I have been thinking a lot on the reasons for BJPs defeat in the just concluded general election. The defeat was very clear and conclusive. It was a political defeat and not a defeat caused by the election (mis)management. I hope the top leadership of the party really introspects on the reasons for defeat. I hope it will be honest in this exercise.
I have listed below some points which are some of the reasons for its defeat. The party needs to address these issues if it wants to stay relevant in Indian politics:
1. Hindutva: Indian Hindus express their religion as a way of life. It does not mix up religion with governance / administration. Hence, asking for hindu votes with no credible governance will not work.
2. Indians and Hindus in particular do not like violence. Violence, specially attacks on places of worship (of any religion) is hence disliked by the people. The meaningless violence witnessed in the last 1 year have resulted in neutral people move away from BJP.
3. Media, specially the English language media is against / anti BJP. The party needs to handle this cleverly. All the good work that the BJP and it associated organizations are doing in different states is not communicated to the people. But when a church is attacked by some goons, it is flashed endlessly on all news channels during primetime. So the people associate BJP with violence and religious intolerance. The party should overcome this weakness and never give a chance to the media to exploit it.
4. BJP projected itself as a party with a difference. The difference as it communicated to people was in terms of integrity in public life and ethics in its administration / governnace. But it was very clear that the party forgot about this when it came to power. This has to bve addressed by inducting good / credible people into the party and giving them improtant roles.
5. Issue of 'Conversion' - This is one issue BJP has not handled intelligently. First of all, why do people convert from one religion to another? What type of people convert? If you are not providing the livelihood to the poor hindus and dignity in society, the poor are bound to go the religion that promises them that. This is law of the nature. Is BJP going to go against the law of nature? Instead why not work on empowering this class of people and stop conversion? How long are you going to complain / whine? Nobody will listen after a point.
There are many more...
But the above points are most important for the party to bounce back into the electoral politics. In order to retain in committed supporters the party has to show that it is making honest effort to change itself.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
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