Modi, Shah can’t always help, RSS cautions BJP

By Anandiya Banerjee

Feb 20, 2020
New Delhi: “A bad candidate cannot claim a premium just because the party he belongs to is good. An evil is an evil…” This commentary on BJP is not by any opposition leader but from within.

RSS’ English language mouthpiece ‘Organiser’ has come up with a scathing observation, quoting Deendayal Upadhyaya, on the BJP, it’s Delhi unit and the candidates who were launched in the poll fray in the aftermath of a humiliating loss in the national capital.

In a no-nonsense approach, the author asserted that the BJP as an organisation needs to understand that Amit Shah and Narendra Modi “cannot always help out”.

“Narendra Modi and Amit Shah cannot always help out in the Assembly level elections and there is no option but to rebuild the organisation in Delhi to address the local aspirations,” read the article.

The article titled ‘Delhi’s Divergent Mandate’ authored by its editor Prafulla Ketkar called for understanding the “context of city-state voting behaviour” in Delhi. The article says the answer lies in the changing character of aspirational Delhi.

Stating that the ‘Shaheen Bagh narrative’ failed for the BJP because Arvind Kejriwal steered clear of it. But taking a dig at the saffron avatar of Kejriwal, the author subtly asks BJP to keep a watch on him. He asks, “This genie of Muslim fundamentalism experimented under the pretext of CAA may create a new testing ground for Kejriwal. How does Kejriwal respond to this danger? How far was his chanting of Hanuman Chalisa genuine?”

It was reported earlier that both the Sangh and VHP are content with the Hindu-centric politics that forced Kejriwal to adapt to the changing trend. But Ketkar is apprehensive that it’s not ‘genuine’ side of the AAP.

He sent out a clear message to the Delhi unit: you failed. The apparent failure of BJP to revitalise the organisational structure at the grassroots level after 2015 was recognised as one of the prominent reasons for the poll debacle in which BJP secured just eight seats as AAP swept to power with 62 seats.A

After the defeat, the BJP went into multiple huddles — one with general secretaries, another in which Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari was quizzed by party chief J.P. Nadda and General Secretary (Organisation) B.L. Santosh and several others.

While the Delhi unit has blamed it on Congress giving it up, thus making it easy for the Aam Aadmi Party, the central BJP blames the faction-ridden Delhi unit as well. This is one of the reasons why the party refused to project any chief ministerial face ahead of the polls. IANS