The new BJP chief Nitin Gadkari's main mantra to the top second rung leadership of the BJP was that they should give up their luxurious style of living. Perhaps this “mantra” was not liked by them. And to convey their annoyance Sushma Swaraj, leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha and some other leaders of the BJP, left the tent city, especially erected for the BJP national executive meet at Indore in Madhya Pradesh, and shifted to plush hotels.

Gadkari's another important “mantra” to the partymen was that performance would be a key to an individual's progress in the party. He said, “All elected representatives and ministers of the BJP governments in states will be asked to prepare their own annual performance reports and assess their work”. He also announced a novel scheme to launch “friends of BJP forums” which will interact with the middle class, particularly the young professionals, who look at the party as an instrument of change. He himself explained his plans and stated that the wants to convert the party into a “fighting machine”. And he also wanted the party to become more efficient and focus on issues that affect people, particularly the urban poor, farmers and unorganised workers. This was all about getting to the streets, going to grass roots and facing the heat and the dust.

Besides outlining the plans to infuse new life into the party, the Indore meet also decided to launch a campaign to embarrass the UPA government. The party decided to concentrate on price rise, Kashmir and Indo-Pak talks. Winding up the discussion on the Economic resolution, Ms. Sushma Swaraj announced a plan to lay a siege on the Parliament in April. Gadkari added that a signature campaign would be launched on March 1 against the price rise, which, he said, was affecting the people. A target of five crore signatures has been set for the nationwide campaign.

Earlier, moving the Economic resolution, former finance minister Yashwant Sinha said, “The BJP is alarmed at the spiralling prices of essential commodities and the complete failure of the UPA government to control it.” He said that the party believed that the key factor fuelling the price rise, besides the incompetence and lack of leadership in the government, was rampant corruption and economic mismanagement. Sinha also made a sensational allegation that members of the Union Cabinet have been making money through futures trading in the commodity market.

The party also made it clear that it was out to exploit the Kashmir issue to the hilt. Outlining the party's stance, LK Advani, while addressing a public meeting held on the concluding day of the three-day party meet, alleged that a conspiracy was being hatched to take Jammu and Kashmir to the pre-1953 status when the writ of the Indian Constitution, Supreme Court and the President of India did not run in Kashmir. One had to take a permit to enter J&K. “This is what the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee gave his life for. He wanted to preserve to unity of the country,” Advani said.

Advani's warning made it clear that the BJP will use the Kashmir issue to isolate the UPA and the Congress in particular.

Two issues on which the BJP has been consistently adopting a negative and confrontationist stance are the welfare of the minorities and the Ram Mandir issue. Hardly any change was visible in the party's attitude towards the twin issues. The party came out strongly against the demands for reservation for the minorities, calling it an attempt to divide the country to create a vote bank. It was stated that the party was against the recommendation for extending the benefits of reservation to the Muslims and Christians, calling it an “incentive for Conversions”.

It is unfortunate that whenever any welfare measure for the Muslims is announced, the BJP dubs it “appeasement”. The same story was repeated at Indore. When the Sachar committee report came, the BJP saw in it an attempt to appease the Muslims and it has adopted the same attitude towards the recommendations of the Rangnath Mishra commission.

It appears that the BJP will never give up the Ram Mandir-Babri masjid issue. At Indore, it re-iterated its commitment to build a Ram temple. But Gadkari added a new angle to the now three-decade old controversy. He urged the Muslims to help build the Ram temple and in return, promised to extend a helping hand to the Muslims to build a mosque. His statement drew hostile reactions from the Muslim and Hindu fundamentalists. Reacting to Gadkari's statement, the Akhil Bharatiya Akhada Parishad chief warned, “Who is Gadkari to speak on behalf of the Hindus?” The Shiv Sena too criticised the stand taken by Gadkari. Representatives of Muslims were quick to reject Gadkari's offer.

The Indore meet remained silent on Sena's hostile attitude towards the non-Marathis dwelling in Mumbai and other parts of the state. The BJP did not endorse the RSS stand that Mumbai belonged to all Indians. It also could not muster enough courage to break away from the Sena, giving a clear indication that when it comes to grabbing power, the BJP is not averse to joining hands with the devil, compromising on its own principles.

One interesting feature of the Indore meet was that the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was the star attraction during all the three days of the meet. Many leaders showered praises on him. It was obvious that the host of the meet — the Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan — was being ignored. Ms. Sushma Swaraj tried to assuage Chauhan by complimenting him. It was clear that Swaraj's praise was stage-managed.

There was a general expectation that the BJP would take cognisance of the problems being posed by corruption. But the party chose to steer clear of the menace of corruption that is bleeding the country white. The meet gave a call to the partymen to launch agitations on the issues of price rise, the Kashmir imbroglio and terrorism but fought shy of calling for a campaign against corruption, proving again that corruption is a non-issue for our politicians and political parties. (IPA)