There is little point in blaming anyone or pointing fingers
|
But the moot point of her suo moto declaration is that she is active in politics and in the Bharatiya Janata Party chiefly because of personal loyalty and not out of commitment to an ideology or party programme. From being a "party with a difference" known for its ideology, loyalty towards its political fraternity and commitment to the party’s programmes, the adhesive in the party is now focused mostly on an individual. Another way of phrasing the declaration is that for Ms Irani, the leader is paramount over the party and what it stands for. These developments involving the same set of individuals, over a period of a decade and a half, underscores the party’s transition. Yet they remained ideological brothers, never failing to close ranks whenever danger arose from outside. There is little point in blaming anyone or pointing fingers at individuals responsible for the BJP’s changed political values, but there is a need to be aware of this development and recall Ambedkar’s forewarning.K. Despite Mr Modi’s homage, the political and personal divergence between him and Vajpayee has been well documented.The danger of what has happened to the BJP, how the Congress reoriented itself as chiefly a family hegemonised organisation after 1967 and how other parties became proprietary units has always lurked." Not many BJP leaders would be able to make such an assertion now without risking their stature and position. Deen Dayal Upadhyay, who fronted for the RSS, was, however, more of a Balasaheb Deoras loyalist than a blind admirer of M. Advani duo. Other parties, from the Congress to various factions of the Janata Parivar, which later branched out into family enterprises, even ideological parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party, remain merely personal bastions of insecure yet ambitious leaders. Anyone who doesn’t utter the incessant chant or who does not burst into a cackle of laughter when commanded, is pilloried — recall how defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman was panned when she did not find the joke cracked at China weld studs Factory the expense of Renuka Chaudhury any bit amusing. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sinha and Shanta Kumar — in a statement bemoaned the demise of this party tenet. Further ahead, he read out the words of another great patriot, the Irish leader Daniel O’Connel: "No man can be grateful at the cost of his honour, no woman can be grateful at the cost of her chastity and no nation can be grateful at the cost of its liberty. The BJP now, like all non-Communist parties, has one presiding deity, and anyone not paying obeisance is most likely to be marginalised, if not actually labelled anti-national. |
