Candid Confession: I am not exactly proud to be a Bhartiya Janata Party Follower anymore. I know this will sound like a joke to most of you reading the article but trust me on this when I say that I am not exactly proud to be a Bhartiya Janata Party Follower. My hatred for BJP started after their whitewash in the Delhi Elections and it has reached a whole new level with their complete humiliation at the hands of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar in Bihar Assembly Elections 2015. Now that I have confessed let me justify my hatred too. I have started hating the Bhartiya Janata Party because I have never admired weaklings in my life. A person or an ideology can survive only if it has the power and will to crush the dissenting voices ruthlessly, disconcert the opposition and instill a sense of fear in the hearts of every detractor. Bhartiya Janata Party at this point of time possesses none of the aforementioned traits. It is weak. It is defenseless. And it is pitiable.
Let me quote two very recent instances where Bhartiya Janata Party came across as a thoughtless party with no intention to thrive by grasping the opposition’s necks:
Our dear Mani Shankar Aiyar walked into Pakistan and stated on a TV channel, “Agar aap Varta Chahtey hain, to Narendra Modi ko hataiye, humay ley aaiye.” That is, “If you want dialogue with India, get rid of Narendra Modi and bring us into power.”
And then there was Salman Khurshid who said “India has not responded to Pakistan’s overtures for peace in South Asia the way it should have.”
And how did the Bhartiya Janata Party cease the moment? By attacking ‘ethically’ and if I had to be at my disparaging best, by dodging like a coward. I was amazed to see a stuttering GVL Narsimha Rao in News Hour completely whitewashed by Priyanka Chaturvedi, the spokesperson of Indian National Congress, who despite defending a very weak point was all guns blazing. Arnab Goswami attacked Priyanka Chaturvedi, a job that GVL Narsimha Rao is paid for but Priyanka Chaturvedi was unperturbed and was at the highest possible decibel level. I understand that participants in news debates are supposed to maintain a certain level of decency and decorum but if the opponent is congress party, decency should be avoided at all possible costs.
What Mani Shankar Aiyar and Salman Khurshid expressed, amounts to disrespect to nation and its sovereignty. It was a direct instigation for a hostile neighbor country. It is the insult of the democratically elected government. And the way Bhartiya Janata Party reacted to it tells a tale about their preparedness to grab the opposition by the neck. They failed to create a topic of discussion in the media, they failed to create a trend in social media. They failed to create a momentum against the opposition party. They failed to brand them as anti-national elements ravening for power.
And this is a weird country, the one we live in. This country respects good work but elects people who can sell their achievements. Atal Bihari Vajpayee lost his second term despite leading India to the paths of glory and prosperity. Why? Because the opposition successfully planted the notion of the government being anti-poor and pro-rich in everyone’s head. Good work took a backseat, and false accusations won handsomely. And what we are seeing currently is revision of the same old story. Congress stalls sessions and Bhartiya Janata Party cries helplessly like a kid whose lollypop has been snatched. Congress latches on to the most trivial of matters and uses it for anti-government propaganda and Bhartiya Janata Party lets go of huge matters that can be utilized for gaining political mileage. Prime Minister Modi maintains a graceful silence, but alas grace has few takers in this country. Had Modi issued a stern advise to Aiyar and Sibal followed by the likes of Shah, Rajnath, Jaitley and Swaraj, the scenario would have been completely different. The workers and social media warriors would have created a case against the Congress Party but it didn’t happen. It didn’t happen because everyone was busy working. Good on the ethical front, a complete zero on the politics front.
I believe in Modi and his vision. I believe in Bhartiya Janata Party and its pragmatist approach but I am completely against their weak defense. Their spokespersons are not fit for TV debates, their IT cell is in complete disarray, their logical followers don’t speak and their illogical followers are too many.