Advices To BJP Party

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>BJP failed due to problems within</b>
pioneer.com
A Surya Prakash
Verdict 2009 is in and the people have renewed the mandate for the Congress-led UPA in an unambiguous manner. Although the alliance has marginally fallen short of the magical 272 needed for a clear majority in the Lok Sabha, the massive increase in the strength of the Congress in the House and the 100-seat lead that the UPA has secured over the NDA headed by the BJP has left no scope for speculation on who the winner is. It has also squashed the ambitions of many bit players who have been playing a disruptive role in national politics and put out of business many wheeler-dealers who were waiting for May 16 to make a killing.

The results indicate a grand revival of the fortunes of at least one national party. Second, the Congress it appears enjoys far greater credibility than the BJP among voters. And, finally, the clout of the Communists in national affairs, which has been grossly disproportionate to their known sources of electoral support, has been substantially reduced.

As regards the rout of the BJP and its alliance, the truth is that the voters saw the Congress as the more credible alternative. <b>The BJP could not have had a more conducive environment to trounce the ruling coalition. The country witnessed the most horrific and audacious terrorist assault when 10 fidayeen held Mumbai and the nation to ransom last November; the people have been groaning under inflation and economic slowdown; despite mounting scandals and charges of corruption against some Ministers, the Prime Minister remained helpless; the Government seemed paralysed when it came to joining the global movement against secrecy rules in Swiss banks; and, the Prime Minister gifted away $ 7.3 million to a fugitive called Ottavio Quattrocchi by unlocking his bank accounts in the UK apart from ensuring that this Italian friend of the Gandhis was taken off the Interpol list.</b>

Even a couple of these issues would have been enough for an Opposition party to exploit in an election, but as the results have shown, that was not to be.<b> The BJP appeared to be meandering and floundering throughout the two-month-long campaign. It raised these issues no doubt, but failed to connect with the voters. Equally disappointing was the party’s performance on the coalition meter. Several of its partners were ready to ditch it around election time. Several others are packing their bags after the election results came in. This says a lot for the political wisdom of the BJP’s top brass.</b>

Here are some disturbing statistics for BJP sympathisers: The party polled 86.40 million votes as against 103 million votes polled by the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections held in 1999. In 2004, the party secured 22.16 per cent of the votes as against the Congress’s 26.53 per cent.

Far from widening its base, the party’s vote-share has certainly shrunk in this election. First indications are that the BJP has got just 19 per cent of the 400 million votes cast in this election, which means the total votes in its kitty has dropped by 10 million. The Congress’s vote-share, on the other hand, has risen by at least three per cent, which means the difference in the vote-share of the two parties has increased from just over 16 million in 2004 to a staggering 34 million in 2009.

<b>Why did the BJP fare so badly? The reasons are many, but here are a few. The first of these is that there is no indication that the party has learnt even a single lesson from its crushing defeat in 2004. There was no credibility in anything that the party said, be it on terrorism, corruption or relations with the US. Having released dreaded terrorists during the Kandahar crisis, it did not lie in the BJP’s mouth to attack the Manmohan Singh Government on 26/11. That is why the party could not convert even 26/11 into votes.

Nor could the BJP encash the corruption of UPA Ministers: Of the 15 scamster MPs caught on tape taking cash to ask questions or sanction projects under the MPLADS Scheme, eight were from the BJP. This party also has the distinction of having an MP who was found involved in human trafficking. He was smuggling people into Canada on passports given to members of his family! The list is endless</b>

<b>Indiscipline at the top, with many leaders pursuing their own personal agendas at the cost of the party and the larger movement to which they belong, is yet another factor. Fourth, some of the most arrogant and conceited politicians can be found in this party. They lack the humility to listen to others and they are beyond learning. Last, there is no party high command, </b>as in the Congress or the CPI(M), and therefore many party leaders are answerable to no one and are beyond party discipline.

Is the BJP capable of sincere introspection and course correction? Given the party’s track record post-2004, I would not put my money on this.

The other significant outcome is the marginalisation of the Left. Electoral data shows that in recent times the vote-share of the two Communist parties — the CPI(M) and the CPI — has hovered around seven per cent. In 2004, the CPI (M) secured 5.66 per cent and the CPI got 1.41 per cent of the votes.

But, as all television viewers and newspaper readers know, this is inversely proportional to their media presence. Communists and their sympathisers in the media have always ensured a disproportionate media presence for them and this has beguiled leaders of these parties into thinking that the entire country is at their command.

If you just go by the airtime taken by CPI leader D Raja and listen to his shrill injunctions and threats, you are certain to forget that you live in a vibrant democracy. You will probably think that you are caught in the midst of an ideological battle between two strands of Communism in a totalitarian state. Those who wish to see an end to the era of lopsided media presence of Communists will certainly hope that the Lok Sabha election results will have a salutary effect on dispensers of media space, and TV viewers will be spared the spurious lectures on democracy by Mr 1.41 per cent!
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[ramana]

No one wants to give advice to Commies, RJD, SAD etc? Or great Jayalalitha?

