Saturday, May 30, 2009

Ostrich approach

Ostrich approach

Hari Shankar Vyas

During an informal BJP Cabinet meeting at Bhopal, a Minister, Nagendra Singh expressed his inner feeling and said, “There was no attraction in our PM-in-waiting Advani ji.” Some Ministers endorsed Singh nodding their head. But there was pin drop silence in the meeting. CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan tried to salvage the matter. Later, it was said that the party would not analyse the cause of defeat. The Minister also gave clarification. It clearly means that BJP has banned discussions on the cause of their defeat. At every level of the party, it is being insured that nobody should point a finger at Advani or any office bearer of the party for the defeat. Even the party leadership is trying not to have any discussion or analysis regarding the election fiasco.

But matters are exactly the opposite with Mayawati. She discussed the cause of defeat for an entire week. She let her MLAs speak. She kept mum for three hours and took note of the stories of corruption and reprimanded her officers. She forced some party office bearers to resign and changed some of them.