Rajnath Singh was made BJP president this January to perform a rescue act roughly a year before the next general election. The party was riven, a dismal conglomerate of ambitious but weak factions at the Centre and in the states and no one’s idea of a political platform that would effectively challenge the Congress-led UPA, no matter how weakened the ruling combine has become.
To make matters worse, the incumbent president, Nitin Gadkari, appeared to be embroiled in financial irregularities, the factor which led to his ejection and to Mr Singh’s appointment. It is hard to say that the 74-member team announced by the BJP chief on Sunday to steer the party through to the general election helps overcome the BJP’s basic problem of factionalism.
But the team selection makes one unequivocal point — that those who are seen as forceful proponents of the Hindutva ideology — in a party whose origins belong to the Hindu Right — have been given plum positions.
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s induction into the BJP Parliamentary Board to fill the only vacancy in the top echelon was no doubt a foregone conclusion.
Mr Modi in recent times has emerged as the poster boy of not only hard Hindutva (after the Gujarat communal upheaval under his charge) but also of industrial interests. This combination has propelled his arrival on the stage as a dynamic leader of his party. It would have been counter-productive for a BJP president to overlook the political claims of such a quantity, whether or not Mr Modi will eventually be projected as the next Prime Minister candidate of the BJP. However, questions arise on the promotion of certain other players.
In this category belongs Amit Shah, Mr Modi’s former home minister who has a criminal case pending against him and who has been externed from Ahmedabad under a court order. If Mr Singh can appoint a character with such an unsavoury reputation a general secretary of the party he leads, the BJP’s voice is likely to carry less weight in discussions on cleansing public life and denying party tickets to those with criminal antecedents. Varun Gandhi, who was judicially let off recently on the charge of inciting communal violence in Uttar Pradesh through inflammatory speech, has also been made a general secretary. But he has emerged as a divisive figure so early in his public life.
These two appointments, in particular, show the face the BJP seeks to project as a party to prepare for the next election. Many in the party itself may be uncomfortable with this approach. It will be interesting to watch the moves of the BJP’s NDA allies, and potential supporters, in the light of this.