BJP and The Art of Lie-Cycle Maintenance
Dear All: I am reproducing below an internal communication from a BJP member who has requested anonymity. Pl. read on.
*** “BJP and The Art of Lie-Cycle Maintenance” ***
The rise & resurgence of India is inevitable. It is going to happen ! The challenge is not in making it happen. The challenge is how soon can we make it happen. The challenge is in minimizing the volumes and masses of blood and sweat that we are going to shed during the journey. BJP is not an end in itself or for that matter its victory or defeat is not our final destination neither our resting place. BJP like many other organizations is a strategy for our resurgence. Certainly, as I stated, its defeat does slow down the pace of our resurgence.
Defeat is the time to build objective mechanisms of self introspection. Let us benefit from our defeat. Let us be candid in our evaluation and its expression if not in public at least in private meetings. To start with accept that “we have been defeated.” There is no point in stating that its not a BJP defeat nor a victory for the congress but the cleansing of the third front. We need to get rid off the presupposition that people who vote for us are half witted. It is an insult to their intelligence and moreover our own (BJP leaders) intelligence to construct such deformed & unpersuasive arguments.
Let us not lie to ourselves and all the people who put before us not just their faith but the future of their generations to come.
I do not want our party to sit on piles and packs of lies and rule OUR motherland. Making a scape goat out of Modi ji & Varun Gandhi is just another excuse to set agendas that would cover up the real issues that the party needs to address. Thanks to Jaitley ji who stated that the “weak PM†argument did not stand well. Though we need to hear more confessions and disclosures.
WHERE DO WE STAND ?
Let us face the truth, a whole lot of people vote for the BJP not because they are in love with it but because they are aware of the mockery called congress and monkey business it is into. People don’t have much choice and hence vote for the BJP for its ideology even though its getting diluted by the day. Lets put it this way, the people have a choice between a lazy and dim, pot belied hawaldar (policeman) and a clever convicted thief. The congress still benefits because certain schools of thought believe that the later is more reliable. This is where we stand today. We the BJP of Syama Prasad Mukhrjee and Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya.
We as BJP are proving to be bad strategy for India and the bad news is people already know it and worse, we are in denial yet. Let me say that again, our weakness does not lie in our defeat but in our state of denial and unwillingness to re – invent ourselves as an organization. Our weakness lies in our inability to keep aside our personal egos and ambitions and carry out an objective organizational diagnosis. Our weakness lies in our silence, when we as representatives/ supporters of the BJP do not speak out clearly and challenge our incapable leaders. Why ? Are we also standing in the line of sycophants and stooges ? We are merely resonating the silence of drona,bhisma, Raja Mansingh etc etc. and many more whose names we dont know as in the early days recoding history was perhaps not a work of great fascination. However, today we have local newspapers and blogs etc. Its more likely that we would go into our local history and be named in the list of traitors. A traitor if not at the national level, local level for sure.
Our leadership’s state of denial stems from the clinical depression most of them are now deep into. A depression it is trying to bury behind uncreased clothes, plastic smiles and flocks of sycophants. However, they expose themselves in the nuance of every statement they make, every irrational argument they try to come up with about their defeat and devastation. But the question is why are we quite ?
This silence is dangerous. Dangerous for the party. Dangerous for its ideology.
WHERE DID WE GO WRONG ?
Why is BJP as a strategy not proving its worth.
Once a Governor of one of the BJP ruled states asked a very very senior leader in the BJP ( trust your imagination) , ” are we not going the congress way ? Many of our MPs, MLAs and even party managers are as corrupt as in the congress party ? Are we really a party with a difference ?” To this the very very senior leader replied , ” We as BJP, RSS etc started of as a pressure group , a voluntary movement. However, you cannot govern or stay in power with that mindset. You have many coalition partners that you need to put up with. You need people like Pramod Mahajan to make these alliances and ofcourse people like Pramod Mahajan don’t come alone they come along with their vices. Mr.Governer can you do the kind of job Promod does ? The buying and selling of the political products ? Products about whose existence you are not even aware of. However are sold and bought in the political bazaar”
An irrefutable argument ? Not quite. To a similar argument, one of the very senior RSS pracharaks, the architect of the Ayodhyaya movement Man. Moropant Pingle ji ,had stated, “Aap BJP ke log theek kehta hain, ghee seedhi ungli se nahi nikalta” ( you need to bend your finger at an angle to get the ghee out of the container). However, when you have eaten and enjoyed the ghee & even digested it, why do you forget to straighten your finger ? (apni ungli to seedhi kar liya karo! )
At our own levels, we all know the solutions but lack the courage to speak out because we ourselves are insecure, weak and wobbly. Why blame our leaders ? Third rate people deserve third rate leadership. Please do not come back to me and ask, “ Are you talking/writing about me ?†If that question comes to your mind, then the answer is definitely “yesâ€.
