PICTURE SPEAK

INEVITABLE FALL: Naidu had lost the moral authority to run the party

Forget the buzz. It was a blast. On Coronation Street, as the next raja chatted up the media, the spotlight magnifying his arched brows and deep furrows, the cheerleaders heralded the moment with fireworks. It was not that Lal Krishna Advani, the First Yatri of Indian politics, was reaching his desired destination. He has come full circle. And the band-bajaa and ladoos at 11 Ashoka Road couldn't keep the irony away. The celebratory was balanced by the funereal.

A party that boasted of a pantheon of charismatic, "young" leaders has to fall back on a sprightly 77-year-old in the evening of his political career. To the outgoing "young" president, an apparatchik whose mass contacts didn't extend beyond press conferences, it must have seemed a rather fiery farewell. Advani, contemplating a literary retirement in the suburb, finds himself back in the top party job, carrying the burden of rejuvenating a moribund organisation and ironing out contradictions. In his fractious flock of fledgling netas, nurtured by him, not one was acceptable to the BJP cadre, to the Sangh or even to each other. His observation that "my becoming party president is not a commentary on our second-rung leadership" was in itself a commentary.

PICTURE SPEAK

ENOUGH, NOW BACK TO BASICS: Advani at the BJP HQ after taking over

Advani is the one leader acceptable across the board in the BJP and the Parivar. His ideological credentials are impeccable and his health hasn't caused concern. It was his organisational skills that turned the BJP from a two-seat party into a ruling party. He takes over at a time when the party is yet to recover from the debacle of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. The defeat in Maharashtra assembly polls and by-elections in other states only aggravated the gloom. Soon the party has to face assembly elections in Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana. In all cases, it is in total disarray. At his maiden press conference, however, Advani did not come across as "lauh purush (iron man)". He was fuzzy on ideology and trotted out tired platitudes rather than a vision statement.

10 THINGS WRONG WITH THE BJP

1. The BJP is in perpetual identity crisis. It is not inspiration but desperation that reigns. 2. Despite the polls debacle the party remained blase about its fate. Party with a difference became the party of indifference. 3. Mass leaders were sidelined and apparatchiks promoted. 4. Not just ideologically, it's tired biologically too. The party can't think beyond Vajpayee and Advani. 5. The BJP is losing its natural space. Has squandered a historic mandate that marked a right turn in politics. 6. Soundbites and shining slogans of makebelieve have become alternative to vision. 7. Losing the Hindi heartland. Uttar Pradesh is gone and Bihar offers no hope. 8. No longer a party of meritocracy and principles. Sycophancy is what guarantees survival. 9. Instead of fighting for a larger cause, the Gen Next fights among themselves. 10. Organisation building is not a priority with the leadership.

M. Venkaiah Naidu had to go. He presided over the slow disintegration of the organisation, and divide-and-rule was the expression of his paranoia. He had been retained after the Lok Sabha debacle for lack of a viable alternative. But it soon became clear that the BJP president had lost his moral authority and with it, his ability to run the party. His peers didn't take him seriously as his public spat with Uma Bharati showed. In any case, he has been depressed because of ill health in the family.

Still, why Advani? There was a consensus, of course. Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee called him to insist that he accept the job. Ailing RSS leader Madan Das Devi flew down from Pune to persuade him. Congress leader S. Jaipal Reddy commented, "Six months ago, we had no charismatic leader while the BJP had a whole brigade. Now they have to fall back on Advani."

It could well be an interim arrangement until Advani grooms a successor. But first, he must put the party back on track to face mammoth political challenges. The BJP's prospects in the forthcoming assembly elections are dim and scripting its revival in Uttar Pradesh, where it lost its deposit in seven seats in the recent by-elections, even tougher.

Is Advani up to the task? Can he, as the RSS has demanded, rectify the party's vichar, vyavhaar and sangathan? He has a lot to answer for in terms of the degeneration of the organisation. In the past six years, he has lost touch with the party cadre and state leaders. By actively promoting "parachute" leaders, he alienated the cadre. Ideologically neutral, they brought the worst of the Congress culture into the BJP, making the party with a difference no different from other parties. Adept at delivering soundbites but lacking in political bite, the helicopter-borne, designer-pen-brandishing crew ran amok.

PICTURE SPEAK

THE LONE STAR: Vajpayee remains the BJP's most charismatic leader yet

Welding a bunch of self-seeking solo players into a coherent team is going to be Advani's biggest challenge. He will also have to build up a state-level leadership, neglected during the BJP's years in power. His team-building exercise will have to start with his own advisers, an arrogant coterie who walled him off from grassroots feedback. Even more crucial, Advani will have to decide on the party's ideological stance ahead of the November baithak of the RSS. The BJP had been given time by the RSS until November to clean up its act.

