Unlike UPA, BJP follows govt script
NEW DELHI: Ten days before India conducted surgical strikes on terror camps across the border, defence minister Manohar Parrikar briefed BJP leaders about the options before the country.
Terror camps were relocated from along the Line of Control (LoC) to about 20-25km inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) two years ago. But “launch pads” for infiltrators still exist and India would not hesitate to strike them, Parrikar said.
Subsequently, as pressure mounted on the party and the government to avenge the Uri attack, the two worked in tandem. At a BJP national council meeting in Kerala last Sunday, party chief Amit Shah read out a statement on the September 18 ambush and declared there was no need for discussion on the matter.
This is the latest instance of how the BJP has followed the NDA government’s script. The coordination between the two — that could be attributed to a Narendra Modi-Shah synergy — is in contrast to the frequent divergence between the Congress and then Manmohan Singh government on policy issues. About a month ago, as Kashmir remained on boil, two senior ministers briefed party leaders and shared the government’s plan of action.
Contrast it to the UPA days when those in the Congress would throw a spanner into the works of the government. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi once publicly debunked an ordinance cleared by the Cabinet. Although then PM Singh was upset, he had to relent. A decade of the UPA government was marked by frequent interventions by the ruling party in policy matters. Unlike Singh, Modi commands full authority; there are no dual power centres.
When in power, the Congress’ organisational set-up was loaded with veterans who had a total grip over the party and government. But the BJP’s current team is a group of lightweight politicians, who neither show inclination nor ambition to have a say. Party veterans with the stature to assert themselves — like LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi — have become ‘margdarshaks’. Modi has tactfully crated a synergy between the government and the party — which was missing in the UPA era.
If the UPA days were about open feud on policy matters, the Modi era is about the BJP throwing its weight behind the government.