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Friday, December 30, 2005
Whither the BJP?
Or should that be 'wither'?
Now that Atal Behari Vajpayee has retired from active politics and LK Advani is stepping down as party chief, the BJP is in a bit of a fix. Ashok Malik, in an excellent column in the Indian Express, "Detox as dharma," writes, "The BJP is now a party where nobody has a mandate but everybody has a veto." He says:
Also, Swapan Dasgupta has a strange tribute to Advani in the Telegraph, in which he says, "In perceiving things in black and white, and not upholding Hindu ambiguity, he [Advani] was, perhaps, guided more by Judaeo-Christian assumptions."
What?!
Now that Atal Behari Vajpayee has retired from active politics and LK Advani is stepping down as party chief, the BJP is in a bit of a fix. Ashok Malik, in an excellent column in the Indian Express, "Detox as dharma," writes, "The BJP is now a party where nobody has a mandate but everybody has a veto." He says:
The journey to BJP 2.0 cannot begin without the party subjecting itself to a rigorous detox regimen. It needs to cleanse itself of disreputable hangers-on, fixers and touts; every party has these, but in recent years the BJP has shown a special gift for attracting them. That process of dry-cleaning must be the first task for 2006.Personally, I'd also like to see it lose the RSS and move towards a more secular-right position, but that's a pipe dream.
Also, Swapan Dasgupta has a strange tribute to Advani in the Telegraph, in which he says, "In perceiving things in black and white, and not upholding Hindu ambiguity, he [Advani] was, perhaps, guided more by Judaeo-Christian assumptions."
What?!
