He is clearly the hero and would prove to be a hero for the future too!
BJP acts in a childish manner and behaves in rash ways and that spells doom and disintegration of the major Opposition party.
There is a crisis within the BJP! This crisis, as pointed our by Jaswant Singh himself on the eve of his expulsion, is a fight for power by the party that was once a model for sacrifice.
Now, it is power and power grabbing. It is a pity that L.K.Advani, the senior most leaders himself is caught in this game, it seems. Others don’t seem to care.
A great democracy like India needs a strong and well-knit and ideologically clear Opposition party There is also a lesson for the main political party, namely, the Congress which is no less driven now for the power hungry men and women around it. The Congress response to Jaswant Singh’s expulsion is not happy nor does the Congress party seem to be more mature.
India’s Partition was the greatest tragedy of the freedom struggle era. How can any party, be it BJP or the Congress prevent party leaders or intellectuals or ordinary workers prevent writing or expressing their opinions on the great tragedy?
Jinnah might or might be a demon, let him be an icon for some or demon for others. So too Gandhi, Nehru and Patel too. Every generation, every person with a thinking mind will write and express opinions.
It is all about a lack of genuine commitment among the seniors!
L.K.Advani continues to be the Leader of the Opposition. He wanted to resign at the end of the 2009 elections that gave a setback to the party. Then he changed his mind for whatever reasons he knows best. Then, there was this attempt on his part to elevate Mr.Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj to Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha leadership.
That was a clear indication that he wanted to downgrade other seniors, the real performers, namely Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha, both won the Lok Sabha elections and both had held the top jobs as Finance and Foreign Ministers.
So, how was that move justified?
First, there was an open revolt. Singh and Sinha openly revolted and spoke against the leadership, this time it was not Rajnath Singh but Advani, seen as the conspirator, so to say! There is every indication that there is a power struggle inside the party.
Rajnath Singh sees himself as a future Prime Minister. More than that, L.K.Advani too sees another opportunity at the end of the next term, after five years!
Nothing wrong to see oneself as the probable future Prime Minister or whatever job you fancy!
But the point is that there must be a genuine introspection. Then came the revolt of Vasundara Raje Scindia, the Rajasthan leader. She refused to resign and put Mr.Rajnath Singh and even the Parliamentary Board in great embarrassment.
This is the first time that we see a new type of party development in India. Clearly this must have sent a jitter to the Congress party which is known for its superficial High Command issuing diktats and appointing all sorts of sundry persons, the same person twice even as the PCC chiefs.
So, Raje’s revolt this time only brought out, in our opinion, the evolving dynamics of the Indian party system. No elections worth the name, no internal democracy whatever, and all parties have now become fiefdoms of one person or family or the sycophants around the person or the family.
So, in this sense, the current crisis in the BJP is welcome for that would only help the Indian political system to learn and live with some internal discussions and debates and even accommodating some healthy dissent. Now, the BJP has come back from Shimla after its baithak chintan and what new ideas for the BJP?
Surely, the party must show a good example, a very ideologically coherent party with a set of ideals and belief systems. The induction of young blood spoken by the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwath is really must be about conducting the affairs of the BJP in a democratic way, its internal democracy must the route through which either the old faces continue or the new faces come in.
It is also time the parties must adhere to conduct their party elections and the Election Commission must do its work much better. It is also time and the UPA has one more priority. That is to bring about some credible electoral reforms. These electoral reforms must help surely to eliminate completely the role of money in the elections.
Even now, in the just held byelections, blatant money power was seen vitiating the atmosphere as in TN. There seems to be no remedy now to take any instant action by the EC once they detect the play of money, the plying of vehicles from outside the constituency etc. So, we welcome the JBP crisis as a sign of the changing times.
The one more recent development of the book on Jinnah by Jaswant Singh and the consequent expulsion of Mr.Singh from the party. This is a very foolish and rash action.
No party can hope to become a mature organisation if it kills any new ideas.
Every competent person must have his own right and freedoms to express his opinions and not every party man can hope to attain the stature of Mr.Jaswant Singh, a rare case of a political leader turning to be a thinker and ideas man!
So let us all feel proud about what Mr.Singh has done for bringing a new debate on Jinnah.
After all we, Indians must treat Pakistan as a friendly country, a brother country and a valued neighbour and we have to become more close and more understanding with the people of Pakistan. Pakistan is a good neighbour and we must all work for it. The Pakistan bashing is an old mindset and also bashing Jinnah is another sign of the old mindset.
Let India play its role to bring Pakistan into our friendly fold. There are progressive forces, seems they are like that, and what Mr.Zardari has done on the Independence Day by introducing reforms in the tribal districts is a welcome step.
So, there are bigger issues that must engage the minds of the party like that of the BJP, no less those of the Congress and other parties.
Let the crisis within the BJP contribute to more liberal reforms in the Indian parties, more internal democracy and more genuine leaders based on more clearly focused and well-thought out ideological formulations. Thereby Indian democracy would only become more genuine and more well-founded and a force to reckon with in the Indian subcontinent.
What is the real justification?
Even the public-party interaction is more and more shrunk and more and more outsiders are inducted into the party and the government.
Please let there be more democracy inside the party and the government. So too the PCCS and the DCCS.
They must all engage with the general public and must inspire the people.
Image Source : haqeeqat.org