Varun speeches, infighting blamed for defeat

Criticism of Manmohan Singh, projecting Narendra Modi as future PM also cited as key causes for loss.

An internal committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), headed by Bal Apte, has blamed issues like targeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, projecting Narendra Modi as a future PM candidate and Varun Gandhi’s hate-speech for the party’s humiliating defeat in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, if reports in a section of the media are to be believed.

The party, however, strongly denied any such report of the Bal Apte Committee. Party President Rajnath Singh and senior leader Arun Jaitley both have denied the existence of this report. The top BJP leadership is currently camped in Shimla for a brainstorming introspection of the poll results.

But a section of the party leaked to the media that Bal Apte’s report has also said “perceived lack of unity amongst the leaders” and “internal squabbles” were also key causes for the electoral defeat.

“Personal attack on Manmohan Singh did not go well with people” — is another observation of the committee. Incidentally, Leader of Opposition Lal Krishna Advani had led this attack against Manmohan Singh and called him the weakest prime minister in the history of India. Singh had shot back and said, “history will judge if I’m weak or strong. But I wonder what is Advani’s contribution to this country, except for demolishing the Babri mosque?”

The committee has reportedly submitted a nine-page report on the poll results. Among other observations, “mid-campaign distractions like projection of Sri Narendra Modi as PM” and “Varun Gandhi’s hate speech” have been slammed for taking the centre stage and pushing aside the main campaign.

After leaders like Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh and Arun Shourie had raised demands for proper introspection, Rajnath Singh was forced to constitute this Bal Apte Committee. According to reports, the committee also said that key issues like internal security and price rise were either not positioned effectively, or there was a mismatch, or both to some extent.

The report also found faults with the selection of candidates. On the Kandhahar plane hijack issue — where the Congress regularly slams the BJP for handing over terrorist Masood Azhar to Pakistan — the report said: “We always appeared to be on the backfoot and played defensive.”