[ramana]

One bright spot for BJP in Karnataka or takleef to others.

BJP is making steady gains in new areas

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->BJP is making steady gains in new areas


S. Rajendran


BJP got 42.33 per cent votes, Congress 37.92 per cent 


JD(S), which contested in 21 places, polled 17.01

per cent votes

With just 4.41 per cent votes more than Congress, BJP has won 19 seats


BANGALORE: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has emerged as the leading political party in the State in a short span of a decade while the Congress has taken the second place in the recent Lok Sabha elections. The Janata Dal (Secular) ranks third.

The vote share of the BJP has increased by nearly 8 per cent in the recent general elections compared to its share of votes in the 2004 elections.

<b>The vote share percentage of the BJP is now 42.33 compared with that of the Congress which has polled 37.92 per cent votes and the Janata Dal (S) which polled 17.01 per cent.</b>

The Janata Dal (S) contested only in 21 constituencies.

Good show


The vote share indicates the growing popularity of the BJP. <b>Apart from winning 19 of the 28 seats that it contested, the BJP has performed reasonably well in the six constituencies that it lost to the Congress and another three to the Janata Dal (Secular), emerging as the main rival to the Congress or the Janata Dal (S) in these nine constituencies.</b>

This is an indication that the BJP’s presence is spread throughout the State similar to that of the Congress.

With only an additional 4.41 per cent of votes compared to the Congress, the BJP has won 19 seats to the six seats won by the Congress.

The Janata Dal (S) has scored well in Hassan and Bangalore Rural where its candidates, the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and the former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy respectively have won by a big margin of 2.91 lakh votes and 1.30 lakh votes over their nearest rivals, again the candidates of the BJP.

Mr. Deve Gowda has obtained 50.64 per cent of the votes polled (9,80,348) while Mr. Kumaraswamy polled 44.73 per cent of the votes (11,02,833).

In Mandya, N. Cheluvarayaswamy has polled 37.28 per cent of the votes compared to 34.99 per cent polled by M.H. Ambareesh of the Congress.

<b>The Janata Dal (S) contested for 21 seats and in most constituencies the party has scored around 10 per cent of the votes polled barring in Kolar (21.78 per cent), Tumkur (34.41 per cent) and Koppal (23.90 per cent).</b>

Prof. K.E. Radhakrishna, party’s candidate in Bangalore South, secured 3.31 per cent of the votes polled in the constituency.

Those who have obtained more than 50 per cent of the votes polled in their respective constituency are Suresh Angadi (Belgaum) 50.93 per cent, Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad) 55.97 per cent, B.Y. Raghavendra (Shimoga) 50.58 per cent, and H.D. Deve Gowda (hassan) 50.64 per cent.

Giant-killer

In his debut in national politics, <b>Mr. Raghavendra has been a giant-killer having defeated the former Chief Minister S. Bangarappa,</b> who polled 45.04 per cent of the votes.

The remaining 12 candidates in Shimoga could not garner even 1 per cent of the votes each barring an independent M.P. Sridhar (1.14 per cent).

What should be a cause of concern to the Congress in particular is the steady drop in its vote share with every passing election compared to the BJP which has grown with every election.

The BJP’s vote share has increased from 27.18 per cent (25 seats contested) in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections to 34.77 per cent (28 seats contested ) in 2004 and 42.33 per cent (28 seats contested) in 2009. The vote share of the Congress has decreased from 45.41 per cent in 1999 to 37.92 per cent in 2009.

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[Guest]

ramana garu, with BJP (political) expediency has always trumped principles. I don't see it changing any time soon. They will go through the motions again to give the appearance of cleaning up the house, but the talk about coalition dharma etc etc is just around the corner - which means, they will abandon all principles once more. <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[G.Subramaniam]

ibnlive

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) party chief and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Monday asked for the resignation of over 50 party leaders heading various corporations, official sources said.

After becoming Chief Minister in 2007, Mayawati had given plum postings to several of her party leaders, with many given red-beacon cars and enjoying facilities and perks given to ministers of state.

While making the appointments, she had reportedly directed the party leaders to make all possible efforts for strengthening the party's base in their respective regions.

However, Mayawati, who was expecting 40 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, vented her ire at over 50 party leaders as her party managed to get only 20 seats.

According to sources, in the coming days Mayawati may take similar action against several other party leaders over the "poor performance" of her party.

[Bodhi]

<b>BJP apes Congress, fails</b>
Koenraad Elst

Right-wing parties all over the world have a common trait: Once in or near power, they betray their own support base. The BJP is no different. It is needlessly described as a ‘Hindu chauvinist’ party which it is not. To prove its ‘secular’ credentials, the BJP chose to become the ‘B’ team of the Congress. And was rejected by the voters

With great satisfaction, the world has taken note of the defeat of the Hindu nationalists: “The Indian voter has rejected Hindu chauvinism.” Subtleties such as the likelihood that the BJP has been abandoned by many of its supporters for not being Hindu chauvinist enough, don’t come into the picture. The typically Indian failures of the BJP that explain its defeat, I now leave to Indian authors to discuss. What has caught my attention is a trait the BJP shares with Right-wing parties all over the world.