Any response to this communication (written, telephone or face to face) shall be recorded and would be played back in public. We all know how many people just keep shaking hands with their “leaders” and how many actually challenge them. I feel ashamed and regret associating with them. If you have or intend to do something honest about the worsening situation of the BJP, then I have utmost respect for you and salute you. I pledge my full moral and practical support to you.
However, as I said in the beginning, India’s resurgence is inevitable. It does not need power brokers to reassert itself yet again. It never did and never will. I witness Swami Vivekanand’s vision coming true when I speak and interact with the youth. There is a strong undercurrent that is bound to take over India. To see and know the current you need to step into it.
Jai Hind!
*** End ***
I believe the email has been sent to prominent BJP leaders and supporters. Hopefully this will spur some introspection.
Related Posts:
Lets hope sushma modi jaitely and the likes usher in the much needed change. Karnataka as usual is going haywire. BJP will never get another chance to rule karnataka if they don’t mend their ways. Shrill speak doesn’t pay, which they need to realise.
> We need to get rid off the presupposition that people who vote for us are half witted
Is this really true?
For 60 years, indians have voted for policies that have robbed them of their livelihood, kept millions in grinding povrty (under the nehruvian rate of growth), systematically throttled free enterprise, free speech and free movement.
Urban indians have chosen, over 60 years, to create cities that are mega slums, with no water, sewage, electricity and transport.
For 60 years, indians have voted for policies that have lopped off significant pieces of our own and neighbouring ‘buffer’ territories. From Pak-bangladesh to kashmir to PoK, to CoK to the north east and these days even in the south.
For 60 years, indians have willingly exercised poor judgement to create policies that prevent them from even educating themselves, laying them bare to vicious attacks on foreign soil; soil they are desperate to seek (or have no choice but to seek) to get an education.
A smart population? I don’t think so.
@AG: One has to keep in mind that the person sending the email is a politician and needs to be “politically correct”, even with internal communiques, lest it gets leaked. Which means, they can’t blame the voters for losing the election.
As for your grudge, for 60 yrs people have only voted for the least worst options presented before them. In other words, if BJP has lost elections, this means BJP must have done something horribly wrong (like ignoring its votebank – the Hindu right) or if the kangress has won, means, it must have done something right (like appease its votebank – Muslims’ first right to resource, loan waivers, etc).
Its time now that the BJP looks back and ask themselves, what went wrong, instead of blaming voters.
Long but fascinating account by Rajinder Puri of “Why the BJP is Failing” – written in 2004!
The link will download a pdf verion (100k).
I would recommend this to everyone interested in politics in India.
***
Harish/ AG/ Bhavananda: Thanks for your comments. Will respond later.
Extracted from the article above, these words of advice to Sh Vajpayee by Sh Puri:
Note that these were written in 1985 – almost a quarter of a century ago.
Bhavananda: Agreed with the political correctness argument.
Having said that, i notice a lot of reticence in accepting what is otherwise a very obvious but uncomfortable reality: the average indian voter is not particularly smart.
All the other issues and gaps in the system notwithstanding (such as lack of prop. representation, information asymmetry, no consequence with being crooked etc.), this stain does not wash.
This is one elephant on the table that one HAS to call out. The election of good people, with few exceptions has usually been a black swan event.
Unless we realise this and work the solutions in, all we will do is choose bad leaders and policies with greater efficiency.
Hi AG,
Have you seen the data presented in “IQ and the wealth of nations”, which states India’s average IQ at 81. Though it has been mentioned as a huge caveat that our endogenous caste system makes our population multi-modal and extremely diffcult to pin down without a huge statistical exercise.
@AG: Indian voters, like voters in every democracy, vote for something *they perceive* to be in their best interests. For example, they will vote for free colour TVs or loan waivers (or sekoolarism) because they think its in their *personal* best interests which is different from *collective best interest* of the society. We might think it as populism, but their survival may depend on it. Furthermore, they might think terrorism is not that much of a problem, as compared to say, poverty or lack of drinking water. Frankly, a farmer in Orissa or a labor in Mumbai may not worry too much about a bomb blast given that hunger or disease may kill them sooner. Right or wrong, that’s how the RURAL voters think. (As for middle class urban voters, people who have got sufficient money beyond that is required for their immediate survival, they really don’t vote) So, the onus (and the fault) lies on the political party/workers to bring down the message and orient according to the wish of the people *who actually vote*, not vice versa.
