The exit of the BJP’s troika comprising Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi from the party’s all-powerful Parliamentary Board and their being moved to a newly created advisory body, the Margdarshak Mandal, signalled the end of an era. The party may remain anchored to its ideological moorings, but its functioning — as the lead-up to the BJP’s transformation demonstrated — will inevitably reflect the style of the two men who now control it, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his brains trust, BJP president Amit Shah. On the face of it, the generational shift that these changes mark — set in motion when Mr. Modi was declared the BJP’s Prime Minister-designate, and underscored when the over-75s in the party were excluded from the Union Council of Ministers — cannot be questioned. Every political party needs to renew itself periodically, infusing new energy and ideas through the induction of younger people. In Mr. Vajpayee’s case, deteriorating health after 2004 forced his withdrawal from public life. But Mr. Advani and Dr. Joshi won their Lok Sabha seats in the recent parliamentary elections — what some younger party members in the Modi Cabinet failed to match.
And Mr. Advani’s role in the rise of the BJP and in the creation of a second line of leaders — that includes Mr. Modi and at least half a dozen of his current ministerial colleagues — is a matter of record. Of course, his profile had changed in recent years: the chief mentor became chief rebel, even attempting to block Mr. Modi being named Prime Minister-designate. But in a country where old age is still revered, many saw a certain lack of grace in the way the BJP’s founders were shown the door. That, however, is not all: the principle of collective leadership and of a certain democratic consultative process that was visible in the Vajpayee-Advani years is being given the go-by. This has been best exemplified by the current episode involving Home Minister Rajnath Singh, where there is obviously more than meets the eye. The “whispering campaign” within the BJP against his son’s alleged misconduct capped a series of events that had undermined the Home Minister’s position as the No.2 in the Union Cabinet: first, he had difficulties in appointing a private secretary; next, he was told he would not be on the committee that makes senior bureaucratic appointments — he could only post-facto approve such appointments made by the Prime Minister’s Office. In response to the charges against his son, Mr. Singh offered to resign if there was even a prima facie case against him – and the power play was out in the open. Mr. Modi, and then Mr. Shah, officially denied that there was any evidence to suggest as much, expressing their complete confidence in Mr. Singh. The message: power has to be shared.