The label ‘Rightist’ is open to various definitions, the themes with which Rightist parties attract voters are different from country to country, and even on a single theme, their positions may differ between countries. But they have one behavioural trait in common: Once in or near power, they betray their own support base.

In France, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy came to power on a distinctly Rightist platform, which he largely disowned once installed as President. Thus, he had promised to oppose the entry of Turkey into the EU, but the first thing he did was to nominate as his Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner of the opposition Socialist Party, a declared supporter of Turkey’s entry.

In Britain, the Conservative Party is a copy of New Labour on all issues of consequence. People who favour its traditional positions now turn to the UK Independence Party or even the proletarian British National Party. Those who insist on loyalty to the old party-line, even top-ranking veteran Norman Tebbitt, are threatened with expulsion.

In the US, the real (so-called paleo-) conservatives have been frozen out of the Republican Party and are being starved by institutional boycotts. The party shuns matters of principle and limits its supposed conservatism to mindless flag-waving. While the party base favours Christian politics, the part elite downplays ideology and promoted as presidential candidate the faux war martyr John McCain, a liberal in the Culture War. Like other plutocrats eager to suppress labour wages by exploiting illegals, he laughed at the party activists’ demands for curbs on immigration. Consequently, conservative mobilisation for the party during the elections was lacklustre and defeat inevitable.

Doesn’t all this remind you of the BJP? The party favours mindless flag-waving over ideology and takes its constituents for granted. It assumes that they have nowhere else to turn and will follow the party in all its erratic policy shifts. Well, not really erratic, there is a transparent logic in the party’s betraying its core party-line: It dreams of enjoying the warmth of approval from its enemies, who happen to dominate the cultural and media sectors. It tells its voters: Since you are lambasted as reactionary communalists, we don’t want to be on your side. But no matter what non-Hindutva postures it adopts, the hoped-for approval from the secularists remains elusive.

In 1991 already, right after the election victory that made the BJP the leading Opposition party, it discreetly disowned the Ayodhya movement that had earned it this breakthrough. The media scapegoated Mr LK Advani for the subsequent Babri Masjid demolition, though everybody knew that it had taken place in spite of him. He had gone there to demonstrate to the secularists that he was the one man who could control Hindu anger and prevent it from demolishing this symbol of secularism. When the crowd bypassed him, he broke down in tears, and ever since, he has been deploring the event as the ‘blackest day’ of his life. Disowning his role of flag-bearer of Hindutva, he should have bowed out gracefully. Instead, his clinging on to the leadership reminds us of Mr Jean-Marie Le Pen, the aged French Rightist leader who has sacrificed his party to his own pitiable ambitions.

While Ayodhya was ‘merely’ a symbolic issue, the more political demands were likewise cast aside. When in power, the BJP didn’t make the slightest move towards a Common Civil Code, abolition of Jammu & Kashmir’s separate status or Governmental non-interference in Hindu schools and places of worship. The single attempt at doing anything pro-Hindu — Mr Murli Manohar Joshi’s exercise in rewriting the Marxist-distorted textbooks — turned into a horror show of incompetence.

During the latest campaign, the BJP downplayed ideology (except erratically in the Varun Gandhi incident) and betted all on ‘good governance’. Some BJP State Governments have provided that, to be sure, and in these States the BJP has been rewarded. But it could never be a decisive election-winner because Congress hasn’t done too bad in that regard either. Ever since Mr Manmohan Singh read out the 1992 Budget, the world sees his signature written all over India’s economic success. Even BJP contributors to that success, like erstwhile Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie, won’t deny him that honour.

In these circumstances, only a clear ideological profile, mature but distinct, could have won the election for the BJP. If it didn’t want that ideological distinctness and was content to remain the Congress’s B-team, the party could have learned from Mr Sarkozy to show this only after the election. Before, it should at least have kept up the pretence of being a party with a difference.

-- The author is an Indologist based in Brussels.

http://dailypioneer.com/177112/BJP-apes-...fails.html

[shamu]

Someone told me that locals in Maharashtra were upset with NaMo's comparison between developments in Maharashtra and Gujarat. They rather felt insulted when told by an outsider, rather than understanding that Congress was keeping them poor.

What BJP should do is to make sure that all its states perform much better than all other states, in all forms of development indices. It must drumbeat those achievements regularly as NaMo does. Message to be given public is that it is BJP and not NaMo alone who does the development.

[Guest]

"The BJP leads the party-wise figures with 42 MPs who have criminal cases against them, followed closely by the Congress with 41. Samajwadi Party is in third place with eight followed by the BSP with six."

