New Delhi, May 31: NDA chairman L K Advani today put the chattering political class aflutter with his hard-hitting blog titled BJP : A Hub Of Hope.
In his blog, Advani lashed out at the present party leadership for taking a serious of wrong decisions, mainly : (1) bid to induct tainted former BSP minister Babu Singh Kushwaha during the UP assembly polls, and (2) bid to give Rajya Sabha ticket to Anshuman Mishra, a businessmen with dubious connections from Jharkhand, which was opposed by senior leaders like Yashwant Sinha.
Advani and his staunch supporter Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj stayed away from the recently held rally in Mumbai soon after the party national executive meet citing pre-determined engagements.
The rally was addressed by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, party chief Nitin Gadkari and others.
In today's blog, Advani wrote: “ If people are today angry with the UPA government, they are also disappointed with us. The situation, I said, calls for introspection.”
Following is the full blog posting on L K Advani's blog:
BJP : A Hub Of Hope
“Politicians are generally critical of media persons. It is, however, rare that media men themselves ridicule their own fraternity for indulging in political criticism not because it is justified but because even while realizing that the criticism is uninformed and superficial, the write ups do add up to “lazy copy”.
Swapan Dasgupta is an eminent journalist who commands great respect in the capital.
His page one piece every Sunday in the Pioneer is read with great interest.
His latest column (May 27, 2012) is a severe comment on the media which he holds “shapes the tone and tenor of the chattering class discourse”.
Under caption “Media creates its own realities”, Dasgupta wrote last Sunday:
“Given the fact that the media thrives on stereotypes, caricatures…. it was not very surprising that the bite brigade that descended on Mumbai last week for the BJP National Executive was looking for reaffirmations of set conclusions.”
Swapan added a perceptive summing up :
“That everyone in the BJP is not on the same page is a truism. No political party in India, not even the CPI(M), possesses an army where every member of the officer corps think alike. This is democratic normalcy and it is only in India that the media projects the ideal of politics crafted on the North Korean model.”(A Marxist uniformity !)
However, when these days media-persons attack the UPA Government for its string of scams, but at the same time regret that the BJP led NDA is not rising to the occasion, I as a former pressman myself, feel they are reflecting public opinion correctly.
At a meeting of the BJP's Core Committee some weeks back, a meeting attended by several senior RSS leaders I had reminisced about my sixty years' political journey since the launching of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951 by Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerji.
I had said that thinking of the party's successes and failures during these sixty years, I cannot think of a more depressing year than 1984, when in the Eighth Lok Sabha Elections that took place that year, our party had put up 229 candidates.
Our score in the Lok Sabha was a miserable two, one from Gujarat and the other from Andhra.
In all the other states of the country, including U.P., Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, we had drawn a blank.
Even in the first General Elections to the Lok Sabha in 1952, our party had captured three seats, more than in 1984 !
In 1984 I was Party President and so felt extremely downcast. But I also remember that the party had set up a Committee headed by Krishan Lal Sharma to analyse the poll results objectively.
The Committee had reported that in the rank and file of the party as also in our support base, there was no demoralization because of the electoral setback, which was being attributed to the dastardly assassination of Smt. Gandhi by terrorists and a powerful sympathy wave for young Rajiv Gandhi.
The mood within the party these days is not upbeat.
The results in Uttar Pradesh, the manner in which the party welcomed BSP Ministers who were removed by Mayawati ji on charges of corruption, the party's handling of Jharkhand and Karnataka – all these events have undermined the party's campaign against corruption.
The fact that we have a sizable contingent of MPs in Parliament today as against the niggardly two seats in 1984, that our performance in the two Houses under Sushmaji and Jaitleyji has been excellent, that the party is in power in as many as nine states today is no compensation for the lapses committed.
I had said at the Core Group meeting that if people are today angry with the U.P.A. Government, they are also disappointed with us. The situation, I said, calls for introspection.”
