The changing face of BJP

With the coming of Narendra Modi and his man Friday Amit Shah, the 63-year-old party has experienced a drastic revamp

It is a weird fact of Indian politics that whenever a party comes to power, the old guard becomes more influential and they alone stir the party. Their power becomes so dominant that it becomes next to impossible to replace them. Take the case of the 160-year-old Congress. The shehzada Rahul Gandhi might be the apparent heir to the party, but he was unable to replace matriarch Sonia Gandhi’s old guard with his young turks. He had to stay put by just practicing his ‘politics’ within the parameters of the Youth Congress and NSUI. Something similar is also seen in the case of Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh Yadav. Yadav Junior might have become the youngest Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh but his power and his party’s position continues to be ruled by the oldies of the party. The BJP too for a long time had been the part and parcel of this kind of politics. It was being governed by the old minds of LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Jaswant Singh, et al and the party too – just like the nation – was crying for change.

But with the coming of Narendra Modi and his man Friday Amit Shah, the 63-year-old party has experienced a drastic revamp. Having already sidelined the old guard, and elevating Shah as the party President, the stagnant BJP has been given a new life. And Shah has further detoxified the 63 years old party. On Saturday, the BJP’s young fresh-faced President, Shah unveiled his new team comprising of 11 vice-presidents and 8 general secretaries and 10 national spokespersons, all in the age bracket of early 50s!

This move by Shah comes in tow to what he had said earlier this month at the BJP National Council meeting. In his maiden speech, he had called for a ‘Congress mukht Bharat’. He made a calculated call by stating that, “For decades only the Congress school of thought had dominated politics and society. We are going in a new direction. It is only after 1980 that our ideology began to be accepted by the people of this nation. It is now time that our school of thought must be spread around the whole nation.” This call clearly reflects of what the overarching goal of Amit Shah and his mentor Narendra Modi is. Therefore, this change in the party structure was both inevitable and desirable. With 17 elections due till the end of 2017 and with the upcoming elections in Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and J&K, Amit Shah, is the man with a fire in his belly, who wants a pan India presence of saffron political ideology. And the infusion of new josh in the party is just the first step in reaching this goal. "It is the core team, this is about giving representation to youth, and to all regions of the country," said J.P.Nadda, one of the general secretaries, was quoted saying about the new series of appointments.

What is also significant is roping in the RSS leaders. Amit Shah, who has been associated with both the RSS and the VHP in the past, has brought in many leaders from the Sangh in his new team. Eleven of the 14 vice presidents and seven of the eight general secretaries have been associated with the RSS or its wings in the past. The fact that the number of joint general secretaries, all of whom are RSS representatives, have doubled from two to four is indicative of Sangh’s growing presence in BJP affairs. The recent appointment of five old BJP leaders as Governors is also an indicator that the RSS bears its stamp over the selection process, as only those who had strong and continued affiliation with the Sangh were named. With such strong presence, one thing is certain that the RSS, unlike in the Vajpayee tenure, will play a decisive role in the saffron politics of India. Clearly the distance between the BJP and the RSS is now really very blurry. So, with full backing from the RSS and a revived young BJP, Shah’s mammoth call for replacing the Congress ideology by the saffron ideology is going to be the biggest political showdown in the upcoming years.

After all both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, came to Delhi with a very strong political agenda. Prime Minister Modi, without shrewdness or guile, like Roosevelt has something of the lion and the fox in him, and understands the mechanics and manipulation of Indian politics very well. Similarly Amit Shah, his Hanuman, is a shrewd strategist who will do everything in spearheading the saffron ideology across the country.

In future, both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, are going to be forces to reckon with. They are set to change the face of Indian politics like never before.

About The Author

Shruti Vyas

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