Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Koenraad Elst: BJP lost for not being Hindu enough

http://www.dailypioneer.com/177112/BJP-apes-Congress-fails.html

Elst has been saying that Advani and other seniors in the BJP like nothing more than to seek the approval of the 'secularists'. They want desperately to be the B team of the Congress and lose in the bargain (why vote for the pale imitation when you can get the original - including aliens and babalog). I am personally amused at the presecriptions of these press-wallahs - all trumpeting that the BJP now needs to de-hinduise and become the party of the "centre right" (whatever that means). Only two years ao of course - the BJP was winning everything in sight (remember Gujarat and Karnataka?). What was it then? Lack of center-rightedness?

Personally I think the BJP has to look at this loss and be prepared for a long exile from power - like the Tories in Britain. However, they must devote time to develop an ideological and organisational base. They also have to realise that they will not have allies now and will need to go it largely alone - and in the light of a terminally hostile press. They must battle for the long haul

My favorite example is that of Karnataka - the BJP had nothing there a few years ago. However, they have used temples and other faith-based organisations to their advantage. They have networked and used these as delivery vehicles. Now - even with as unflamboyant a leader as Yedyurappa - they have their nose in front of the Congress and the Gowdas. It is because they actually developed an organization - and waited for the others to dig themselves into a hole!

8 comments:

AGworld said...

i agree with what Else and you are saying.

Unlike arjuna, who only saw the eye of the fish, the BJP was dazzled by the trappings of power.

They have to fly into the face of the ELM and be ideologically sound and forever -- and always -- above the law.

No ram sene's pls: they are just the stick the ELM needs to beat us with.

Instead, use temples, the RSS to do stuff like build hospitals, schools etc.

hUmDiNgEr said...

Rajeev,

Swamy had this press release on 4th April on Janataparty.org
"04.04.2009
PRESS RELEASE
The Congress Party President Ms.Sonia Gandhi seeing the imminent collapse of the UPA has set-up a seven member ‘crisis management’ team of foreigners based in a five star hotel in Delhi. This is a serious threat India’s national security.
While the names of all seven members are available with me, I am gathering the detailed antecedents of these dirty seven. The first member identified for me is an obscure UK-based journalist called Mr.David Green who has written for London tabloids on “snack foods”. He was easy to identify because he is often seen-by SPG at the residence of Ms.Sonia Gandhi reading secret files being made available to her by some Ministers and bureaucrats. Indian intelligence is being blocked by the Home Minister P.Chidambaram from investigating whether Ms.Green is an operative for British Intelligence, the MI-6.
One of the tasks assigned to this nefarious team is how to doctor the electronic voting machines in about 50 constituencies by using dual passwords technique and by hacking via wireless cyber techniques."

indian_indian said...

Jason Lewis and Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk show hosts, advocate the same strategy for the Republicans in the US. Maybe Elst/Limbaugh/Lewis are all correct in their assessments. That would mean that a return to true right-of-center ideologies will bring the BJP back to power. We can only hope that the BJP and Republican defeats are not because of most of the people wanting pseudo-secular socialism. Unfortunately, there is also the Alexander Tytler saying to consider: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Tytler

Murali said...

To say that the BJP lost because it was not enough extreme in the ideology is akin to saying that the Soviet Union collapsed because it was not socialist enough! The *only* viable option for the BJP is to reshape itself on the lines of the Conservative parties of Europe on a platform of right-of-centre economic policies, jettisoning the extremist ideology for ever.

Deshabhakta said...

True, Karnataka model should be followed to establish the party in many other states. It is almost impossible for a party which does not exist in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bengal, and gets 10/80 seats in UP to form a government at the center. Prior to 2004, BJP almost did not exist in Karnatak; now it is the ruling party. Available resources to the fullest extent should be used to build bases in the above mentioned states. In Rajasthan the loss is recoverable.

M. Patil said...

I agree with Ghost Writer. It is not difficult for Congress to dig itself into a mess in this world wide recession.

However, all this is not going to do much if

(i) BJP does not have a presense in the media. This vacum allows DDM to blame 'all politicians' for the mess Congress creates. And BJP will not gain any mileage.

(ii) Allow high tech rigging. All opposition parties must insist on a paper trail for EVMs.

Unknown said...

The 2009 election results tell one thing very clearly - banking on one single party for safeguarding Hindu interests is a vain effort. Instead right-thinking Hindus should abandon the right-left thinking and infiltrate every party and fill the leadership in such a way that every party supports the Hindu cause. If the RSS strives to nurture and bring up brilliant youngsters to join every party conceivable, we'll have a Hindu nation after three generations.

Julian said...

Murali what is "extremist", telling the truth about Islam, Christianity, & Communism which is what Elst advocates & which BJP has NEVER done?

Please get your facts right, so called "extremist" Varun Gandhi won, BJP did well in Karnataka (you know that "extremist" state) & better in Gujarat ruled by that "extremist" than most other states, on the other hand the Dargah visiting clown with aspirations of PM is probably crying now.

In Europe explicitly anti Islamic groups are mushrooming already, Geert Wilders is already out slamming Islam in public something no politician in India has the guts to do.

BJP can continue being clowns & trying to run after Muslims, Xtians, & HINO's (Hindus in Name Only) or it can take Elsts advice, even if they never come to power at center they would do much more for the Hindu cause in the states they are ruling this way (learn from Commies who never controlled more than two states but exerted an enormous influence on the center).

Are you the same guy who claimed the Xtians civilized the Romans?