12-25-2006, 12:42 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>BJP has got its act together </b>
Pioneer.com
Swapan Dasgupta
Those looking to make a buck on the stock exchange often narrate the story of a wise American tycoon - the name escapes me for the moment. The gentleman was in the lift of his office building when he overheard the attendant and a friend discuss share prices. On reaching office, he telephoned his broker and instructed him to sell his entire portfolio. When asked the reason, the tycoon replied: "When the liftman discusses share prices, I know it is time to quit the market." The year was 1929 and it was days before the devastating Wall Street collapse.
I was reminded of this story in Lucknow this week at the National Council of the BJP. There were, it seemed to me, two conventions going on in tandem. <b>First, there were the BJP faithful exchanging notes and talking shop - the usual mix of business and gossip. The mood was one of expectancy, quiet confidence tinged with dollops of subdued realism. The atmosphere was summed by a former Cabinet Minister: "For two years we helped the Government, now the Government has decided to help us."Â </b>
<b>The other convention - if at all it could be called that - belonged to the media. Blessed with a herd mentality, the media was looking with frenzied dedication at a story whose time had come and gone:</b> The in-fighting in the BJP. Consequently, slightly contrived stories were put out alleging that LK Advani's photograph had been blacked out of the all-pervasive hoardings throughout Lucknow. <b>Almost every single BJP delegate of consequence was buttonholed by reporters and queried about the infamous "Prime Minister-in-waiting" non-controversy involving Advani, AB Vajpayee and BJP president Rajnath Singh</b>.
The in-fighting story is old hat. It was legitimate currency till some three months ago when it seemed the BJP was going nowhere and the leaders were busy outdoing each other in scoring self-goals.<b> Today, courtesy the UPA Government, that self-destructive mood is fast disappearing - although not as fast as political compulsions demand.</b>
From May 2004 till the middle of this year the BJP was conducting itself like a headless chicken. The reasons for this odd behaviour are by now well known: An inability to stomach the 2004 verdict, impetuosity bordering on adventurism, the dissipation of a single power centre and individual cussedness. What a British politician of the 1950s used to call "the patience of politics" was lost sight of.
The one development which has contributed to the changed mood is the sudden realisation that when the UPA falters, the BJP is the natural beneficiary. The BJP was as surprised as everyone else when it performed so well in the Uttar Pradesh municipal polls. Those elections revealed that the constituency for assertive nationalist politics was both alive and kicking and being fuelled by the divisive liberalism of the UPA.
Of course, the BJP still has some way to travel before it can recover the heady momentum of the 1990s. <b>Inadequate attention is being paid to the NDA and so far there is no evidence of a southern strategy to offset the BJP's own inadequacies in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Second, developments in two States - Karnataka and Rajasthan - where the BJP is in Government is causing concern to the party. Finally, there is the unresolved question of future leadership.</b>
These problems notwithstanding, the sheer force of anti-incumbency has forced the BJP to try and get its act together. There is a realisation that the leadership question, for example, won't be resolved by just debating the issue - Indian political parties don't have an institutionalised system of succession. Advani was right when he suggested that it is a combination of the party and the people that will settle the matter. Consequently, the BJP has thought it expedient to continue to project Vajpayee and Advani and get on with the hard slog on the ground.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Political reporting is all about identifying trends. There was only one discernible trend in Lucknow this week: India once again has a robust, self-confident Opposition. That's a piece of good news. </span>
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Pioneer.com
Swapan Dasgupta
Those looking to make a buck on the stock exchange often narrate the story of a wise American tycoon - the name escapes me for the moment. The gentleman was in the lift of his office building when he overheard the attendant and a friend discuss share prices. On reaching office, he telephoned his broker and instructed him to sell his entire portfolio. When asked the reason, the tycoon replied: "When the liftman discusses share prices, I know it is time to quit the market." The year was 1929 and it was days before the devastating Wall Street collapse.
I was reminded of this story in Lucknow this week at the National Council of the BJP. There were, it seemed to me, two conventions going on in tandem. <b>First, there were the BJP faithful exchanging notes and talking shop - the usual mix of business and gossip. The mood was one of expectancy, quiet confidence tinged with dollops of subdued realism. The atmosphere was summed by a former Cabinet Minister: "For two years we helped the Government, now the Government has decided to help us."Â </b>
<b>The other convention - if at all it could be called that - belonged to the media. Blessed with a herd mentality, the media was looking with frenzied dedication at a story whose time had come and gone:</b> The in-fighting in the BJP. Consequently, slightly contrived stories were put out alleging that LK Advani's photograph had been blacked out of the all-pervasive hoardings throughout Lucknow. <b>Almost every single BJP delegate of consequence was buttonholed by reporters and queried about the infamous "Prime Minister-in-waiting" non-controversy involving Advani, AB Vajpayee and BJP president Rajnath Singh</b>.
The in-fighting story is old hat. It was legitimate currency till some three months ago when it seemed the BJP was going nowhere and the leaders were busy outdoing each other in scoring self-goals.<b> Today, courtesy the UPA Government, that self-destructive mood is fast disappearing - although not as fast as political compulsions demand.</b>
From May 2004 till the middle of this year the BJP was conducting itself like a headless chicken. The reasons for this odd behaviour are by now well known: An inability to stomach the 2004 verdict, impetuosity bordering on adventurism, the dissipation of a single power centre and individual cussedness. What a British politician of the 1950s used to call "the patience of politics" was lost sight of.
The one development which has contributed to the changed mood is the sudden realisation that when the UPA falters, the BJP is the natural beneficiary. The BJP was as surprised as everyone else when it performed so well in the Uttar Pradesh municipal polls. Those elections revealed that the constituency for assertive nationalist politics was both alive and kicking and being fuelled by the divisive liberalism of the UPA.
Of course, the BJP still has some way to travel before it can recover the heady momentum of the 1990s. <b>Inadequate attention is being paid to the NDA and so far there is no evidence of a southern strategy to offset the BJP's own inadequacies in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Second, developments in two States - Karnataka and Rajasthan - where the BJP is in Government is causing concern to the party. Finally, there is the unresolved question of future leadership.</b>
These problems notwithstanding, the sheer force of anti-incumbency has forced the BJP to try and get its act together. There is a realisation that the leadership question, for example, won't be resolved by just debating the issue - Indian political parties don't have an institutionalised system of succession. Advani was right when he suggested that it is a combination of the party and the people that will settle the matter. Consequently, the BJP has thought it expedient to continue to project Vajpayee and Advani and get on with the hard slog on the ground.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Political reporting is all about identifying trends. There was only one discernible trend in Lucknow this week: India once again has a robust, self-confident Opposition. That's a piece of good news. </span>
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