister finally picking up the political gauntlet? Unlikely. What it does point to is this: the BJP8217;s inner disrepair, prolonged and continuing, is writ too embarrassingly large. It dares the non-prurient and the discreet to keep their eyes averted.

The turbulence at the BJP8217;s centre and the lack of leadership to resolve it are especially pronounced in the run-up to organisational polls later this month. A series of decisions in the party have confirmed suspicions of a tug of war 8212; be it the selection of a particular set of RSS pracharaks to be deputed to key positions in the party or the handing out of the party ticket to a candidate for an upcoming by-poll. As the quintessential organisation man, L.K. Advani, senses his own isolation in party affairs, it is apparent that the stalwart is being replaced not by a newer and younger leader or set of leaders. The RSS is rushing in to wrest the initiative. With party president Rajnath Singh expected to win a further three-year tenure later this month, and given Singh8217;s sterling lack of resistance to the RSS take-over so far, the 8216;fresh8217; team of BJP office-bearers that takes charge early next month is likely to be heavily weighted in favour of RSS hands 8212; politically obscure individuals who are unelected and unelectable.

The BJP has long been in the process of undoing itself as an independent and liberal political party of the right. Throughout the public Advani-RSS tangle 8212; beginning with RSS chief Sudershan8217;s call for ringing out the old in the party, to the furies that broke out over Advani8217;s Jinnah thesis, uprooting him as party president 8212; the RSS8217;s victories have primarily flowed from the BJP8217;s lack of resistance. As the BJP readies for a round of assembly polls, including UP, is it asking for too much that the party stands up, gathers itself, halts the drift?