<b>Uttar Pradesh has most tainted MPs</b>

[Guest]

Varun and Advani are considered as tainted but Sonia who was involved in Oil for Food programme and falsifying her documents, lying under oath when she became Chairman of UPA is not considered as tainted. Rahul was detained in US was not considered as tainted.
So definition of tainted depends on who is ruling country.
How Sonia and Rahul are able to add crores within 5 year without job. There Indian tax money paid MP salary doesn’t add up.

Now go figure, which is tainted

[acharya]

From another forum
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I am not worried about BJP’s loss in this election. Barring Rajasthan (which I think was lost due to the leadership issues) and Madhya Pradesh (I think it is more of a cross voting because MP voters didn’t see LKA to be a suitable alternative to MMS), BJP gained in almost all other states it has a base. We cannot expect it to have a meaningful presence in AP, TN, Kerala, and WB, where congress gained the most number of seats, overnight. Together these states have >150 seats and BJP cannot expect to form a GOVT without at least 25-50% presence in these states.

My analysis of the results:
• Majority youth views BJP as a Hindu-Fundamentalist party. Only BJP can change this perception with the help of media.
• Majority of rural populace does not connect with nationalistic/geopolitical dimensions. Efficient civil supplies (ration shops, health insurance, and affordable education) and subsidy programs such as interest-free loans, and farm-loan subsidies are required and will work. I too think this is what an NDA govt should offer. Interest free loans for farmers with an option to pay the loan with farm products including perishable products (let Govt build efficient storage and supply infrastructure), free education, and two meals per day for school going children of ages 5-15
• Most of the middle and upper middle class Hindus do not want to vote to BJP because LKA is non-reliable (I don’t know why), and NM is divisive (This is changing slowly). MMS is seen as a gentleman that represents Hindu gomaata. People are ok to accept Sonia’s foreign identity as long as she supports MMS. Sonia can continue this strategy with AKA (another soft speaking honest individual) and other similar leaders until congress gets absolute majority (>280 seats). Once in that position, Rahul-baba will become PM.
• The Left is seen as detrimental to progress and will diminish in popularity and representation.
• Regional parties will either have to merge/in-alliance with national parties.

Strategy for BJP

• Hindutva has become a bad word. It is time to put the right understanding and perspective on Hindutva concept. The responsibility will be on various Hindu religious, service, media and political organizations. This is the leadership RSS can provide.
• Build BJP ruled states as model states, without exception, to rest of India. Gujarat, Karnataka, Chattisghad, Bihar, Jarkhand, Himachal Pradesh, MP must demonstrate more than national average growth in all Human Development Indicators. It should become a BJP trait, not a leader specific trait.
• In all non-BJP ruling states, it should have a permanent alliance member or build the party from bottom up. Identify a village or two in each assembly segment and gain power in that village. Develop them as model villages.

If BJP wants to be what it states, that is a nationalistic party
• It must develop the states it is ruling in a way that they take ~100million people out of poverty (Population of BJP ruled states ~325 million), permanently.
• It must develop efficient civil supplies departments
• It must implement a comprehensive farming infrastructure in those states
• Offer free education till 12th grade (states prerogative?) with free food. Change the education system to make these students more efficient and effective in their career pursuit
• Offer free primary health care (Arogyashree type scheme)

P.S: I think with a ~1000 crore annual budget, we can change public perception on Hindutva, India, and Politics. Better education, organization, presense, and service.
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[ramana]

<!--QuoteBegin-Savithri+May 19 2009, 01:27 PM-->QUOTE(Savithri @ May 19 2009, 01:27 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->"The BJP leads the party-wise figures with 42 MPs who have criminal cases against them, followed closely by the Congress with 41. Samajwadi Party is in third place with eight followed by the BSP with six."

<b>Uttar Pradesh has most tainted MPs</b>
[right][snapback]97494[/snapback][/right]
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It would be interesting to find out what the actual charges were against all those 'criminal'/ tainted MPs. And what is the law about charges and convictions?

From what I know of Andhra politics the easiest thing to do is to file cases against opponents to tie them up in legal wrangles as courts take for ever to dispense justice. And extra benefit is to claim moral superiority.

[ramana]

<!--QuoteBegin-k.ram+May 19 2009, 01:59 AM-->QUOTE(k.ram @ May 19 2009, 01:59 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->ramana garu, with BJP (political) expediency has always trumped principles. I don't see it changing any time soon. They will go through the motions again to give the appearance of cleaning up the house, but the talk about coalition dharma etc etc is just around the corner - which means, they will abandon all principles once more.  <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->
[right][snapback]97480[/snapback][/right]

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kram, The core vote for BJP is ~ 20%. You cant win elections with that low a number unless its multi-cornered contests with the candidates splitting/dividing the elecotrate on caste or groupism lines. This time in many regions like AP- PRP, Maharasthra- MNS, Gujarat - rebel BJP, TN- Vijaykanth's *MK and in Rajasthan - Shekawat vs Rajhe fight which is essentially caste based at the root of it, there were multicornered fights which allowed the INC to romp home.

