The Bal Apte Committee, constituted to go into reasons for the BJP?s debacle in the general election, has been reduced to a template to suggest ?broad themes to flag off discussions on various issues? at the party?s three-day chintan baithak in Shimla, beginning August 19, because some state units sent in reports that might have embarrassed the central leadership.
The three-member committee, that also includes P Muralidhar Rao and Chandan Mitra, was meant to collate reports from over 40 observers sent to various states to evaluate reasons for the party?s defeat and prepare a future roadmap for the party. The committee now feels that ?a comprehensive report should be prepared only after including inputs from 25 top party leaders who would now meet in Shimla for the chintan baithak?.
Sources said there was a need to suggest ?broad talking points? instead of compiling ?what various state units had sent in because some of the comments could have embarrassed the party?. The reports emanating from Rajasthan, said the sources, blamed Jaswant Singh ?for working against the interests of the party?. Some state units said ?they missed Atal Bihari Vajpayee?s leadership in the campaign?. Some of the comments also pertained to Varun Gandhi?s Pilibhit speech, but it was also said in the same vein that the ?party must not show any ideological confusion on the issue of Hindutva?.
Besides, the panel has identified ?the need for party to expand in virgin territories and for collective responsibility whether in defeat or victory?. There are over 20 such broad suggestions.
?There was a uniform opinion from the party cadre that ideological dilution or confusion must be avoided,? said a top leader involved with the exercise, referring to the party?s vacillation on Hindutva. ?Our leader LK Advani has already explained in the Delhi national executive that Hindutva is what the Supreme Court sought to explain in its 1995 verdict, defining it as a way of life,? he said.
The sources added that the key issue on the ?need to avoid ideological dilution or confusion? is already being interpreted in various ways by the competing groups in the party. At the party?s state executive in Lucknow on July 25, party president Rajnath Singh said the ?BJP could not ever renege on its commitment to Hindutva?. Former party general secretary Arun Jaitley too said ?the ideological personality of a party does not change due to one election result?. He had later said ?if taking a non-compromising stand on terror is Hindutva then the BJP had a very clear position on it?.
Discussing the election defeat at its recent national executive in Delhi, the BJP had formed the three-member panel and decided to send observers to various states. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Karuna Shukla, Kiran Maheshwari and Vikram Verma went to Uttar Pradesh; Bal Apte to Gujarat and Rajasthan; Muralidhar Rao to Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh; Shanta Kumar to Delhi; Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to Rajasthan; Vijay Goel to Uttarakhand; and Chandan Mitra to West Bengal and Assam.