Dreams of crores of Indian that their country would be empowered soon and have faster connectivity, more jobs, better education and improved quality of life do not appear to be a reality with the ruling BJP losing its track and its czar unable to connect with the aspirations of the rank and file and proving to be ineffectual in comprehending the organisational challenges.
After the launching of Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980, the founder leaders had boasted that a party with difference was born. But one thing they had missed out at that time was to tell in what way it was different:-was it a quantitative or qualitative difference? No doubt its earlier version Jana Sangh was communal, but its latest edition BJP was not only communal but fascist also. For the first time it got manifested in L K Advani’s Rath Yatra, which kindled communal passion and flared up violence across the country.
Shockingly, Indians witnessed worst form of communalism and politics of hatred under the autocratic rule of Narendra Modi. On the plea of dispensing Good Governance and implementing Gujarat model of development, Modi not only defaced the secular and liberal image of the country, he also turned BJP inconsequential and non-functional. He obliterated the tag of “party with difference”. The potential of transforming India lost its haze.
While the BJP lost its moorings, it miserably failed to counter Modi’s “Vision for the India” a skewed concept. With BJP losing the organisational character and its conversion into wall-poster for displaying Modi’s ideas, the party faced the worst nature of existential crisis. With almost all senior leaders dumped into Marg Darshak camp, there was no senior left to provide a direction to the party. Organisational structure already in tatters, it is really a tough task for the leaders to rejuvenate it and provide a direction.
Modi’s hyperbole has inflicted severe damage to the body politik of India, at the same time, it has turned the BJP irrelevant which cannot think of evolving a mechanism to face the challenges that were staring at the face of India. Modi has not only been deceiving the people of the country and his partymen through his rhetoric of preserving the heritage of India’s rich social and cultural diversity, its tradition, the strength of human resource and the aspirations of the youth and women.
A party needs a strong organisational infrastructure for proper implementation of ideas and policies of the leader. But it is absolutely absent in the case of BJP. Modi has fed the party leaders and cadres with the diet of politics of hatred. The loss of organisational character is distinctly evident in cadres turning into vigilantes and mercenaries. Ten years of Modi’s rule witnessed degeneration of the party cadres. Almost all the communal riots and violences that took place had the presence of RSS. But the incidents that took place during Modi raj, as lynching, was to serve the cause of Modi, more than helping RSS, to project him as the Hindu Hridaya Samrat.
With Modi losing his electoral magic, the BJP has to reinvent itself and gain back its relevance. Populism practiced by Modi through his rhetoric “concept of Brand India” which included five-Ts; Talent, Trade, Tradition, Tourism and Technology, would have to be redrawn.
Organisational challenges before BJP is immense. The residual leadership instead of looking towards Modi for a solution should have to work out their own strategies and mechanism. BJP, if it really intends to keep its space in political arena, should ensure application of administration where even the weakest and the most vulnerable sections of society have an equal stake in charting the country’s growth. Everything starts and progresses from this single idea.
Back in 2022, the BJP had started restructuring the party organisation, brought in new faces to man important positions in the party, keeping an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. But these changes failed to yield results, as Modi sidestepped the changes and continued to dictate its functioning. There is imperative need for revamp of the party apparatus. The manner in which Modi intends to let continue his disciple JP Nadda as the party’s national chief, it would undoubtedly harm the interest of the party. A new president will come with new ideas and programme which would eventually help the party.
The defeat of the party in the Lok Sabha election has turned it rudderless. The party has lost dynamics and purpose and this was evident in party losing the assembly byelections, held only last month. Party units in almost all states are in disarray. Factional feud is at the extreme. This has been something unusual for party which sternly believed in concept of discipline. It simply underlines that the party has already turned into a Modi-centric organisation, even at state level.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat understands that organisational strength for BJP is imperative for survival of not only RSS but the entire saffron ecosystem. A strong organisational structure of BJP would guarantee its better relations with RSS. As members of the same ideological family, they share views. Before the coming state assembly elections, all the poll bound states are witnessing factional fights in BJP. It is most prominent in Maharashtra and Haryana. Prime Minister’s domination at every level of state BJP decision making, has crippled many of the state leaderships. Organisational rejig is on the way in most of the states. But the signs are clear that Narendra Modi’s remote control will not allow any democratization of the state leaderships of the BJP. (IPA Service)
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