So how does one stick to core principles and stay marginalised? 20% can never beat the others.
How to build alliances and gain power without which politics is vyarth.

I think the need is to transform Hindutva to Indutva. At same time need to get more people to align with the BJP idea of India. The elections have decimated fissiparious groups. Time to move in and take over.

[Guest]

ramana garu,

I hear you. I have been hearing this for quite a number of years as well - the
realistic side of it, that is. Even with 20%, if they stick to their principles, they
can achieve quite a lot, just look at our commies LOL.

All the ideas back when they were presented, the context was basically on how
to grow healthily from where we were to a point where it can win an entire
country/election on its own. It was also understood that partnerships, alliances
are the stop-gap measures, but the leadership should not sacrifice the principle
or the long term plans. The consensus too was reached quite easily on how
they (BJP) need to fundamentally change the level of discourse, politics
etc, in the country by preparing the ground for it and expand it (by spreading
awareness).

It was all ours to take even back then. We were all quite aware that Hindutva
card will only go so far and work must be done to grow it. They must have the
state to redefine the nation, or so the thought process went. Heck, we even
thought we can get up to 50% of Hindu vote - roughly 37-38% population without
moving to the left.

Didn't they have almost a generation to sow the seeds, nurture it, grow it and
own it? They did nothing, no one can deny that. Now, after almost a generation,
they are back scratching their heads wondering what went wrong. It (Hindu vote)
is still for take for anyone - not just BJP. I want Hindus to realize that power they have without BJP.

Don't get me wrong, I wish they succeed in whatever they want to do, if it
benefits India. I can say quite confidently, they are beyond repair unless it is completely purged (save, elements like Modi, Shourie, et al).

However, I just wish Hindus get compeltely untethered (from BJP). Period. It
probably lightens the load on BJP (and they can focus strictly on politics,
power, and perks that come with it). Hindus too can freely choose and
create bridges with other segments of the political parties as well as society
(In India and abroad) and set right lot of things without any single political
party's help.

The Hindu-BJP combination has been disastrous for both. BJP had a chance with
Hindus, and it blew it. If Hindus blow it again, by aligning again with BJP,
all I can say is - they deserve each other and wring my hands in vain, but
reserve the right to say - I told you so, when BJP throws hindus under the
bus - which they will.

[Bharatvarsh]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->• Offer free education till 12th grade (states prerogative?) with free food. Change the education system to make these students more efficient and effective in their career pursuit
• Offer free primary health care (Arogyashree type scheme)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Rightttt

The government already does such a great job running railways, national defense among other things that now they will educate all the kids, give all people health care. Hey what happened to the parents in all this, you know those creatures who gave birth to the kids, isn't it their responsibility to care for their kids, you know all this is part of regressive fascist ideas like family values that I grew up with.

Also what about "free" tv sets, vcr's, washing machines etc?

Just look at how efficiently gov't ran health care & education in USSR, we just need that & we will be well on our way to being a superpower, oh wait the USSR collapsed (perhaps due to an evil capitalist conspiracy?).

But then again BJP prides itself on "Gandhian Socialism".

k.ram said what makes sense, why we should we yoke Hindu interests to Congress B team. If they do not want to change their course then fine, they will get what they deserve.

As for advice to BJP, whats the point people have been giving feedback to them for years now but nothing ever changes.

Whatever advice I can give can be deduced from that Elst article, & the two VOI books "Time for stock taking whither sangh parivar" & "BJP vis-a-vis Hindu resurgence".

[Guest]

<b><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Election 2009 – The BJP got what it deserved - II </b></span>
Radha Rajan
18 May 2009

<b>On parasites and spitting partners</b>

The first grim warning signal that the BJP was ready to cast its distinctive ideology aside came during the 1999 elections to the Lok Sabha. The BJP made the (mis)calculated choice of not going to the people with its own manifesto but with something called NDA Agenda for Governance (NAG). As early as in 1999, barely within a year of the BJP coming to power in Delhi as a Hindu political party, there was no BJP, only a motley group of opportunists around an ascendant BJP called NDA.


The death of ideology was beginning to manifest itself and signaled the undoing of the BJP. The BJP was already ailing – it lost confidence in its ability to stand alone, to walk alone. The NDA allies promised to be the BJP’s crutches in return for the assurance that the BJP would give up its stand-alone ideology. Why are we heart-broken that the BJP suffered humiliating losses in 2004 and 2009 because of atrophy?


It is not within the ambit of this column to delineate why Ramjanmabhumi, the Uniform Civil Code, abrogating Article 370 and ban on cow slaughter defined Hindu nationalism; suffice to say, these were substantive issues defining nation, nationhood and nationalism and could be fulfilled only by state power. A party’s election manifesto is both an expression of self-identity and a statement of intent. The election manifesto is a promise of ideology in action. By choosing not to go to the people and seek their mandate on the basis of its ideology and presenting the country with a deracinated document called NAG, the BJP with deliberate intent abdicated its responsibility to the Hindus and allowed itself to be ‘secularised’ by the parasites feeding on it.


