Out of sync

The BJP national executive has failed to find answers

It is hard to see who among the participants could have emerged with much satisfaction from the two-day meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national executive. Meant to discuss the party’s poor showing in the Lok Sabha elections, and the way forward, the last word was said by the gentleman who almost certainly will not lead the party in the next elections. So, what price the party’s Gen Next leadership?

The short point is that it was nowhere to be seen. Neither Narendra Modi nor Arun Jaitley was present, and no other leader emerged to take LK Advani’s mantle. If one issue that the critics of the party’s post-poll arrangements had hoped to settle was the future leadership of the party, it has remained unresolved.

If no future leader emerged, what about a programme for the future? Mr Advani had the last word and tried to formulate an “inclusive” version of Hindutva, the choice of word conceding ground to the Congress which adopted it five years ago. The “inclusive” view did not find universal adoption, as reflected in what some other speakers said. In any case, the test of whether this stance carries conviction is when the issue is put to the test—such as when Gujarat witnesses a pogrom, or when a Varun Gandhi indulges in hate speech. In Gujarat, Mr Modi is now on the defensive because the Supreme Court has taken an active interest in bringing pogrom cases to justice, but not long ago some BJP leaders were putting him forward as the party’s future leader.

As for Mr Gandhi, his defence (that the tape was doctored) always looked far-fetched and it did the BJP little credit at the time when it clutched at this straw. Mr Gandhi now stands exposed (and is open to prosecution); he refused to give his voice test for analysis, and the test done on the basis of his other voice recordings has established that the tape was not doctored. Many in the BJP say now that the party should have dumped Mr Gandhi immediately after the issue erupted, and not made him its Pilibhit candidate. But no one said it at the time, when it mattered. If indeed the BJP’s Hindutva is inclusivist, the party has to produce a better record if it wants to carry conviction.

The lesson that the BJP has to internalise is that the politics of grievance has passed its “sell by” date. The cry of pseudo-secularism and of Hindus becoming an endangered “minority in their own land” might have found resonance when Sikh terrorists in Punjab were pulling hapless Hindu passengers out of buses and shooting them point blank.

But survey after survey now shows that Indians are in a sunny mood, they are more content than people in almost any other country, and confident about their future. Whether because of rapid economic growth or because of India’s growing international stature or any other factor (or a combination of these), the national mood has changed.

The one who came closest to getting the message was the Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Shivnath Chauhan, who emphasised developmental goals. But it would seem that his party colleagues were not listening.