You can blame the urban, prosperous “voters” who don’t vote and sit at home. Or, the media for spreading misinformation. But its terribly unfair to blame the rural people, who are the ones that really vote, for not being smart. Because, the reality is otherwise – BJP is not smart enough to feel the pulse of the people. You might pick the example of terrorism and say congress was horrible, and indeed it was. But was BJP any better? What about Kandahar? What did Vajpayee do when Indian soldiers were tortured and killed by the Bangladesh army? What did it do to rehabilitate the Kashmiri Pandits? or, stop illegal infiltration? Nothing! And, none of these are controversial like 370, civil code or Ram Mandir. BJP simply sqandered the good will of people who voted them to power. Like you, I’m a BJP supporter too, but these are times for introspection. So, lets not blame the voter for no being smart enough.
I tend to agree with AG’s comments that for 60 years, the people of India have voted for the worst possible policies and set of politicians and have generally done themselves in.
I would imagine that if the BJP or any other party is losing the elections, it is possible that the majority of the voters are not attracted to the policies, programs and agendas of the losing parties (in this case, the BJP, CPM etc.) – this is a no-brainer.
But what IS the policy, program and agenda of the party that did win – that this is not so bright and sunny either is what hits you on the face. In fact, these policies have taken the country into more morass.
Corollary: People do not vote on the basis of policies, programs and agendas – they just vote, possibly, to the highest bidder, the one who pays the most bribe on the day of the election. This brings one to the conclusion that perhaps the majority of the voters are indeed nit-wits, who care two hoots for the merits of democracy, rule of the law etc.
The people deserve the government they get and the people get the government they deserve. Yathaa Prajaa thathaa Raajaa (I am deliberately reversing the proverb to suit the situation).
Well meaning Indians who care for the future of the country should start pondering if the system is doomed and beyond salvage and if so, how to overhaul the system.
AG (#6): I would disagree that “the average indian voter is not particularly smart.”
Bhavananda has responded to this in his comment (@ #8) and I will add some more thoughts closer to the weekend…(a bit tied up today/tomorrow).
***
@ Bhavananda: Great comment
***
@ Prakash: Any link/ more details?
***
@ Vasudevan: I think it is hugely unfair to say “the majority of the voters are indeed nit-wits, who care two hoots for the merits of democracy, rule of the law etc.“…As promised to AG, I will respond to this comment too but perhaps tomorrow or on Sat. Until then, please bear with me. Thanks for continuing the debate.
Thought-provoking excerpts from Did Advani approve of Sachar Committee? by Sandhya Jain:
Hi Shantanu,
I have already mentioned the book name “IQ and the wealth of nations” . The authors are Richard Lynn and Tutu Vanhanen.
http://www.amazon.com/IQ-Wealth-Nations-Richard-Lynn/dp/027597510X
In this book, they break down the main factors that affect GDPs of nations into 3 major factors – Natural resources, Free Markets, Average IQ.
GDP is positively correlated to average IQ. The correlation coefficient is 0.733, IQ explaining 54 percent of the GDP variance.
There is very little good data about India, because of the abovesaid heterogenity in the population, but the thing is that this book is a summary of pretty much the best data available on this topic. And what the data says is that average indian IQ is low.
This data can be refined much more. The government can run much larger surveys to get more accurate results. If that data again comes up with such or similar numbers, then this is a serious matter to consider. Malnourishment and illiteracy would have to be tackled with much more seriousness than is being done now. Every person who is capable of contributing should be encouraged, not even a single good mind should be wasted. If these numbers are correct, the chinese will have millions of brilliant brains, we will have only thousands (the shape of the bell curve unfortunately dictates that). We might have a need to develop some kind of weird free market based meritocratic oligarchy, instead of our present democratic system. – sorry, too much ranting.
Regarding the contention that the average IQ of an Indian is 81, that might not be far off the mark. In India, we know that childhood malnutrition affects at least a third of the population (those earning less than a $1 a day). Recently Vandana Shiva pointed out that even among farmers, the number of calories consumed has dropped since the government removed the price support to farmers. IQ is mostly a function of nutrition in the early years and a function of both education and nutrition in the later years of a persons’ life. India has consistently failed to address these two issues in its development polices–60 years post independence it still doesn’t have universal primary education and its public distribution system is so flawed that it fails to feed its poor. One of the ways Arun Shourie suggested to solve this, is that we take the money generally earmarked for the rural employment schemes and other non workable government initiatives and just give every Indian earning below a subsistence level, money so that they can take care of themselves. I think it might be actually possible to get rid of government aided (tax payer money siphoning) programs and just give every poor Indian around Rs. 3000 a month. This is a similar program as giving welfare checks to the poor in the U.S.
