The Bharatiya Janata Partys chintan baithak did not get off to the start its well-wishers would have liked. This is putting it mildly.
Written by The Indian Express
3 min read
Whatsapp
Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
The Bharatiya Janata Partys chintan baithak did not get off to the start its well-wishers would have liked. This is putting it mildly. Instead of figuring out how to fight a political battle against the Congress,the BJP decided instead to spend all its resources decisively defeating Mohammed Ali Jinnah. In the process,it has lost the chance to script the Shimla meeting as being that of a resurgent party determined to do justice to the role given to it by Indias voters as the major party of opposition. But it can certainly try to not score any further self-goals. Just managing to provide the appearance of attempting to focus on the reason theyre all actually there to ensure the party doesnt repeat its mistakes of the past few years would be good enough.
Thus looking at the errors of the campaign just concluded is not,in itself,a bad idea. But theres a very real danger that collating mistakes made can turn into an extended session of finger-pointing. Accountability is an excellent thing,and our political parties should practise more of it. But a party conference that has begun with an expulsion the pointlessness of which is exceeded only by its spectacular gracelessness might do well to try and avoid any more vicious fraternal violence.
You’ve Read Your Free Stories For Now
Sign up and keep reading more stories that matter to you.
The BJP needs to look forward. Paralysing itself with accusation and counter-accusation or by wallowing in trivialities might no,will certainly! be fatal. This point has been made by every single observer,by all who wish it well,by many who dont care for it but are concerned for the future of Indias democracy. The BJP needs to dust itself off,and get cracking on real policy discussions,and on the big-picture question of its ideological orientation. Its top-rung leadership needs to realise that,like Americas founders,they must hang together,or they shall most assuredly hang separately. What must stop: jostling for power as your party implodes around you,as your appalled workers watch on the sidelines,as your constituents wonder gloomily if their votes were wasted. The BJP has 119 seats in the Lok Sabha. The people of those constituencies voted for a coherent national party,not a quarrelsome rump. If the BJP fails them,it will look back on this performance as the last gasp of its golden age.