Every one of the components that went into the unnatural creature called NDA were regional parties which back home relied on the Muslim and Christian vote.Every parasite openly courted the Abrahamic minorities but denied the BJP, off whose body they were fattening themselves, its right to speak for the Hindus. The logic was childishly simple. Speaking for the Hindus and placing a Hindu agenda before the country would naturally drive the Hindus to vote as Hindus; and a Hinduised political agenda was certain to upset the existing arithmetic of vote share in favour of the BJP thus putting all regional parties dependent on Muslims and Christians for their survival, out of business. The BJP’s Hindu agenda was threatening not only their very survival but was threatening to alter the Gandhi-Nehru political language and character of the polity which went by the name of ‘secularism’.


The parasites extracted a double price from the BJP for the privilege of eating into the BJP’s vitals – not only must the BJP efface all its distinctive features which made it a Hindu party, it should also not make any move to ‘grow’ in the states which these regional parties considered their personal fiefdoms. The BJP consented to dwarf itself in the states to stave off any imminent move by the regional satraps to destabilise the BJP in Delhi. The BJP was growing steadily and surely in Bihar, in Uttar Pradesh, in Andhra Pradesh and in Maharashtra. Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan, Mayawati, Chandrababu Naidu and Bal Thackeray made sure the regional BJP politicians never became bigger than them or that the BJP never made a move to goad the people of these states to see the BJP as the face and voice of Hindus; in Tamil Nadu, the Punjab and in Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP did not even try to move a toe while in Uttar Pradesh the BJP died more of self-inflicted wounds than Mayawati’s knives. The BJP as a Hindu movement had been successfully derailed.


Atal Behari Vajpayee managed the 24-party coalition “successfully” only by destroying his own party. Parasites became ‘coalition partners’, walking with crutches became ‘taking everyone along’, opportunist buckling to parasite pressure became ‘coalition dharma’ and Ramjanmabhumi became an ‘encashed cheque’ and ‘BJP is not a construction company’. In-house intellectuals in their self-appointed role as the voice of the BJP to the RSS and the voice of the RSS to the BJP and the voice of both the RSS and BJP to ordinary mortals justified the degeneration of the BJP with the untenable argument that the ‘secularising’ of the BJP was inevitable because coalition politics had come to stay and the alternative to ruling in Delhi at the price of loss of ideology and the BJP’s self-identity, was to choose to sit alone in the opposition.


Most significantly, these individuals, with their clout in the RSS persuaded the RSS to accept the crippling disabilities as necessary interim strategy; no one in the RSS could stop these individuals in their tracks although many realized the danger of what was happening. The inevitable consequence of the untrammeled power of these individuals was that the RSS was also forced to endure the handicap of silence and inaction. Consequently, instead of the BJP looking like the political wing of the RSS, the converse became true and the RSS began to look more and more like the BJP. And even as all this was happening, the rift between the BJP and the VHP over Ramjanmabhumi widened and eventually all communication between the siblings broke down completely. Not surprisingly, the RSS was in no position to deal with the warring elements in both camps and could therefore not heal the breach.


Having emaciated the BJP beyond recognition, the parasites abandoned the body and moved over to the Congress. Several among them discarded the ‘secular’ NDA robes and wrapped the UPA bath-towel around their waists. The RJD, the Samajwadi Party and the LJP dropped the bath-towel and spat at the Congress on the eve of elections and mid-way through the election campaign. But when the results were out and the Congress kept them outside the gates, Lalu, Paswan and Mulayam are prepared to lick the spittle off the Congress face to be allowed the privilege of begging at the gates with extended hands for leftovers.


The BJP’s ‘coalition partners’ in coalition ‘dharma’, the AIADMK, the National Conference, the LJP, the BJD, the TDP, the JD(S) and even the Akali Dal have periodically spat on the BJP face but unlike the Congress, the BJP continued to practice its brand of coalition dharma like Gandhi practiced his brand of ahimsa; the BJP wiped the spittle off its face and went back begging for more, knowingly uncaring about the fact that when these parties spat on the BJP’s face they were actually spitting on the face of ordinary Hindus who voted for the BJP. There is no forgiveness for the BJP and if the RSS is serious about parenting the parivar then it will listen to the voice of anguish of ordinary Hindus and make sure that none of the Problem Seven comes close to the penultimate chair or the throne. They all deserve to be exiled.


The time for polite silence and text-book discipline has passed. The Hindu nation is larger than individuals, organizations and political parties. The BJP’s sins of omission and commission are far too many to be brushed aside or weighed lightly against the undoubtedly notable contributions of its aged leadership. The enforced silence has to be broken if there has to be any purposeful turnaround to get the BJP back on track. The first thing to be done is to silence all public voices in the BJP until the introspection process is complete, responsibility is pinned and hierarchy is restored. The second thing to do would be to state emphatically that the innumerable journalists and editors who had been promoted as the voice of the BJP for purposes of television news channel appearances no longer speak for the party.


