“A first-time Legislator gains experience.

A second-time Legislator effectively executes delivery.

A third-time Legislator??!! Well, is it not the time to make way for the younger genre of legislators?

The above expressed by Prabhakar Bhatt not only holds good for the BJP but is a guideline for all the political parties. Though knowing this, Mr. Yogeesh Bhatt blatantly threw aside this wisdom to contest the election only to end up being defeated. To what or whom can this defeat be attributed to?”

( This article published in kannada @ Vijayavani daily news paper in my Saturday column JAGO BHARAT. Thanks to Sunitha for this translation.)

If Mountbatten was the last British Viceroy, any guesses as to who was India’s first Viceroy? Ofcourse, none other than the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru!

Nehru conscientiously assimilated the political nitty-gritties of the British Raj and even gradually executed the learnings at every stage. Even before winning elections, he was adept at divide and rule policy. On the one hand, he appeased the Muslims and on the other hand, by projecting Patel as a staunch Hindu, he successfully gathered Hindu votes. He thus became a typical English Ruler, which alarmed Gandhiji, who in turn wanted to dissolve the Indian National Congress after partition and post-Independence. Gandhiji knew that the very Congress that he talked about to the masses, in every corner of the nation, was going to be the death knell to the nation’s welfare in the future.

There is a striking distinction between the BJP and the Congress. The former is a cadre based Organization built by the working members, while the later is a Party that ‘purchases’ the party workers as and when needed. There is not a single party worker whose prides in identifying himself/herself as a long time Congress loyalist, proving that there is a sheer absence of an umbilical connection with the party’s source. It is a School that scores 100% by duplicity, functioning only during the penultimate week of a year. Thus the jubilation is only in connection with the ‘results’ fetched as against the satisfying delight of a wholly involved and a sustained participation. This is the reason why there is no accountability that heaves down on the conscious of an estranged Congress party worker, much against the way one would feel by deserting one’s own mother. In Congress, the party workers do not know where to or with whom to report grievances experienced within the party or know not to whom to report or question their faulty findings that they have to endure within the party.

After withdrawing the Anti Cow slaughter bill by the newly elected Congress government in the state, many of the Congressians are themselves outraged, but unfortunately know not with whom to share their grievance. Kharge’s supporters threw up mayhem in most places expressing their outrage against the fact that their leader was not the chosen one for the CM’s post. But the media never highlighted this issue for the simple reason that nobody bothers much about a riot caused by the ‘free-lancing’ rioters who are hirable at anytime to put up a “show”, as against the valid substance in reporting against the worthiness of truly passionate party workers, which is why even if there is a slightest unrest within BJP, it is a jubilation for the media to hype it up and broadcast. Even if a small unwarranted event that unfolds in Raichur, it makes an impact on the party worker working in Madikeri who is saddened by the repercussions of the unrest.

Even now the supporters of the estranged leaders such as Shivappa and Yediyurappa are always engaged in a discussion that inevitably revolves around the BJP. Though they outwardly express their angst and protest, but from within appear to be struggling to be able to come to terms with their separation from the mother party and now, yearning to get back too. These supporters and party workers followed the estranged leaders but in reality could not distance themselves from BJP as such. But with the Congress, a party worker would be utterly lost in comprehending the reason for his/her estrangement with the Congress, not knowing whether it is because of a leader or because of the party. Congress party is ruled like a monarchy and the leaders are more like the Princely States that were at the mercy of British Raj, only meant for paying tributes, lest they invite destruction upon themselves. BJP is more an organization wholly composed of individual units and hence the composition has a bigger identity and not really the single individual unit in particular.

Congress is more like a two-pin charger that fits into any socket, whereas BJP has the identity of a cohesive organization with the resilient RSS as its foundation. Likewise, the Left parties too have a foundation. But keeping aside the party identities, it needs to be exposed that the misdoings of an individual at a personal level or the weakness of an individual is being unduly extrapolated to the level of a party’s identity as if to show that the entire party is flawed in character and conduct as an organization itself. Be it the incident when a member was caught watching a blue film in the Assembly, or the incident of a member being seriously alleged by a victimized woman, all eyes focused on the Sangh, instead of the individual in question. Considering in contrast to the above, the Congress man N D Tiwari, a Governor once upon a time, was caught in a compromising manner with a few young women, or the nephew of the Railway Minister who struck an unlawful deal in the very house of the Minister or Robert Vadra’s land deals which earned him the nation’s wrath etc. Who owns up accountability for all these? Congress continues to survive out of all these outrageous controversies simply by not bothering or focusing at all about the misdoings of a person at the individual level.

