Not sound politics

This is the season of open letters and I thought I would write one to the BJP leadership. At the outset, let me point out that I do not have any empathy/sympathy for the outfit. In most cases I do not agree with their ideology and the radicalism that they preach from time to time makes me sick. Then you might wonder, why am I here writing to them. The main reason being, I don't want Congress to be an unchecked power and from time to time they need to be reminded that if they flounder, they will be voted out of power. From May 2004, the BJP has been doing everything possible to make themselves unelectable. Even though they rule 9 Indian states, somehow when it comes to New Delhi, BJP runs out of steam and sadly for them , you need to capture Delhi to rule.



Main aspect of winning an election is not your coalition strength or the amount of money you are willing to spend but your electability quotient. World over, when serious questions are raised on electability of a candidate, more often than not, he ends up on the losing side. Today, BJP is doing this disservice to themselves and proving to the electorate that they are unelectable. The problem with BJP is they are ill advised and badly managed. They somehow hope that sooner or later they will return to power and until then, they have to be in the news for various reasons. This is a ploy with diminishing returns and the problem with the BJP is they start too early and by the time the next elections are due, they run out of stream and novelty and the incumbent returns to power with bigger majority. This happened in 2009 and unless something major changes, this will happen again in 2014. The writing is on the wall. Every issue has to raised at appropriate levels and this is not understood by the BJP spin doctors. As I said, they are ill advised if not badly managed. From 2006 every small issue is being raised by the BJP to make pointed reference to the PM as a weak person and L.K. Advani as a strong man. They did it again when India was hit by terrorist attacks; they did it for Naxal threat; they did it for Nuclear deal and even for the black money trail. They used this "weak PM" card for so long that people rejected it and voted Dr. Singh back to power with bigger majority. If you go back 5 years to 2004, BJP did this with Sonia Gandhi and "India Shining". They went on for so long flogging her that people of India gave her a chance seeing her as an underdog who is being battered by Government machinery. The problem is perception and BJP fails terribly at creating the right one for themselves.



Corruption is a burning issue presently and after CWG fiasco and the 2G spectrum kickbacks mess, opposition parties are now, more than ever, smelling victory. Advani and Arun Jaitley have already started advance celebrations of coming back to power at the Centre in 2014 (Advani dreams of a return even earlier). The only problem is, they have again let a chance go by. Instead on putting the Government on the mat and keeping them there, they allowed the Government a breather by boycotting parliament. Then they went on questioning the honesty and integrity of Dr. Manmohan Singh as the PM, when every Indian knows personally, he is most honest and incorruptible politician and by questioning that, you are mocking at people's intelligence. They could have caught him for lack of governance, but instead went for lack of integrity. Wrong choice once again and only time will tell if this will rebound on them, considering that, a week is a long time in politics and the PM has 3+ years before his Government faces the voters, as it seeks a re-election. So far as I can guess, the PM will have a political ace up his sleeve by then to mould public opinion in his favour. After all, his heart is in the right place. So far, its R.I.P BJP. May your leaders and spin doctors learn political acumen from Sonia Gandhi.



So long...