One of them declared vacuously that the BJP will have to get back to ‘development’; another insulted the intelligence of the voter and said promoting two Prime Ministers confused the voter while the third declared unctuously that the BJP leadership was to blame without telling us which leaders and what their offences were. The fourth attributed the loss to the non-entity Varun Gandhi and his ambitious mother while the fifth made the slightly more intelligent but sinister remark that there will now be a Pavlovian reaction to get back to a self-identity defined by ideology. The barb was well-directed but the body at which the barb was aimed has a resilient body and a spirited mind. The ruse won’t work.


(To be continued)
The author is Editor, www.vigilonline.com

[Bodhi]

<b>Bye, bye Mr Advani</b>
by Uttam Sengupta

It was a hot afternoon in Faizabad (Ayodhya) in 1997-98 and the choice was between driving back to Lucknow and waiting for Lal Krishna Advani to arrive and address an election meeting. My companion, a minor BJP leader, was insistent on returning. Advani, he said to my surprise, was an over-rated public speaker and was unlikely to say anything of any substance. I decided to stay, curious to hear what the BJP leader had to say on the Ram temple he wanted built at Ayodhya and for which he had got the Babri mosque demolished.

But when the helmsman arrived, finally, he appeared completely lost. Indeed, he seemed to think he was addressing a poll meeting in Bihar as he went on rambling about Lalu Yadav and poor governance. The motley crowd listened stoically but his old and well-circulated jokes about Lalu fell flat. I actually felt sorry for him.

But the very next year the NDA bounced back to power and Advani became the Home Minister and later, the Deputy Prime Minister. Two or three years later I was having lunch in the national capital with a former DIB ( Director, Intelligence Bureau) who was believed to have been close to Mr Advani. “ How do you rate him as a person and an administrator,” I remember asking him. He seemed to have been caught off-guard by the question and the smile vanished from his lips.

He took his time to reply, fiddling with his fork and , like many Intelligence Bureau officers, rehearsing in his mind what he wanted to say. But his reply was astonishing. He began by saying: “Mr Advani is a thorough gentleman, a very well-read person, a warm host and a great friend to have”. After a pause and another prodding from me, he thoughtfully added: “He is a simple person, goes out of his way to help…” and his voice trailed off.

Impatient, I asked: “I sense there is a ‘but’ coming; what is it ?”

“Well,” the former DIB and soon-to-be-made-Governor sighed: “he is a poor judge of men and, unfortunately, he has no clue about administration”.

I was stunned. “ Are you suggesting that the Home Minister of the country is a poor administrator ,” I blurted out but the gentleman, who I had known for 20 years, merely shrugged.

His words came rushing back to mind when, several years later and after Mr Advani’s autobiography came out, another bureaucrat who had worked with him in the ministry, claimed that throughout his tenure he had not come across a single file on which the HM ( Home Minister) had noted his opinion. <b>“ Every file we sent to him, even those where possible options were specified, returned with his signature and nothing else,” he claimed.</b>

There must be more to Mr Advani than what these stray comments suggest. He certainly inspires both loyalty and affection among people close to him.

But to me he always appeared somewhat unreal, an epic character riding a rath, waving a sword and tilting at windmills. The wrong man for the wrong party and profession , perhaps ? And somehow I feel very relieved that he is not going to be the Prime Minister, after all.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20090519/edit.htm#6

[Capt M Kumar]

<!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/B...how/4556217.cms

"Since the United States and many countries have stopped use of EVMs in elections, we should stop the practice in India too," BJP state president Suresh Pujari said after a brain storming session on the party's debacle.

Raising serious doubts about the accuracy of the EVMs, he said ballot papers are "more accurate and authentic."

[acharya]

brihaspati
X post

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->There is a fundamental error in perceptions about the Congress, and this leads to all the heated debate about relative merits or tactical differences between the BJP and the Congress in elections.
<b>
The Congress is all about ideological vacuum. It carefully nurtures, maintains and promotes complete lack of commitment to any consistent ideological position, including "faith". There are many advantages to this, and for most of the time in any nation's history, such a strategy will appear successful.</b>

All those who link and fught over the apparent association of "hindutva" with the BJP and the non-association with Congress miss this crucial point and therfore are misjudging its impact on th recent elections. The Congress's major support base comes from within those who are legally considered "Hindu". The Congress itself is very much aware of it, and it never takes any obvious steps that would directly alienate the "Hindu" sentiment. In fact as I have written elsewhere, the Congress is more "Hindutva" of the the type it overtly criticizes, than those it accuses. Congress has never tried to modernize and integrate the Muslim or Christian Indian, into the mainstream, by reforming or modernizing the faith blocs that the theologian leadership of these communities use to prevent them from striving forward competitively in education and the economy. Congress however has done a lot to modernize the "Hindu". This is a pointer to the inherent bias in the Congress elite thinking that the non-Hindu does not belong to "us" - and therefore not sufficiently identifiable with "us" to care enough to do the same as with the "Hindu".

