New Delhi, 31 May 2012

Gujarat MP and central leader of BJP LK Advani’s blog is in discussion today for some of the lines in its operative part. To pick selective parts of his blog post and publish them here would be injustice to Advaniji, a former journalist. Therefore, the maximum portion of core part of his blog post is presented here as it is. The original blog post is available here.

“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.”

“Today BJP has become converted into such a hub of hope for all, that if it commits even a minor lapse, it does cause distress and disappointment to the people.”

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