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.
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Hi,
ReplyDeleteI have been referred to your page by my wife, Manpreet. I think you are dealing with an important issue here. I agree with most of the points made and disagree with some.
Lets look at time.
Yes, the BJP, rather any Jan Sangha, thinking has been irrationally victimized by media and the party leadership seem to have developed a liking for this. Therefore they are not doing concrete anything about it. I personally believe, though I am not a fan of any political party, BJP is not as bad a party as is being projected out. Yes, some of the leadership seem to enjoy the hardcore line, a majority of them talks about politics of inclusion. Even a person who is being projected by media as top threat to secularism, Narendra Modi, in a recent interview, talked about politics of inclusion. This is a healthy sign but it seems they have to make this point loud and clear and many times over given their background to drive the message home.
Yes, the Jan Sangha does have believe in hardcore politics. Their leadership does talk about Hindutava. But they realise little that Hinduism teaches tolerance and is one of the most tolerant religions anywhere. They seem to take a very narrow view of Hindutava, which rightly backfires.
more later
Lakhwinder
Thanks Lakhwinder for comments. It is encouraging to see comments from people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comments. Eventhough they have inherited from the old Jansangh, the party ideology is really good. The only thing they should concentrate on is to include all instead of just Hindus. Lets see if BJP can re invent itself.