NEW DELHI: An all-pervading sense of listlessness marked the recent three-day meeting of the BJPs nation an executive at Samath in view of the realization that the main opposition party in the Lok Sabha can do little to topple the P.V Narasimha Rao government OR come to power at the Center in the near future.
Having already recognized that the Congress had a “de facto” majority in the Lok Sabha, members of the executive went about the event with a district air of weariness. Indeed, the political resolution, the pronouncements of senior party leaders and the statement on the Union budget in which the Rao government was strongly criticized, appeared to be no more than the bites of lamb.
It has evidently dawned upon the party that from a position of strength after the fall of the V.P, Singh government, it has now been reduced to.an ordinary opposition struggling to retain its bargaining position, For one, the actions and the sober realpolitik of Narasimha Rao has virally check-mated the BJP, it cannot vehemently criticize the Congress government nor afford to take to the streets against it for fear of antagonizing its middle-class support base which has reacted positively to the new economic policies.
How to remain stridently in the picture did after the October 30,1990 events and chart out a path to power is the main question facing the party. The longer the Rao government remains in office and pursues the new economic Policies to their logical end, the more difficult it would be for the BJP to think in terms of coming to Power.
The unenviable position in which the party finds itself was evident in ample measure during the national executive meeting. Not only id members of the executive fumble on the model of development the party had promised to evolve, but quite a few of them cautioned the leadership against jettisoning the basic tenets of the RSS school of thought while supporting some of the new economic policies
The leadership is clearly at pains to distance itself from the Rao government. A clear indication of this was the diatribe launched by L.K. Advani against Rao for the Seuss alone failure to break free from the “past distortions in the Congress political thinking.” Behind the policy of broadly supporting the economic policies and criticizing Rao on political matters, lurks the fond hope of veering him round slowly to the BJP worldview.
The compulsions of keeping its constituents happy even at the cost (of keeping the albatross of the Ram temple around its neck has clearly put the party under considerable stain. This, at 2 time when grave problems are surfacing in many of the BJPs state unit,
In an organization which prides itself for discipline in its ranks, rumblings from different corners of the country have made the central leadership sit up. An exercise is on within the party to evolve a mechanism to resolve differences among pasty men at the state levels.
Incidentally, states-center personal animosities, differences and resentment over dominance of certain groups coincide with the completion of one year of Dr. Murti Manohar Joshi party president leaders and workers from various states indicate that Dr. Joshi has not exactly come up to their expectations. Of course, for public consumption, it stated that Dr Joshis has done wonders for the party.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 27, 1992
