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Journalism of Courage
And,can the BJP behave like a party until the leadership issue is settled?
At the time,the cold and hot wars between individual leaders upstaged everything else,but the BJP had come back from its national executive meet in Mumbai last month with some gains in the bag. It wasnt easy but a truce had been hammered out between party president Nitin Gadkari and sulking Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi,laying the ground for a general calming of tensions between the partys central leadership and mutinous state leaders. The party had also agreed upon a second consecutive term for Gadkari,ensuring continuity till the next general election in 2014. In other words,it had seemed that the BJP had won itself some space to target the government,instead of only obsessing about itself. But Mumbais gains have turned out to be fragile. By lashing out at Gadkari in his latest blog,senior leader L.K. Advani appears to have brought his party firmly back to square one. To be fair,it is not as dark a place as it is painted out to be. After all,in a system where parties are often one-man or one-family organisations,an edgy contest of ideas,or even personalities,can be read as a testament to inner-party democracy. In the BJPs case,however,the jostling on the leadership question is beginning to acquire the look of a syndrome that is paralysing the party.
The BJP needs to think this one through. Perhaps,it might be helpful to shed its careful ambiguity on its prime ministerial candidate,even at the risk of a decision in any one leaders favour setting off an even more open civil war within the party. Time is running out for the BJP. After all,if there was one part of Advanis blog that was not open to multiple readings,it was this: if people today are angry with the UPA,he wrote,they are disappointed with the BJP. That,as Advani said,calls for some introspection.
