Nation First,Party Next,Self Last. What can be a more inspiring ideal for political activists belonging to any party? Also,what can be a more needed code of conduct to reform Indias highly fragmented polity that has become alarmingly confrontational? By reminding his partymen that this is the BJPs founding principle,Nitin Gadkari has truly begun his presidential stint on a promising note. His maiden speech at the just-concluded national council meeting at Indore has,by any objective reckoning,come as a breath of fresh air to a badly demoralised party.
Gadkari was a surprise choice to head the countrys principal opposition party after it suffered a second consecutive debacle in the parliamentary elections,first in 2004 and then again last year. Even he hadnt expected that he would be called upon to shoulder the onerous responsibility. But he has clearly risen to the occasion. What he lacks by way of experience on the national stage has been pushed to the background by the image of a young leader who deftly combines genuine deference towards his more senior colleagues with a straight-talking approach. To a once famously disciplined party that has become a victim of severe self-enfeeblement due to factionalism and internecine squabbling in recent years,his message was loud and clear: party workers cannot hope to climb the political ladder by pulling others legs. Apni rekha badi karo,doosron ki chhoti nahin. (Make your own line longer. Dont try to shorten others.) Although BJPs charismatic founder-president Atal Bihari Vajpayee no longer attends party meetings due to ill health,Gadkari made it a point to establish his much-needed virtual presence at the Indore meet by exhorting his colleagues to remember an axiom that the former prime minister has articulated in a memorable poem: Chhote man se koi badi baat nahin hoti,toote man se koi khada nahin hota. (A small mind cannot accomplish great deeds,nor can a broken heart make one stand on ones feet.)
Of course,no miracles are waiting to happen for a party in which far too many things have gone wrong in recent years. But what is already discernible is that the BJP has regained its internal equilibrium,thereby proving what I have often written in the pastnamely,that it is foolhardy to deny its organisational resilience. A less ideologically committed and more personality-driven party would have split under the impact of two major electoral defeats. Other parties have indeed suffered such divisions. Remarkably,the BJP has stood united. This is no doubt good for the party itself. But it is a good omen for Indias democracy,too. After all,the stability of political institutions and consolidation of a culture of working together in spite of setbacks are the hallmark of a mature democracy.
Where Gadkari,and the BJP,will be tested in the coming days is in the practice of the Nation First principle that he has so eloquently espoused. Will the BJP cooperate with the Congress and the UPA Government on issues where national interests are at stake? (Of course,it is equally the responsibility of the principal ruling party to seek the cooperation of the principal opposition party.) Specifically,will the two main parties put narrow politics aside in combating the two grave threats to Indias internal securityjihadi terrorism and Maoist violenceand in addressing two critical foreign policy challengesPakistan and China? Will the BJP,which has sought the support of Muslims on the Ayodhya issue,show reciprocal sensitivity and solidarity for the genuine problems and legitimate aspirations of Indian Muslims? Will the party rein in and isolate the Hindu extremist elements within its parivar,even as it rightly excoriates extremism among Muslims? (I am really alarmed by the growing Islam-hating and Muslim-bashing Hindu voices on the internet.) And will its advocacy of good governance and clean politics remain an empty-sounding rhetoric in the face of growing corruption among its own functionaries,as was evident when its government in Karnataka was almost gobbled up last year by greedy sharks within the BJP?
Anyway,best wishes,Nitinji.
sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com