What the government in India does by creating these employment programs, rural development programs etc. is that it creates more bureaucracy to further spend tax payer money. It almost seems that the purpose of the Indian government is to just increase its size and provide government jobs and benefits to all the politicians and their various relatives.
I wonder what the average IQ of the Indian politician is. It may be that our politicians are also of such substandard intellectual capability that they cannot comprehend what needs to be done.
Although I haven’t read the book, I’m not convinced by the argument of GDP to IQ to electing good politicians to good governance. I don’t doubt that because of poor nutrition, education levels, average Indian IQ could be less than, say, in US. But, then with high GDP (hence IQ) the American *RE*elected Bush leading to the current catastrophe. And the Chinese with all their GDP don’t get to elect anyone.
In my opinion, BJP and its sympathizers need to focus more on the IQ of its political leaders than the populace. Irrespective of the IQ, both BJP and Congress faces the same electorate and the fact is that BJP gets royally screwed. IMHO, we should focus more on how BJP can win elections (“manufacture of consent” by manipulating the electorate is a certainty) rather than blaming voters for their (so-called) poor intelligence.
@ AG and Vasudevan: Voters vote for those who they believe are able to take care of their immediate concerns. Therefore a loan-waiver is more likely to get you elected than a promise of a “privatization” or opening up of the economy. Which is also why subsidies attract voters when in fact they should be dismissed as gimmicks.
The challenge is to preach the ideas of liberalism and make people aware of how the politics of entitlements, subsidies and state-run enterprises has led India into the morass we find ourselves in. This is not an easy task.
Try talking economics with a farmer who is barely able to survive on his 1 acre holding.
So I do not blame the voters…They do what they perceive is good for them…The challange is for us to propogate our ideas in a way that they will believe in them and vote for us.
***
@ Prakash: Thanks a lot..very thought-provoking and very controversial…I will do some more reading on this and then respond. Thanks for the reference.
***
Harapriya: The idea you have suggested does in fact find mention in the manifesto of Jago Party (if I remember correctly) and is also part of the policy discussion that we are having on the Freedom Team group…I agree that it is a novel idea which might actually work to improve the lives of those that are being targeted.
***
Bhavananda: “But, then with high GDP (hence IQ) the American *RE*elected Bush leading to the current catastrophe.” – that brought a smile to my face! I agree with you that the link between low IQ (if at all) and poor leadership is accidental not causal…otherwise how does one explain someone like Jai Prakash Narayan?
See how congress wooed PA Sangma, by offering his daughter a post. This was deliberate step by congress. I knew this when Agatha’s name was announced. And see how PA. Sangma become cool and lovely dude, and apologized to Sonia G.
Gandhi family is master in understanding the psychology of people(Indian). They have expertise in maintaining superiority over others. Dominate silently by doing favors and brings them under obligations. The same with Pilot, Chaudhary, Scindia and some hand picked candidates by Rahul Gandhi. Do you think they will oppose Rahul as PM? They have submitted themselves to Gandhi family for ever now. Rahul is King now whether India accepts or not. They have done enough preparation whom they need in their circle. I call it as a cheap loyality.
It is a long way for BJP. Who wants development and security which BJP is offering?
Samajwadi Party termed the apology of senior NCP leader P A Sangma to Congress President Sonia Gandhi a “defeat of Sangma” and “victory to Sonia”.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Amar-targets-Sangma–calls-his-apology-to-Sonia-a—surrender–/472110
In comment# 16 read as cheap loyalty towards Gandhi family.
Related topoint about IQ:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/opinion/07kristof.html
extrat:
Richard Nisbett cites each of these groups in his superb recent book, “Intelligence and How to Get It.†Dr. Nisbett, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, argues that what we think of as intelligence is quite malleable and owes little or nothing to genetics.
ACH, I really don’t want to turn the thread into a discussion about IQ. When Shantanu is done with more reading, he can launch a separate thread on the same. We can wholeheartedly debate that over there. Kindly note that i did not imply genetic differences alone were responsible. I just pointed out the facts. I also mentioned tackling malnutrition and illiteracy with much more gusto. Why would I say that if I believed IQ was cent percent genetic?
The thing is – everyone knows that after a certain point in time, you cannot teach an old dog new tricks. If you don’t educate and train a person before 25 and cultivate a lifelong learning habit, you’ve lost the potential genius of the person. The holocaust of Indian talent unfortunately continues…
Prakash: I am traveling over the next few days so the reading will have to wait…but a new thread is an excellent idea…
Consider it done…
Check the main page in about 5 hours. Thanks.