THE BJP BRIGADE

THE BIG LET DOWN M. VENKAIAH NAIDU: His acolytes ruled at the party HQ. Promoted sycophancy. ARUN JAITLEY: His brilliance does not extend beyond press conferences. KALYAN SINGH: Under him the BJP got a drubbing in Uttar Pradesh bypolls. JASWANT SINGH: Reluctant to be active in electoral politics. THE SIDELINED NARENDRA MODI: Confined to Gujarat. Seen as a liability in Delhi. UMA BHARATI: Her popularity was perceived as a threat by the second-rung leaders. RAJNATH SINGH: Ignored by Naidu's honchos at party headquarters. VASUNDHARARAJE: Faces constant criticism and interference from bosses.

Advani will now have to make a choice between "aggressive Hindutva" of the Narendra Modi variety, "assertive Hindutva" as advocated by the RSS and "soft Hindutva" as currently espoused by the party. Tom-tomming a commitment to "cultural nationalism" no longer cuts the mustard; the party must redefine itself. Advani must also build bridges with the disenchanted RSS affiliates, particularly the VHP and the SJM. He will have to take a fresh look at alliances and learn to handle a coalition, while Vajpayee may well have to fill the slot of the leader of the Opposition.

It is not a rosy path ahead for the new boss. As power banished some of its leaders to the makebelieve of immortality, the cadre remained demoralised. Advani has to restore the samsar (respect) of the cadre and introduce sanskar (culture) in the party. He has to take the party back to the prant (the provinces) where, at the moment, it is stagnant. Power corrupted its top minds. When it was the ruling party, nobody could have missed the metamorphosis. 11 Ashoka Road, the headquarters, became the BJP's version of 10 Janpath. 30 Prithviraj Road, the residence of Advani, aspired to be 7 Race Course Road. 13 Aurangzeb Road, Venkaiah's home, looked more like 24 Akbar Road, the AICC office. Advani has to initiate a cultural revolution within. The party can't be run from 11 Ashoka Road.

The party had adopted the worst instincts of Congressism but it didn't have a Mrs G at the helm. She owned the Congress; she was the Leader with a capital L. The BJP is not a family-owned business. Millions of voluntary shareholders form its backbone. The diktat of the paramount leader alone won't work here. Power denied its leaders reality. Their chosen medium was not baithak but the television or select English media. But such leaders have been Advani's favourites too. A new leadership that can reach out to the masses and feel comfortable with them is what the party needs. To achieve that Advani himself has to break out of the social elitist ring within which he is trapped. If not, he will have to be content with the endorsement of the chattering classes which anyway won't bother to vote.

PICTURE SPEAK

PEEVED PARIVAR: VHP leaders Ashok Singhal (left) and Pravin Togadia are critical of Advani's leadership

Advani has the stature and the moral authority to infuse discipline in the party. Considering that it is a party he has built virtually from the ground up, he is fully aware of its complexities. And without doubt, age has not blunted his incisive mind. He is clear-headed and articulate.

Today, Advani has to build on the wreckage of Naidu's legacy. The charioteer has to show the way to redemption. The party can't think beyond him; but can the leader think beyond the tested and the familiar, and make the BJP a party with a winning difference?

THE YATRA SO FAR

1942: Fifteen-year-old Advani joins the RSS in Karachi. During Partition his family crosses over to India. He goes on to become the president of Jan Sangh in 1973 1975: Is jailed during the Emergency. In 1986, takes over as BJP president from A.B. Vajpayee at a time when the party had only two seats in Parliament. Under his leadership the party's tally goes up to 86 in the 1989 elections. Advani at Somnath 1989-90: Undertakes his first rath yatra, the Ram Rath Yatra, that makes a mass leader out of him. It is Advani's moment of triumph. Serves two successive stints as the BJP chief from 1989 to 1991 and is re-elected in 1993 when he takes over from Murli Manohar Joshi to serve two successive terms for five years. During his stint as party president, encourages the second-line leadership of Sushma Swaraj and Pramod Mahajan. 1996: Is chargesheeted in the hawala scam and does not contest the Lok Sabha elections. Is cleared of corruption charges a year later. 1998: Realises his dream when he becomes the country's home minister, like his idol, Sardar Patel. Also becomes a parallel centre of power in the Vajpayee government. In 2002 he is made the deputy prime minister. But his popularity is on the wane as he undertakes yet another rath yatra in 2004, which fails to rouse the magic of his 1989 journey. Advani with Naidu 2004. Third stint as BJP chief when he takes over from M. Venkaiah Naidu. After the May 2004 poll defeat there is a demand for him to take over the party but Advani prefers the post of the leader of Opposition. Four months later, after the Maharashtra loss, the party turns to him and in violation of its norm of one man one post, allows him to keep both the posts of the leader of Opposition and party chief.

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