Gandhiji often took the onus of responding to the masses about the misdoings of the Congress, for which he almost always held himself accountable for and which often embarrassed Nehru. Infact, it can be said that the Congress was most relieved by the death of Gandhiji, since the pathway was cleared. (If we go by the logic of Siddharamiah who alleged that the terrorist bombing at the BJP office was devised by RSS-BJP to gain votes, then by the same logic it can be said that there was the hand of the Congress behind Gandhiji’s assassination). It clearly became a party known for hyping it’s ownself whenever an election was nearing. The party very well learnt the art of making amends and shaking hands only during the fifth functional year, while they were embroiled in a tussle all along the first four years, which by the way is a legacy begotten by the British, who were notorious for inducing various kinds of strategical rules and laws to seize those kingdoms that refused to bow down to the British dominion. In the same manner, Congress is using the CBI, ED etc to intimidate, neutralize and capture the opponents. This is how the Britishers ruled with gusto by conspiring one against another. They discovered Mir Jaffar to counter and subdue the unrelenting kings. Literally, the very same conspiracy is being unleashed by the Congress as it can be noticed in the way they have fully taken advantage of BJPs internal fighting in Jharkhand, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh. They harnessed the sprouting rebellion to split BJP due to which separate political parties were formed. But Gujarat was the only state where they faced an outright defeat. By the way, there are people like Mir Jaffar still existing in the party. Beware! On the BJP’s side, the party that had gained a strong identity as a cohesive organization also weakened for the same reason. To be more candid, the RSS crumbled because BJP gained the forefront, which can be seen in the recent events in Dakshina Kannada. How is it possible that the Sangh, which exhibited the capacity to gather a mammoth of a crowd in lakhs, could also become the root-cause of BJP’s defeat? How fair it is to single out an individual to be the sole reason for the downfall? Shri Prabhakar Bhatt is being repeatedly targeted to be the reason for the downfall, completely ignoring those who are also the reason for the BJP’s defeat in the State. Why are Ananth Kumar, who featured in almost all the campaign props, and Dharmendar Pradhan, who was responsible for over-seeing the state elections, are hardly being held accountable too? To add salt to the injury came the article from Advaniji in which was written that he would be surprised if BJP had gained more seats than what was expected! But on the other hand, not once did he come forward to own the responsibility of he himself being the reason for BJP’s defeat. Previously, he has been the one who embarrassed BJP, by apologizing to Sonia Gandhi for raising the issue of her foreign origin, backtracking from his earlier stance of raising a grave concern about it. He chose to remain mum when the Reddy brothers were backed, but chose to frown against Yediyurappa. Why this bias and by whom was this bias induced?  Is Advaniji oblivious to the fact that the one to induce such a bias could be a corrupt candidate himself/herself?

“A first time legislator gains experience, a second time legislator executes experience but a third time is the time to wind up and pave way for younger legislators”! This message by Prabhakar Bhatt is not only applicable to BJP alone but is a guideline for all the political parties. Though knowing this, Yogeesh Bhatt blatantly threw aside this wisdom by contesting the election, only to be defeated. To what or whom can this defeat be attributed to? On what basis, the party could have place its confidence on the voters to vote BJP yet again when there were also other scandalous incidents such as the insensible act of mobile messaging an MMS, by Krishna Phalimaru or Mr. Raghupati Bhatt’s CD scandal or the fact that the way Sadananda Gowda went about in a spree of negative propaganda against RSS stating that Haalaadi Shrinivas Shetty had to miss a ministerial post because of RSS etc. All the above facts have somehow been buried without a due introspection.

It is not always viable to communicate everything to all, which is a harsh reality as well as a shortcoming in any organization. The Sangh and the BJP is not an exception to this either. This has surely caused a lackluster but nobody has lost heart or determination. The Sangh was started from a scratch. At the time of Sangh formation by Hedgewar there was not only an external opposition but also there were several internal threats. It was at this point that Hedgewar roped in a few Kabaddi players and built the Sangh. Even to identify oneself with the Sangh was fatal to one’s existence at the time of Gandhiji’s assassination, yet the Sangh survived gloriously with resilient spirit that was by itself a formidable challenge to Nehru. During the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi, RSS bravely fought for the perpetuation of nationalistic freedom, even against grave circumstances. The Sangh Parivar and its sister organizations are ever equipped with this very relentless strength and spirit. BJP will have to re-assess to rectify its mistakes and rise once again which is crucial for the society too, if not, who could put a stop to check Congress who do not seem to hesitate staking the very nation to the hideous designs of Pakistan and China.

If at all RSS decides to dismiss BJP, it will be all over with the BJP. Besides, it is next to impossible to survive on the feeble remnants of an erstwhile identity, like how the Congress has been trying to salvage its pre-independence identity, though with utter futility, by defying Gandhiji’s intention to dissolve the party after independence.