Stumped BJP flounders
Kanchan Gupta / Comment
After losing the 2004 general election, the BJP had gone into denial mode. After comprehensively losing this year's general election and scoring the lowest tally since 1991, the BJP has gone into inaction mode, hoping the problems that led to its defeat will just disappear and the hugely disastrous Election 2009 strategy will turn into a winning gameplan by 2014!
It won't happen that way. It's a pity that the party refuses to accept and internalise the fundamental message of this election: Voters are not enthused by a leadership which cannot connect with India's youth and its aspirations.
In sharp contrast, the Congress glitters. It's brimming with youth power.
Whoever becomes Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha will remain in the shadows; the others will be back-benchers. The so-called 'GenNext', well into its late 50s, will remain 'GenNext' for the foreseeable future. I can't see leadership passing into the hands of 'GenNext' in Parliament and outside any time soon.
A bit like the Prince of Wales who is still waiting to don the crown. His Website says, "The Prince of Wales is first in line to the British Throne." Charles, by the way, was born in 1948. If he can nurse hope, so can BJP's 'GenNext'.
