The BJP is in disarray. Every day, one finds a senior leader making uncomfortable remarks about the leadership of the party and the so-called Core Committee goes into a huddle to contemplate some action. Mr. Rajnath Singh is the target for all the ills one has been witnessing for the past two weeks. It will, therefore, be good for the BJP if Mr. Singh steps down. The party has several dynamic, young potential leaders. Such young leaders must be inducted and professionalism instilled. Otherwise, the BJP will soon be history.
M.V. Nahusharaj, Bangalore
The ugly internecine war makes every one cock a snook at the BJP. The erstwhile ruling party will become debilitated further with self-inflicted wounds. After having expelled Jaswant Singh in haste, the party leadership is moving cautiously on Arun Shourie, who has called it “Humpty Dumpty.” However, Mr. Shourie’s conclusion that the BJP has no cure for itself and that the RSS alone can save the party is not convincing. The present leadership has proved that it is incapable of applying the necessary correctives. But handing over the reins to leaders handpicked by the RSS may prove counter-productive.
J. Akshobhya, Mysore
The BJP already disassociated itself from Jaswant Singh’s controversial book on Jinnah, clearly indicating that it did not share the views expressed by the senior leader in his literary endeavour. There was no need to punish him further by expelling him from the party. Besides, the fact that other senior leaders guilty of similar “offences” of not adhering to the party’s ideologies, (such as L.K. Advani and more recently Arun Shourie) are merely asked to explain their comments, while some less fortunate ones are unceremoniously expelled, further demonstrates the inconsistency and erratic nature of the party’s deteriorating mechanism.
Monalisa Jha, New Delhi
Post-chintan baithak, the BJP has clearly slipped into a catch-22 situation. While it has expelled Jaswant Singh without caring to seek a clarification from him, it had no qualms about extending the courtesy to Arun Shourie, despite his hard-hitting attack on the party president. It is high time the BJP realised that its emergence as a viable political alternative at the national level depends on its ability to snap its umbilical cord with the RSS.
Syed Sultan Mohiddin, Kadapa
India needs a strong and credible opposition at the national level. To be fair, the BJP has so far been performing well as a credible opposition. Now it has sunk deep into a crisis, which is its own making. It is imperative that the party gets out of the crisis soon by stopping the intra-party squabbles, mainly centred on individuals rather than factions. History is all about re-examination. Facts of history will continue to be evaluated and will be subjected to divergent explanations. The BJP still can survive as a credible opposition if it follows the example of the Congress, which included every aam aadmi as a partner in its dream of development. Any “takeover” of the BJP by the RSS will be fatal for both.
Col. C.V. Venugopalan (retd.), Palakkad
