Oppn-bashing at BJP show

The BJP’s national convention, organised just a month after the stunning electoral reversals in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, should have served as a sobering platform for introspection, an opportunity to take an uncompromising look at the chinks in the armour before the Lok Sabha battle. Instead, it turned out to be yet another venom-spewing exercise. Opposition parties, which are busy regrouping with new-found energy, were ridiculed for even dreaming of wresting power from the saffron party.

PM Modi’s penchant for wordplay was on display as he asked the country to choose between a mazboot sarkar and a majboor one. He did not miss the chance of patting himself and his government on the back for ‘a job well done’, but conveniently skipped all that had gone wrong in the past five years. He did caution party workers to guard against complacency, putting it as subtly as he could that the Modi wave was a thing of the past. However, he made it clear in the same breath that his leadership remained undisputed and the poll narrative would again revolve around him. At his equivocal best, party president Amit Shah admitted that their opponents had won the recent Assembly polls, but he refused to acknowledge that the BJP had lost ground.

Modi and Co had conducted a no-holds-barred campaign against the Congress-led UPA in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The ploy had worked as the scam-tainted alliance was facing anti-incumbency wrath after 10 turbulent years in power. Replaying the track won’t do the trick now. The ruling party should focus on its own government’s performance, warts and all, rather than constantly mocking its foes, who are pushovers no more. The top brass needs to realise that its potshots are like water off a duck’s back for a resurgent Congress, which knows that the once yawning gap between the BJP and the rest has narrowed considerably. The voters have had enough of jumlas. A development-centric plank is a must-have to keep them interested.