The Bharatiya Janata Party?s new chief has given early indications that he has a finely honed appetite for plainspeaking. His party?s youngest president, Nitin Gadkari took on the seniors at the party?s three-day meet at Indore last week, bluntly asking them to stop cutting each other down to size, and to instead raise their own stature.
The conclave that ratified the 52-year-old?s election as the new party boss was also an attempt to come to grips with the BJP?s humiliating loss in the general elections, and to send out a message to the cadres that they had to remain motivated in the streets for the long haul.
Gadkari, who repeatedly stressed his humble beginnings?the phase that saw him paste party posters on walls well into the small hours?made it clear that he was in command. With the RSS firmly backing him, he did not shy away from warning seniors to stop talking up storms in thin air.
The audience, comprising the national executive members and other seniors, at his maiden speech as party president, was left in no doubt when he called for fixing accountability for the allotment of tickets. Later, he said that the basis for allocation of tickets will not be personal ?likes and dislikes? and that they will have to be earned henceforth.
Asking individual leaders to refrain from ?off-the-record-briefings?, Gadkari bluntly told those assembled to simply ignore the media and concentrate on their job. ?Don?t waste your time coming to Delhi and knocking on the leaders? doors,? he said. And, ?stop the practice of touching feet? it?s a sign of lachari (helplessness).??
Rarely had the ?party with a difference? heard something like this, used as it was to the calmer exhortations of stalwarts like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani.
With an ailing Vajpayee no longer in active politics and Advani quietly biding his time, the meet bore the stamp of younger leadership. The presence of leaders like Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha was hardly noticed. The meet must have left some of the seniors uncomfortably wondering about how many of them will be absent from Gadkari?s soon to be announced team.
Advani said he was probably the oldest person to attend the meet but was impressed with the topics discussed in comparison to earlier party conventions.
The maximum applause was reserved for leaders like Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. Gadkari conducted the proceedings like a moderator, holding the mike, setting deadlines and stopping speeches midway to make announcements.
The BJP?s Indore meet was high on symbolism with the delegates being made to live in tents in a rural setting. The message: cadres must not ignore the rural voters. This was evidently to offset the widespread impression that the party largely flourishes in urban areas. Over 5,000 delegates were told to collect signatures from March 1 to protest the unprecedented price rise and to gather in Delhi on April 21 for a gherao of Parliament followed by the ?biggest ever rally?.
The party calculates that it has in price hike an issue to galvanise its dispirited cadres. The cadres were asked to create an awareness against the recommendations of the Ranganath Mishra Commission but it will be on price hike that they have been asked to take to the streets.
Gadkari?s appeal to Muslims to give up their claim on the disputed site in Ayodhya to facilitate a huge Ram temple and the promise to help build a grand mosque if land was available nearby, was rhetorical.
The party did not have much to offer to young voters and attempted to tackle the challenge laid down by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi by running down the Congress on the old argument of dynastic rule. The BJP, said Gadkari, was the only party where ordinary workers like him could dream of rising to the top post one day.