However, the Congress cannot afford to allow the rise of a strong ideological framework, and the most natural convenient one would be the "Hindutva", since that would mean rival claims to political authority away from the dynastic system and the courtier regime around it. In both Christian and Islamic countries, where such ideological basis of political parties have been allowed to flourish or remain in morphed affiliations, the elite of these political parties are always in an uneasy reltionship with the theologians, and feel constrained or a re challenged from time to time in terms of unadulterated enjoyment of power.

Thus Congress has fought hard to impose and promote a general atmosphere of ideological vacuum, where its major constituency, the "Hindu" cannot have independent sources of arriving at ideological conclusions - and have to look up to a dynasty or individual.

Why could this flourish? Because of two reasons :one historical, where the major forces of strong ideological commitments were worn down in conflicts with the British, and the two most prone to such afflictions - Bengal and Punjab were successfully decimated through the Partition, as well as consistent regime mounted campaigns to destroy rival claimants for the "Hindu heart" - the host of staunch organizations like that of Savarkar's repressed, and those like RKM forced into "pure social service".

The second factor is that normally a population would not like to work more to commit itself to an ideology unless a crisis makes it unavoidable. The majority of "Hindu elite" who supported Congress had no reason to invest more of their intellect and efforts into commiting to strong ideological positions as there were no incentives to do so. Given the attitude of the elite, which has a disproportionate voice on media projections, the non-elite would have no reasons to go that extra le either. So ideological vacuum suits well with scenarios where people do not have to "commit". It gives them the greatest flexibility of tactical switching over as and when it is seemingly beneficial. This is of course most advantageous for the "Hindu elite" who would be found to have the greatest proportion of aggressive proponents of this ideological vacuum. It is therefore not surprising that the strongest attacks on this forum against "Hindutva" has come from among the "Hindu elite", for they realize very well the danger it represents to the opportunistic flexibility of position that they think they can benefit from.

It is not a question of "hindutva" that affected the elections - both sides practice "Hindutva", one of the closet variety with even more hidden but exclusivist, paranoid, "brahminical - all non-Brahmins are Shudras" (the Thaparite reconstruction of Brahmin - not my personal generalization) type thinking, and the other practices overt "Hindutva" although a shy, bashful, and hesitant one.

It is "peacetime" politics, where ideological vacuums are generally attractive. Here results will swing based on whoever promises the more largesse, and asks for lesser in return. It is only when crises overtakes, that people will search for strength in their roots. Only when such crises have been shown to be a direct result of vacuum opportunism will the people crush the originators of the vacuum. Until then it is a question of pure and cynical manipulation.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Capt M Kumar]

Today, many die hard older BJP voters confess that their children do not seem inclined to vote for the party. There is also the very real problem of the minorities' distrust of the party, which makes the BJP a pariah with other parties keen to harness the large Muslim vote share. Unless the BJP attempts to project itself as an inclusive outfit with forward-thinking policies, it could regress further into an insular, narrow-minded party increasingly out of sync with the electorate of the twenty-first century.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/bjp-at...s/462514/0

[ramana]

I wrote this:
<!--QuoteBegin-"ramana"+-->QUOTE("ramana")<!--QuoteEBegin-->I dont see all the fuss being made by NDA allies(SAD and other corrupt gangs) and non-allies about Varun Gandhi's speech and so called Muslim vote consolidation. What this election proved is that the vote in some areas got consolidated to INC and not any of the Third or Fourth front. However to be fair the INC was working overtime to get this vote anyway : Sachar committee, Batala House incident, Indian Mujaheddin & SIMI non-action etc., etc. In fact after every terrorist attack the vote was getting consolidated to INC due to unfortunate statements by "nationalists" accusing Indian Muslims. Every Police raid to round up usual suspects and relase them after hue and cry is over consolidated the votebank. <b>So the terrorist strikes were like the riots of yesteryears for votebank consolidation of INC</b>.

<b>Besides this votebank was never for the others so why are the NDA allies making noises? They never would have got any of the vote and did not get that vote.</b> Infact trying to cash in on the votebank, Mayawati imprisoned Varun Feroze Gandhi, under NSA, who did use his middle name unlike Rahul Vinci Gandhi. And this jailig consolidate his position in his constituency and the national perception.

So this votebank consolidation and distancing themselves from NDA and BJP in particular has cost the Third & Fourth front to the benefit of the INC. If this trend continues its they who will get decimated before the BJP. <b>These Fronts are so far from INC that they will never get any share of the votebank. Such being the case if they keep putting up multi-cornered fights they will gift the INC another 60 years of rule.</b>


So per game theory its time for them to face realities and cooperate in next elections if they want ot be relevant. <b>Regional parties need to introspect and decide if they want to particiapte in India's future or fall by the wayside.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->