Bjps Generatio Next?

It will never be known whether one of the bombs that went off in Coimbatore was really aimed at the BJP President, Mr Lal Krishan Advani. Nevertheless, it must be assumed that he has had a providential escape.

But that assumption has an attendant question: has the BJP done enough to communicate to the nation of its plans for the second rung of national leadership? Also, should it do so now?

Post-Coimbatore, this question must begin to worry not just the BJP but the country as a whole. After all, the BJP is now very much a party of government and likely to remain so for several years. As such a new responsibility has devolved on it.

 

Besides, both Mr Advani and Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee are into their seventies. Which is another legitimate reason for asking the BJP: whos next, what can we expect by way of a succession?

Of course, no one expects the party to name a successor in the manner of the Congress or, for that matter, the Shiv Sena. But still, it would help to know who all are in the running for the top job. There are ways of letting the country know.

This would indicate, other things being equal, the special qualities which find favour with the powers-that-be. For example, if the choice were between, say, Pramod Mahajan and Sushma Swaraj, would the fact that Ms Swaraj is a woman go against her?

The BJP is well placed to undertake such an exercise in disclosure. There is no dynastic ambition to be countered. Nor is there a CPM type of compulsion to be wholly undemocratic. The only thing the party need consider is track-record defined by its own yardsticks and popularity.

This will also clarify whether the BJP will always have a dual leadership in the manner of Messrs Advani and Vajpayee. One, so to speak, for the Church and the other for the State. Given the umbilical cord that connects it to the RSS, this seems more than likely in which case the issue becomes even more important.

This because the last three years have generated a fairly clear picture of which BJP junior leader stands where. True, the picture is not yet complete and critical elements are still missing. But at least something exists in the public domain.

Not so where the other component the RSS is concerned. If it is assumed that Mr Advani represents the RSS aspect of the Sangh parivar, it is reasonable to ask, who will succeed him as the organisations representative in the political sphere? The more the RSS makes public about its leadership, the less conspiratorial or CPM-like it will appear.

Theres yet another important reason why the BJP should make its succession policy transparent. In several states where it has been in power, its failure to make clear choices well in time have led to a lot of internal squabbling. Virendra Kumar Saklecha vs Kailash Joshi vs Sunderlal Patwa in MP. Shankersinh Waghela vs the Rest in Gujarat. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat vs Others in Rajasthan.

Who would want a replay of this at the national level? To the extent that these quarrels have been a result of unclear communication from the top, there is a lesson that the party must learn.